THE AMAZING LIFE OF GRACE

JESUS IS MOVED BY "HIS" COMPASSION, By Jeff Pate

2011-10-15T10:43:00.000-03:00

And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick. —Matthew 14:14

God’s mercy was said to be “from everlasting to everlasting upon them who fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children, to such as keep his covenant, and to those who remember his commandments to do them, to such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them.” [Psalm 103:17-18]

When this passage is read, almost always it is said in a way that expresses that God’s mercy is a response to what we have done or are doing that amounts to honoring Him by our behavior in keeping His commandments.

So then, when God’s mercy is expressed this way, the question one asks himself at a time of need of God’s mercy is always: Am I worthy of God’s mercy? Are my actions consistent with keeping the law?

Brothers and sisters, I want to encourage you today in the Lord’s compassion that transcends what we have incorrectly understood about God’s mercy and love toward us.

You may have just been diagnosed with a serious illness; you may be having relationship issues with your spouse, your children, or your siblings. You may have just lost your job and are in danger of financial meltdown. I want to tell you today to be of good cheer. The Lord Jesus sees what straits you are in and He is moved by His compassion toward you.

Let me repeat this: Jesus is moved by HIS compassion toward you, and not how well you have performed; not how many times you have gone to church; not how much or often you have given to others; and finally not how strongly you believe or by your confession. That’s right… Jesus is moved by HIS compassion toward the sick, broken, and helpless. His mercy endures forever to them who have humbled themselves to admit they can do nothing without Him.

I remember a several years ago, I was attacked by a cold virus that was accompanied by a severe cough. I was so frustrated that the condition had not improved, because I was confessing, “By His stripes I’m healed. By His stripes I’m healed. I speak to sickness and command it to leave my body,” but yet I had not gotten any better.

The Lord then led me to this passage from Matthew’s gospel, “And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick.” [Matthew 14:14]

My eyes were opened to HIS compassion and not my confession, and not how strongly I was believing, and not because of anything I do, but it is by His mercy I was already made well. And it was by His confession that never doubts or wavers that speaks to the mountain to cast it into the sea.

Brothers and sisters, I tell you that when I saw the Lord in His compassion and confessed His compassion over me, that by His compassion I am healed, the symptoms left and the next morning I was completely well.

There is nothing we can do to warrant or be worthy of the Lord’s compassion because through being born into the world of sin and death, we instantly become candidates for it. Just as sin qualifies you for God’s grace, even so weakness, sickness, and ignorance qualify you for His mercy.

Jesus is moved by His compassion toward you and the good news is that He moved fully and completely in His compassion when He allowed Himself to be nailed to the cross to take the burden of sin, condemnation, and submitting to death that was your destiny, so that through His resurrection you would see the victory He has accomplished for you.

Be free from what you do to be healed and delivered from the death in this world and look to Jesus and His compassion that has moved Him to give you eternal life and victory in Him.

http://www.bovministries.net/Truth-at-First-Light-book-ad.html

THINGS I PONDER.........GOD'S LOVE...

2011-08-31T15:33:00.000-03:00

Just click on the link for a bit of a testimony of my amazing journey. It's been a wonderful walk of grace and revelation that continues to unfold. How awesome is our God!!!!

HE REVEALS HIMSELF.......By Andre Rabe

2011-08-30T16:47:00.000-03:00

How do we accurately define God, and how do we truthfully describe man? What is the basis for truth?

The Scriptures and Tradition
Many have argued that the scriptures are the foundation for truth and certainly there is merit to that argument. However, these same scriptures have been used to justify some of the greatest atrocities in human history. People were tortured, burned to death and multitudes murdered all based on somebodies understanding of the scriptures!

So scriptures themselves can be used for good or evil. Jesus, Paul and believers throughout the ages faced their greatest opposition from those who knew the scriptures. Paul spoke of the letter that kills … he also spoke of the message in a completely different context – living epistles.

It is obvious then that interpretations of scriptures can be a big stumbling block, that can so easily pervert the message of the scriptures. Recognising this, men have started institutions to tell us how to interpret scriptures. The idea is that if we tap into the collective interpretation and history of interpretation of many people, we will thereby develop a tradition that is more or less fail safe.

This idea that tradition preserves the truth is completely rejected by Jesus Himself. His verdict on tradition is clear: “you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition” (Mat 15:6) Tradition does not preserve the truth … it perverts the truth!

God has often been misunderstood and misrepresented. It’s in the very midst of such misunderstanding that He comes to reveal Himself, to interpret His thoughts Himself, to represent Himself. I’m so glad that God reveals Himself and thereby removes every obstacle of misinterpretation.

The Context of God’s self-revelation
There were many ideas about God that were commonly held at the time of Christ. Let’s first look at the Roman and Greek philosophies about the gods.

Roman & Greek Philosophies
The thought of enmity between the gods and man, was one of the most basic concepts. The saying that the highest tree catches most of the wind and is more likely to be zapped by lightning, was used to describe man’s relationship with the gods. If a man prospered or excelled in anything he was liable to attract the attention of the gods … and that was not a good thing at all!

The two most prominent philosophies of that time was Epicureanism and Stoicism. The Epicureans described a state of being called ataraxia, which meant complete serenity, no anxiety and no physical pain. The closest humans could come to this state was death! The gods alone enjoyed ataraxia … but that necessarily meant that they were completely detached from people, from the world as a whole. If they were to have any interest in us or in this world, they would open themselves up to the pain and problems of this world and thereby loose their perfect serenity.

The Stoics believed that tranquility could only be attained through the removal of all emotion. They saw desire and emotion as the cause of pain and evil. This was even more true for the gods. For them god would cease to be god if he felt pity or wrath – their god was beyond all emotion … a heartless god.

The god of Epicureanism is uninterested, even unaware of mans existence. The god of Stoicism can’t care less, in fact he is incapable of feeling!

Jewish concepts
Now let’s look at how the Jewish concepts of God developed.

The one word that probably summarises their concept best, is the word ‘holy’. “No one is holy like the LORD” (1 Sam 2:2) Holy meant separate, different and set apart. The emphasis on this understanding of God’s holiness, resulted in the following:

Completely Different
God became completely ‘other’, unapproachable and inaccessible. Direct contact with Him was unthinkable! To even see God would result in immediate death. In Gen 32:30 Jacob responds with great surprise that he was able to see God and yet live.

The concept of ‘otherness’ or as theologians would call it, the transcendence of God became a major feature in the Jewish consciousness: He is beyond all we can imagine or describe; beyond creation, beyond space and time, beyond our comprehension and so most definitely beyond our reach. The thought of direct contact with Him, was absurd. Distance was at the core of this concept.

And so we see something very interesting developing. In Deut 5:24 it clearly states that God spoke directly to Moses in giving the Law: “…Surely the LORD our God has shown us His glory and His greatness, and we have heard His voice from the midst of the fire. We have seen this day that God speaks with man; yet he still lives.”

But by New Testament times this concept of God’s transcendence was developed so far that we are told on more than one occasion that it was actually angels that gave the law! (Acts 7:53)

Unknown & unpredictable
Another consequence of this understanding of God’s holiness, is that He becomes unknown and unpredictable. Man has absolutely no rights before Him. He can do whatever He wants to and man has no idea what it is that He wants. (Jer 18:1-10)

Hates Sinners!
Lastly, but very significantly, this idea of God’s holiness meant that He is utterly against the sinner. His aim is their destruction!
Let sinners be consumed from the earth, and let the wicked be no more. Ps 104:35
Look, the day of the LORD is coming – cruel, with rage and burning anger to make the earth a desolation and to destroy the sinners on it. Is 13:9
God’s holiness not only meant that He separated Himself from sinners, but that He actually pursues them, to destroy them. In William Barclay’s book ‘The mind of Jesus’ he mentions a rabbinic saying: “There is joy before God when those who provoke Him perish from this world”

Jesus’ radical revelation!
I don’t know if we realise how radical and different Jesus’ message about God and man was … and is! He did not meet the religious expectations … and still doesn’t. He did not confirm their interpretations of scriptures, but rather condemned it. Despite the fact that these people had access to sacred scriptures, despite the sacrificial system given by God, despite the prophetic glimpses He gave them, He makes this astounding statement “ …no one knows the Father except the son …” Mt 11:27

All the ages of studying the scriptures, of developing the traditions did not bring them any closer to knowing God, or knowing themselves. So God comes Himself and in the person of Jesus Christ, He demonstrates the correct interpretation of scripture. He unveils Himself and shows that the beauty and complexity of truth can only be fully expressed in a person … not a theory or a book. The most accurate translation happened when the Word became flesh!

Initiative & Likeness
Against the expectation of religion, Jesus reveals that God is not unapproachable or inaccessible. In Christ Jesus, God approaches us! God wants to be known! His holiness is not a separation from us, but a separation unto us. Jesus demonstrates that God does not want to be God with or by Himself, but with, for and in man.

Jesus does not come with a message of God’s transcendence or ‘otherness’, rather in Jesus we recognise God as flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone. Instead of shocking us with a vision of God’s transcendence, He surprises us with the revelation of our likeness! God’s idea of His image and likeness displayed in human life, is realised in Christ Jesus. At the core of what Jesus reveals about God, is not distance, but union. In Christ Jesus, God and man are in direct contact … more than contact, union. God is present! God is here and God is now.

Yes, God is beyond time and space. Yes, God is more than His creation. But! But, we too have our origin in an eternal realm beyond time and space. We originate in God and therefore His ‘otherness’ is strangely familiar to us. It turns out that man too is very different from the rest of creation – very ‘other’. There is a spirit dimension in man which is compatible with God! Instead of revealing God’s ‘otherness’, He unveils our ‘otherness’ and in that uncovers the greatest mystery: likeness.

Consistent Favour
Jesus removes yet another misconception about God – the idea that He is unknown and unpredictable. John sums up the mission of Christ as follows: “And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ.” 1 John 5:20

Jesus gives the final word concerning God’s attitude towards man – He is for us. He is for us consistently. God has made up His mind about man and the verdict is: favour! And His favour is utterly predictable – He is the same yesterday, today and forever. His mind has always been made up – that’s why He entered His rest. He is quietly expectant that His vision of who man truly is, will triumph.

The God we see in Jesus, the God who is willing to take our punishment upon Himself and reconcile us to Himself, this God never changes. He is still the same. What He revealed about Himself in Christ is as relevant today as it has always been, and will be how He is for all eternity. “There is nothing deceitful in God, nothing two-faced, nothing fickle.” James 1:17
“if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him.” Heb 10:38 He has done it all for us to boldly come. He has demonstrated His love in the most convincing way even while we were at enmity against Him. We never have to draw back again. His love is consistent, beyond dispute!

Acts 27 tells of some severe difficulties Paul and his companions went through, including a shipwreck. Acts 28 continues the story after they made it to shore. Being cold and wet they make a fire … and a snake emerges from the wood and bites Paul! How many Christians, in a similar situation, would start questioning whether they are in the will of God, questioning the favour of God? How many will start rebuking the snake, the Devil and whatever else seems out of line with their view of a perfect world?

Paul quietly and confidently shakes off the snake. Contradiction did not make him question the favour of God, for God has already demonstrated His favour in the most convincing way by giving His own life for us. “In returning and resting you shall be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength.” Is 30:15.
“And the effect of righteousness will be peace [internal and external], and the result of righteousness will be quietness and confident trust forever.” Is 32:17

Destroys enemies … by making them friends!
Against the religious expectations of His time, Jesus does reveal a God who is set on the destruction of sinners, “but God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Rom 5:6)
“even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” (Eph 2:5-7)

When God became a man, He did not pursue sinners to destroy them. He did not even repel sinners … He attracted them! How different is God from the concepts we had of Him! Sinners found the company of Jesus attractive because they found value there, they discovered their true selves there, they discovered a greater reality than sin – their true design and being in Him.

Intimate Involvement!
God, as revealed in Christ Jesus, does not avoid our problems and pains lest it disturbs His tranquility. Unlike the Greek & Roman concepts of a god that is unconcerned or even unaware of us, this God has no greater concern, nothing of which He is more mindful, than man. Neither does He simply observe our challenges from afar, but He enters into our lives, into our conflict in the most real way possible, by becoming flesh.

He does not conquer evil by obliterating it with a display of omnipotent power. Ultimately He conquers evil, by entering right into the midst of it, becoming sin with our sinfulness and handing over His life to death. There in the midst of darkness, His life bursts forth and destroys evil in the most comprehensive way possible. At His most vulnerable, He overpowers evil.

Even our doctrines of His Omnipotence, His Omnipresence, His Omniscience, needs to be redefined in the light of what He revealed about Himself. His Omnipotence, expressed through Christ Jesus, is tender and vulnerable. Omniscience, expressed through love, is interested and involved in the smallest details of our lives. His Omnipresence, expressed through Christ, is personal and relevant. His location is here and His time is now.

AN EXCERPT FROM: THE GODD REVEALED IN JESUS CHRIST

2011-08-24T11:45:00.000-03:00

Objectively, all people, past, present and future, are justified already; all are sanctified; all are reconciled in Jesus in and through what he has done as their representative and substitute. In Jesus, objectively, the old self has already passed away; in him, objectively, we are already the new humanity, represented as such by him before and with God.

However, although all people are already objectively redeemed by Jesus Christ, not all have yet personally and subjectively awakened to and accepted what God has done for them. They do not yet know who they truly are in union with Jesus.

What is objectively true for everyone must be subjectively and personally received and experienced through repentance and faith. Repentance and faith do not cause a person’s salvation, but salvation cannot be experienced and enjoyed without them. Repentance and faith are themselves gifts of God.

In the Scriptures, we find some verses that speak to the general/objective nature of salvation, while others speak to the personal/subjective nature of salvation. Both are real and true—but the personal is true only because the general is a pre-existing reality.

These two categories are found throughout Scripture—both sometimes occurring in one passage, as happens in 2 Corinthians 5:18-21. Paul starts in verses 18-19 with the objective/universal nature of salvation: “All this is from God, who reconciled [past tense] us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.”

Here is a general truth that applies objectively to all—all are already reconciled to God through what Jesus has done in union with all humanity.

Having established the general truth in 2 Corinthians 5:18-21, Paul goes on in verses 20-21 to address the subjective/personal: “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us.”

How can all be “reconciled” already and yet the invitation go out to “be reconciled”—suggesting a reconciliation yet to occur? The answer is that both are true—these are two aspects of one truth. All are already reconciled in Christ—this is the universal and objective truth—but not all yet embrace and therefore experience their reconciliation with God.

To be reconciled and yet not know and experience it is to continue to live as though one is not reconciled. Having one’s eyes opened by the Spirit to this reconciliation, choosing to embrace it, and then experiencing it does not cause the reconciliation to occur, but it does make it personally realized.

Thus, the evangelistic invitation from Christ’s ambassadors (verse 20) is to “be reconciled.” But this appeal is not to do something that would cause God to reconcile us; rather it is an appeal to receive the reconciliation that exists already with God in Christ. As we welcome the truth of the gospel, we can’t help but worship our Lord and Savior!

IMMANUEL..... What does it really mean to us? Excellent article by Paul Kurts, author of Trinitarian Letters.

2011-08-24T11:42:00.000-03:00

I want to share a concept with all of us that if we are not careful we will overlook in its importance. Most would look at Jesus’ coming as it is related in Isa.7:14, that the son born to the virgin would be named Immanuel, or, as we all know,

“God with us.” But as we will see here, it is more than that.

Jesus did not come “to visit” earth 2000 years ago! He was not a spectator on the human scene. He did not show us how to imitate him and thereby earn the right to be called Christians. Immanuel means so much more.

Understanding IMMANUEL unlocks the greatest secret or mystery man has ever been blessed with. Immanuel does mean God is with us. But, it also means that man is WITH God—and this is 24/7/365.

Jesus says it this way in John 14:20. “On that day,( or we would say, one day, or sooner or later, ) you WILL realize that I am IN my Father, and you are IN me, and I am IN you.” Immanuel. God LIVES in us and we live in Him. We live, move and have our being in HIM. (17:28) And when you realize this truth of all truths, you will know the greatest secret that has not been understood by the natural mind of man since Adam. No philosophy will know it, or come to see it, or hypothesize it, or stumble across it. It is a spiritual revelation.

The apostle Paul says it this way in Colossians chapter one: Immanuel reconciles us to God. He places His life in us and takes our life INTO Himself. Connection. Unification. Uniting of man and God. Jesus is the bridge between earth and

heaven. Paul then says in Col.1:26-27, “The MYSTERY that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints, to them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this MYSTERY

( secret), which is Christ IN you the hope of glory.”

Immanuel, the Secret and all that it entails is by God’s doing. It is an ACT OF GOD! It does not need or require our vote or approval. It is God’s declaration that He has come to be IN man and man IN Him. Immanuel therefore takes all of humanity into Himself and then what happens to Jesus also happens to all of humanity.

Jesus dies, humanity dies. Jesus is resurrected, humanity is resurrected. Jesus ascends to the right hand of the Father, humanity ascends to the right hand of the Father as well. “I am in the Father, you are in Me and I am in you.” See that?

Being the elitist creatures that we are, we would look at this truth and apply it conditionally to those who consider themselves Christian. We would say that this is a possibility for any to accept and therefore experience and dwell in once they “came to Christ”.

But the truth of IMMANUEL is more profound than this. The truth of IMMANUEL is that God has come into human existence to be IN man and for man to be IN God. This was made possible only by Jesus coming and fulfilling the reality. Jesus bridges the gap, the gulf between God and humanity. He is the connection. The unifying factor.

He is the WAY that this happens.

The truth of Immanuel does not only apply to those considering themselves Christian, but this truth applies to ALL humans on earth. Let’s notice a few scriptures which illustrate this.

The Apostle Paul, in talking to the pagan religious leaders in Athens, says in Acts 17:28 that they, the pagans, live and move and have being IN God. So Paul is obviously NOT talking to Christians here, but to ALL men. Creation exists IN Jesus Christ. He created it for Himself, and in Him all things hold together and are sustained by Him. (Colossians 1:15-17). Colossians 3:4 tells us that Jesus IS our LIFE. ALL peoples’ life.

Without getting to deeply into Theological arguments at this point, let me just say that in truth Immanuel has existed since the creation of Adam! God has always been IN man and man has always been IN God through the connection of the Holy Spirit. The Fact of it is revealed to man through the INCARNATION of Jesus.

IMMANUEL then becomes the Truth of Truths. Immanuel is Jesus. Immanuel is the secret, the Mystery of the Ages as Paul says in Colossians 1:26-27.

Ephesians 1:3-14, is especially revealing since man’s Adoption into the life of God took place BEFORE the creation of the world. It has been fact and reality all along the human path of existence. God is EVER PRESENT in the life and existence

of His creation. He is the I AM. The Eternal.

Immanuel is the truth for all men. God has come to be IN man and takes man INTO Himself. Not just Christians, but all men. He is the Father of ALL. Jesus is the Savior of ALL.

It is nice to reflect on Advent and the birth of Immanuel for four weeks before Christmas every year. But the truth of Immanuel is 24/7/365. God is indeed with us and in us perpetually, and we are in Him as Jesus proclaimed in John 14:20, “ I am in the Father, you are in me, and I am in you.”

Immanuel is Revealed. Immanuel is the Secret for ALL. Will you believe it?

~ Paul Kurts

GOD'S ETERNAL PURPOSE

2011-08-24T11:39:00.002-03:00

I will paraphrase what I see. God created man for Himself...to join in the loving, joyful and amazing relationship that He, (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) shared together. God's plan for our existence was in the works long before the very foundation of the world. He had it all laid out. We would be created in His very image....ONE with Him, as the Father, Son and Spirit are ONE. We would be part-takers of His very nature.....full of love and all that love entails.

Yet even in His plan, God foreknew the problem that would arise......the problem of man choosing to go his own way....do his own thing apart from acknowledging his creator. God lovingly warned man about eating from the tree that would change everything for the bad....but man, with his freedom to choose, chose to do his own thing, to his own detriment.

The interesting thing is all of this, is the fact that most Christians look back at the fall as a reason for God's wrath and punishment, yet that is so far from the truth. Man's thoughts and views on this event have been distorted because they have not adequately known the true nature of the Father....who "IS" Love. Love is His very essence. It's not what He has, but who HE IS.

When man chose to go his own way, immediately he became aware of a difference. God did not change toward man. He came to the garden like He always had in the past, to fellowship with man, but man hid. It was man who had changed...not God.

God putting Adam and Eve out of the garden was not a punishment for disobedience, but an act of love that stemmed from His very essence. He was protecting His creation whom He loved so much.....protecting him from eating of the tree of life that would forever leave man in his lost state. EVERYTHING God does is from the standpoint of love. That is good to remember when we read hard to understand Scriptures. We need to learn to read through the lens of His love. It changes everything.

Over the years sin increased....rebellion grew in the hearts of man. As St. Athanasius shared, only God can reveal Himself to man in order for man to know Him, and although the grace of being made in His Image was sufficient to give them knowledge of the Word, and through Him, of the Father....man ignored that grace that WAS IN THEM.....choosing to go their own way. As a safeguard against their neglect of this grace, He provided the works of creation also as means by which the Maker might be known, and He went even further. Man's neglect of the indwelling grace tends ever to increase; and against this further frailty also, God made provision by giving them a law, and by sending prophets, men whom they knew. All of this was done because of His amazing love toward His creation.

As stated by St. Athanasius, "So great, indeed, was the goodness and the love of God, yet men, bowed down by the pleasures of the moment and by the frauds and illusions of the evil spirits, did not lift up their heads towards the truth. So burdened were they with their wickednesses that they seemed rather to be brute beasts than reasonable men, reflecting the very Likeness of the Word."

Man lost the knowledge of what they once had and who they really were because of the ignoring of grace that resided within them....the Word...Jesus, the Son of God. Man could not even exist without this grace.

None of this took God by surprise. His plan for securing His creation was completed long before anything ever existed. Nothing would deter Him from securing the bride He had created for Himself. He would have her, no matter what the cost.

In order to reveal to man the image in which they were created, our loving, heavenly Father would send His very image to man....the person of Jesus Christ, His Son. Jesus is the very image of the Father in human form. He came to this planet, driven by love, to seek and to save that which was lost. Jesus came to reveal the Father to man....to bring them back to a knowledge of who He was and who they are in Him. He wanted them to understand their union with Him....their true identity.

It is noteworthy to share that Jesus did not die on that cross alone. First of all, Father and Spirit were with Jesus ON THAT CROSS. Jesus could never be separated from either....they are ONE. Secondly, the entire human race also died on that cross.....for we too, are one with Him. Man may have lost the knowledge of this truth, but it was and is true, for man was IN HIM right from the beginning. We couldn't exist apart from Him. In Him we live and move and have our being. All things exist in and for Him.

It was the love of God....Father, Son and Spirit, who came to this planet to restore to man what he had lost. It was the three in ONE, working as a team to redeem mankind. They have never lost sight of the eternal plan of bringing us into their circle of love......a life with the "Triune God."

Because of His amazing love, He came as man and would die as man to win back what was taken from man. God, (Father, Son, and Spirit) could have just wiped us out and continued the marvelous fellowship they shared among themselves, yet the love they had for us would not permit it. They must have us. Their heart is to lavish their love on us. God (Father, Son, and Spirit) are crazy about us.

Man ignored God's grace after the fall. They refused to consider God in the heavens, and they killed the prophets that He sent. Jesus was to be the final display of God's glory.....the image of God revealed in man. But even in this, man was still free to believe or reject. God loves us that much.

As St. Athanasius stated, "The self-revealing of the Word is in every dimension---above, in creation; below, in the incarnation; in the depth, in Hades, in the breadth throughout the world. All things have been filled with the knowledge of God."

This is what Paul wants to tell us when he says: "That ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be strong to apprehend with all the saints what is the length and breadth and height and depth, and TO KNOW the love of God that SURPASSES knowledge, so that ye may be filled unto ALL THE FULLNESS OF GOD."

Everything that took place in the person of Jesus, was all a part of the eternal plan. Immanuel, God with us. It was God (Father, Son and Spirit) displaying the very nature of who He is. It's important to implant the truth in our hearts that it was the "Triune God" who walked this planet....not just the Son. They were together in this plan and they are inseparable.

His plan had to be completed to change the corruptible to incorruption. In Christ's death, we all died. Sin was taken care of and the eternal plan was back on track. Now as Holy Spirit lives within us, He is displaying God to those who do not yet know or understand the Good News of their union. The Good News is not, repent for your sins and be saved. The Good News is, you ARE redeemed.....Jesus has rescued you.....Believe it, receive it, and live it. It's true!!! The sin issue is taken care of, now acknowledge your oneness with Him and enter into that amazing life of love and relationship with God (Father, Son and Spirit).

A BIT OF A SHORT TESTIMONY.....

2011-08-24T11:05:00.000-03:00

When I became a believer, from that time on, I wanted to DO something FOR God. I wanted to SERVE Him.

How many times have people been told to come to Jesus just as they are only to do that and then, shortly thereafter, been led to feel the pressures of getting involved in every program going....Bible Studies, Home Group, Prayer Meetings, Nursery, Children's Ministry, Youth Ministry, Outreach, and the list goes on.

When I first came to the Lord, I got caught up in it all. I was involved in ALL aspects of ministry, as well as being a part of the Leadership in several churches. I have found that over the years it has robbed me of my life, and a normal family life, because the church always came first....ministry was always at the top of the list. Finally the Lord brought me to a place of burn-out. I didn't really want to do anything anymore. The funny thing is, at the last church I attended I wasn't as involved, by my choosing, yet inside I felt judged because of not wanting to do any of the regular church stuff anymore. I am by no means saying that I "was" judged, but that I "felt" judged (My own insecurity). This is what can happen when it's all you've ever known from the time you step through the doors of a church building.

Well, I didn't want to be involved in all the stuff anymore. I just wanted to live my life with my family, yet even that was difficult. I truly needed to understand "freedom" and how to just "BE", and know that it was ok.

It was the Lord who led me out of the institutional church to learn this valuable lesson. I am not saying that this is for everyone, nor am I saying that the Lord works in the same way with everyone, but this is how He choose to move in my life.

In the past, I desperately wanted to be used by God. I was taught and believed that there was a price to pay in serving God. I didn't know Father just wanted sons and daughters to love on. He was never looking for servants...ever! He, Himself came to serve. We are the recipients of His giving.

I read in John 6, where the Lord's followers asked Him, "What shall we do to work the works of God?" Right there, Jesus could have laid it all out, but He didn't. Instead, He answered clearly and directly, "This is the WORK of God, that you BELIEVE in Him whom He has sent." (John 6:29)

Could it really be that simple? Just 'believe?' This IS so simple that it's mind-boggling. Surely, we MUST DO something? NOPE.....ONLY BELIEVE!

What possible price could there be to pay other than to just simply believe? After all, Jesus paid it all. He's the one who said, "It is finished." So the reality is that, the church of Jesus Christ needs to learn how to "Rest" in, and to live out of His finished work.

Today, I am learning to just live my life daily, resting and trusting Him only, to lead my path. Most times He allows my days to just come and go loving Him, but on occasion will open up situations or opportunities that I absolutely know is His hand, and I just simply walk in what He puts before me.

The most amazing situation to date is that of being a part of something the Lord allowed to take place right here on Facebook, that saved the life of a wonderful friend which I have not yet met, but one day I will have the joy of meeting both he and his beautiful wife.

Isaiah 26:12 says it so simply....that God has "performed" for us ALL our works."

God arranges the circumstances of our lives, and when they occur we just simply walk in it.

Also Ephesians 2:10, "We are HIS WORKMANSHIP, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which GOD PREPARED in advance, beforehand so that we would walk IN THEM (His plans...not ours)."

So, it is nothing that we strategize or plan. We just live out and follow our destiny. No striving, just simply resting in Him.

This is a difficult lesson for those who only understand the institutional works of programs and outreach. Learning to simply live and trust His leading may seem hard at first, since it is something that many of us have never done, yet when we start to grasp this, life becomes so much more enjoyable.

Our God (Father - Son - Spirit), has the blueprint for each of our lives, and He will reveal everything at the appointed time in which He chooses for us to walk it out. We just simply REST and TRUST.......so simple!

The Incomparable Christ

2011-06-26T08:59:00.000-03:00

The Triumph of Jesus Over Religion

A Study from the Book of Colossians. Just scroll down to the teaching video. This teaching is only posted for a week on Steve's site. www.gracewalk.org

WHAT REALLY IS "REVIVAL?"

2011-06-16T16:30:00.000-03:00

So many churches are praying and seeking for "Revival." Where did anyone in the Bible ever actually pray for revival? Why is it that such emphasis is put on this term? Could it be because so many do not understand their identity in Christ? Revival has nothing to do with others, but everything to do with us.

I like how Steve McVey puts it, "We need something better than revival....we need revelation."
That's what Paul prayed for...."revelation".....that the eyes of our understanding would be enlightened to the knowledge of Christ.
Once people begin to grasp the reality of who they are in Christ, and begin to walk in that reality, then you will have revival.
Revival is not external.....it is something that happens within. It is a realization of our Birthright.
When we allow ourselves to be transformed by the renewing of our minds to who we are in Christ, we will never be the same. We will be revived, and it will pour out of us in our sphere of influence on this planet. Revival doesn't have to be worked up or laboured for. It is just knowing and believing in the finished work of Christ. It is knowing your true identity. Once you catch this, your life will never be the same.

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS "SECULAR"!

2011-06-16T16:28:00.000-03:00

Do you realize, there is no such thing as "secular" in the life of a believer....dare I go even further in saying that the word "secular" should not even exist, considering ALL are IN CHRIST, even though many don't realize it yet. It is up to us who know, to share this Good News!

IN HIM we live and move and have our being. This is spoken by Paul to unbelievers. I like how Steve McVey puts it, "You are a container and conduit of the very life of Jesus Christ."

This is the Good News of which so many are still unaware, this the reason so many are not experiencing Christ's Life through His finished work.
When you are finally awakened to this truth, you then realize that wherever you go, you take His grace and kingdom with you. Wherever you go, you go in partnership with Him, taking His presence and displaying Him for the world to see.
We are His Body on display on this planet. As He is, so are we in this world.
Everything about your life is holy and sacred. Not one aspect of your life is secular.
Change your thinking....live the person you are....totally holy, sanctified and righteous. That's who you are. Believe it!

AW Tozer, The Pursuit of God
This is the old sacred-secular antithesis. Most Christians are caught in its trap. They cannot get a satisfactory adjustment between the claims of the two worlds. They try to walk the tight rope between two kingdoms and they find no peace in either. Their strength is reduced, their outlook confused and their joy taken from them.

I believe this state of affairs to be wholly unnecessary. We have gotten ourselves on the horns of a dilemma, true enough, but the dilemma is not real. It is a creature of misunderstanding. The sacred-secular antithesis has no foundation in the New Testament. Without doubt a more perfect understanding of Christian truth will deliver us from it.

THE COVENANT WAS BETWEEN FATHER GOD AND SON...NOT US!

2011-06-15T11:03:00.000-03:00

When I think of the eternal plan devised by the trinity: Father, Son and Spirit in eternity past, and the covenant made between Father God and Jesus...Son God, I come to the realization that it is just that......."between them" on behalf of mankind. Because the covenant has nothing to do with us....we had no part in it, then we are not responsible for keeping it....Jesus is.....AND HE DID.

He kept it from His very birth. He lived a sinless life on our behalf, complete obedience on our behalf, suffered on our behalf, was put to death on our behalf, rose from the dead on our behalf, and ascended to heaven on our behalf.
When He did all these things, we did all these things (for He did it in our place)
Knowing this....how can anyone even begin to think that there is anything they can possibly do to earn God's favor and acceptance. Only the PERFECT Christ receives Father's approval and acceptance, and it is because we are IN HIM, that we have it as well. In and off ourselves, we would have nothing. It is all because of the eternal plan of the Triune God....who from before the beginning thought up the plan to create and include us in the amazing love that is shared among the Trinity. They loved us before we were ever created and they, together as ONE, brought us into this amazing fellowship. Mind-boggling....LOL

THE ETERNAL PURPOSE OF GOD

2011-06-14T18:44:00.000-03:00

As I read the words of St. Athanasius on the incarnation, the understanding is beginning to come together. Over the past months I have been receiving glimpses on our union with the triune God, and as I read the words of St. Athanasius, it becomes clearer.
I will paraphrase what I see. God created man for Himself...to join in the loving, joyful and amazing relationship that He, (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) shared together. God's plan for our existence was in the works long before the very foundation of the world. He had it all laid out. We would be created in His very image....ONE with Him, as the Father, Son and Spirit are ONE. We would be part-takers of His very nature.....full of love and all that love entails.
Yet even in His plan, God foreknew the problem that would arise......the problem of man choosing to go his own way....do his own thing apart from acknowledging his creator.   God lovingly warned man about eating from the tree that would change everything for the bad....but man, with his freedom to choose, chose to do his own thing, to his own detriment.
The interesting thing is all of this, is the fact that most Christians look back at the fall as a reason for God's wrath and punishment, yet that is so far from the truth. Man's thoughts and views on this event have been distorted because they have not adequately known the true nature of the Father....who "IS" Love. Love is His very essence. It's not what He has, but who HE IS.
When man chose to go his own way, immediately he became aware of a difference. God did not change toward man. He came to the garden like He always had in the past, to fellowship with man, but man hid. It was man who had changed...not God.
God putting Adam and Eve out of the garden was not a punishment for disobedience, but an act of love that stemmed from His very essence. He was protecting His creation whom He loved so much.....protecting him from eating of the tree of life that would forever leave man in his lost state.   EVERYTHING God does is from the standpoint of love. That is good to remember when we read hard to understand Scriptures. We need to learn to read through the lens of His love. It changes everything.

Over the years sin increased....rebellion grew in the hearts of man. As St. Athanasius shared, only God can reveal Himself to man in order for man to know Him, and although the grace of being made in His Image was sufficient to give them knowledge of the Word, and through Him, of the Father....man ignored that grace that WAS IN THEM.....choosing to go their own way. As a safeguard against their neglect of this grace, He provided the works of creation also as means by which the Maker might be known, and He went even further. Man's neglect of the indwelling grace tends ever to increase; and against this further frailty also, God made provision by giving them a law, and by sending prophets, men whom they knew. All of this was done because of His amazing love toward His creation.
As stated by St. Athanasius, "So great, indeed, was the goodness and the love of God, yet men, bowed down by the pleasures of the moment and by the frauds and illusions of the evil spirits, did not lift up their heads towards the truth. So burdened were they with their wickednesses that they seemed rather to be brute beasts than reasonable men, reflecting the very Likeness of the Word."
Man lost the knowledge of what they once had and who they really were because of the ignoring of grace that resided within them....the Word...Jesus, the Son of God. Man could not even exist without this grace.
None of this took God by surprise. His plan for securing His creation was completed long before anything ever existed. Nothing would deter Him from securing the bride He had created for Himself. He would have her, no matter what the cost.
In order to reveal to man the image in which they were created, our loving, heavenly Father would send His very image to man....the person of Jesus Christ, His Son. Jesus is the very image of the Father in human form. He came to this planet, driven by love, to seek and to save that which was lost. Jesus came to reveal the Father to man....to bring them back to a knowledge of who He was and who they are in Him. He wanted them to understand their union with Him....their true identity.
It is noteworthy to share that Jesus did not die on that cross alone. First of all, Father and Spirit were with Jesus ON THAT CROSS. Jesus could never be separated from either....they are ONE.    Secondly, the entire human race also died on that cross.....for we too, are one with Him. Man may have lost the knowledge of this truth, but it was and is true, for man was IN HIM right from the beginning. We couldn't exist apart from Him. In Him we live and move and have our being. All things exist in and for Him.
It was the love of God....Father, Son and Spirit, who came to this planet to restore to man what he had lost. It was the three in ONE, working as a team to redeem mankind. They have never lost sight of the eternal plan of bringing us into their circle of love......a life with the "Triune God."
Because of His amazing love, He came as man and would die as man to win back what was taken from man. God, (Father, Son, and Spirit) could have just wiped us out and continued the marvelous fellowship they shared among themselves, yet the love they had for us would not permit it. They must have us. Their heart is to lavish their love on us. God (Father, Son, and Spirit) are crazy about us.
Man ignored God's grace after the fall. They refused to consider God in the heavens, and they killed the prophets that He sent. Jesus was to be the final display of God's glory.....the image of God revealed in man.   But even in this, man was still free to believe or reject. God loves us that much.
As St. Athanasius stated, "The self-revealing of the Word is in every dimension---above, in creation; below, in the incarnation; in the depth, in Hades, in the breadth throughout the world. All things have been filled with the knowledge of God."
This is what Paul wants to tell us when he says: "That ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be strong to apprehend with all the saints what is the length and breadth and height and depth, and TO KNOW the love of God that SURPASSES knowledge, so that ye may be filled unto ALL THE FULLNESS OF GOD."
Everything that took place in the person of Jesus, was all a part of the eternal plan. Immanuel, God with us. It was God (Father, Son and Spirit) displaying the very nature of who He is. It's important to implant the truth in our hearts that it was the "Triune God" who walked this planet....not just the Son.   They were together in this plan and they are inseparable.
His plan had to be completed to change the corruptible to incorruption.   In Christ's death, we all died. Sin was taken care of and the eternal plan was back on track. Now as Holy Spirit lives within us, He is displaying God to those who do not yet know or understand the Good News of their union. The Good News is not, repent for your sins and be saved. The Good News is, you ARE redeemed.....Jesus has rescued you.....Believe it, receive it, and live it. It's true!!! The sin issue is taken care of, now acknowledge your oneness with Him and enter into that amazing life of love and relationship with God (Father, Son and Spirit).

THE FAITH "OF" CHRIST ......by C. Baxter Kruger

2011-06-14T15:11:00.000-03:00

Way back in the 50’s a debate started regarding the translation of certain key passages in Paul that had to do with justification by faith. The question was whether or not we should translate these passages as referring to Christ’s faith or to ours. Of course, most post-reformation translations take these passages as obvious references to our faith in Christ. In the Greek language, however, the construction could be translated either as a subjective genitive (Christ’s faith) or as an objective genitive (our faith in Christ). Interestingly, the King James translates them as referring to Christ’s own faith. Over the decades the debate grew intense and scholars from around the world joined in. In fifty or so years a decided shift has taken place. At first the burden of proof was on those who thought the passages should be translated as referring to Christ's faith, and not to our faith in Christ. These days it is the other way around.

Here are the key passages. I will quote first from the New American Standard Bible.

ROM 3:22 “even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe, for there is no distinction.”

ROM 3:26 “for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who as faith in Jesus.”

GAL 2:16 “nevertheless knowing that a man is no justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified.”

GAL 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me.”

GAL 3:22 “But the Scripture has shut up all me under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.”

EPH 3:12 “in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him.”

PHIL 3:9 “and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith.”

As you can see, far from being peripheral, these passages are at the center of Paul’s thought. The issue at hand challenges both the Roman Catholic and Reformation doctrines of justification at a fundamental level.

I first discovered the debate when I was in seminary working on an exegetical paper on EPH 4:11-13. Verse 13 reads, “until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fulness of Christ.” In my paper, I argued that ‘of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God’ were to be interpreted as referring to Christ’s own faith and knowledge, as surely as ‘the fulness of Christ’ refers to his own fulness and not ours. Looking back I can see how this issue opened the door for me to understand the theology of J. B. and T. F. Torrance, with their powerful and beautiful emphasis on the vicarious humanity of Christ. Over the years I continued to follow the debate, which reached its peak in the 90’s, but is still brewing. Strangely, the theological significance of this transition is yet to be appreciated.

Three factors convince me that Paul is not talking about our faith in Christ, but Christ’s very own faith, such that we are justified by the faith and faithfulness of Jesus himself.

(1) It seems clear enough, as even the NASB translation reads, that Paul (in EPH 4:13) is speaking about our participation in Jesus’ own faith, knowledge and fulness. In his earlier prayer (EPH 3:14-19) Paul prays that we would come to comprehend and to know the love of Christ, that we “may be filled up to all the fulness of God.” In Colossians Paul says, “For in Him [Christ] all the fulness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made full” (2:9-10). Clearly the fulness belongs to Jesus, and is then shared with us. Jesus himself tells us that he came to give us not simply peace, but his own peace (JN 14:27), and his own joy (15:11). And, of course, in his famous prayer it is abundantly clear that Jesus envisages the very love and glory of the Father and Son themselves dwelling in us personally (17:22-26). In Matthew, Jesus claims not only that all things have been handed over to him, but also that he alone knows the Father, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him (11:27). The heart of the gospel is the fact that Jesus alone knows the Father, and he alone is filled with the fulness of God, and that he has come to share himself and all that he is and has (fulness, knowledge, peace, joy, glory, love, and faith, among other things) with us. Sharing in Jesus' own life and relationship with his Father and the Spirit is the point.

(2) The genitive construction in ROM 3:26 (ek pisteos Jesou) is exactly the same in ROM 4:16 where Paul is talking about Abraham’s faith (ek pisteos Abraam). The NASB does not translate the Abraham passage as 'our faith in Abraham,' but as “those who are of the faith of Abraham.” If the NASB were consistent, ROM 3:26 would read, “for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who is of the faith of Jesus.

(3) In Galatians 2:16 we have a perfect illustration of what is called a chiasm. The verse reads,

“nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law, but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by faith in Christ, not by the works of the Law…”

A chiasm or chiastic structure fills the Psalter. It is very Hebraic. It is named after the Greek letter ‘Chi’ which looks like an X in English. If you take away the right part of the X you are left with an arrow pointing to the right. In terms of a chiastic argument, the first point in the argument starts with the top left of the X, or arrow. The next point, which is the heart of the argument is the tip. The last point is a repeat of the first point and starts at the beginning of the bottom of the left side of the X. If this is all too confusing to you, let me put Paul’s argument in chiastic sequence.

knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law
-----but through faith in Christ Jesus
----------even we have believed in Christ Jesus,
-----that we may be justified by faith in Christ
not by the works of the Law.

Three times in this verse, Paul, allegedly, speaks of faith in Christ, which is rather redundant and superfluous, unless a chiasm is being employed, and he has in mind not our faith in Christ, but Christ’s faith or faithfulness. The verse works perfectly only when we understand that Paul is thinking about the faith of Christ. It would then read,

knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law
-----but through the faith of Christ Jesus,
----------even we have believed in Christ Jesus
-----that we may be justified by the faith of Christ
not by the works of the Law.

The first and the last clauses speak of not being justified by the works of the law. The second and next to the last speak of being justified by the faith of Christ himself. The middle clause speaks of our trusting in Jesus’ faith and faithfulness. The point of Christian faith is not in the efficacy or power of our own faith, but believing in the faith and faithfulness of Jesus himself, who stands in our place. We believe in Jesus and in his faith. This is the center, the tip of the arrow, of Paul’s chiastic argument. Jesus has taken his place on our side of the covenant relationship with God. And in our place he has offered the perfect response of faith and faithfulness, wherein we are justified. We take our stand, according to Paul, upon his vicarious offering to the Father, upon his faith and faithfulness, that we may be justified not by our own works or faith, but by Jesus.’ We choose to be justified by Jesus’ faith and faithfulness, not our own.

The fruit of taking our stand on Jesus’ faith is peace, the cessation of striving to find a way to justify ourselves through anything that we may do, whether our own faith or works or religious activity of any sort. We cling to, hope in, and pin all our hopes on Jesus, and upon who he is and what he has done as our vicarious representative.

Failure here is simply to doom ourselves to live with ourselves and our faith and religious performance. To not believe in Jesus—and in his faith and faithfulness—is to sentence ourselves to believe in ourselves and in our own efforts, and it is to suffer living with the failed assurance of such a way of believing. So for Paul, we rest in Jesus himself, not in ourselves, and in resting in him, in believing in him, his own glory, knowledge, peace, joy, love and faith begin to have room to come to personal expression in us.

If we translate the key passages as references to Jesus’ faith in our place, it would look something like the following.

ROM 3:22 “even the righteousness of God which comes through the faith/faithfulness of Jesus Christ for all those who believe, for there is no distinction.”

ROM 3:26 “for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who is of the faith of Jesus.”

GAL 2:16 “nevertheless knowing that a man is no justified by the works of the Law but through faith of Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified.”

GAL 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith/faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me.”

GAL 3:22 “But the Scripture has shut up all me under sin, that the promise by the faith of Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.”

EPH 3:12 “in whom we have boldness and confident access through His faith/faithfulness.”

PHIL 3:9 “and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith.”

At every point and at all points in between Jesus and his life and faithfulness is the point

Remember, every translation is a translation of the original text through the lens of a particular theology. The Reformers made a great step forward, away from works based salvation. It is time for us to stand on their shoulders and take the next step in their journey into a faith of Christ salvation, which, I suspect was what they were saying all along.
-------By C. Baxter Kruger

JESUS: THE CENTRE OF ALL THINGS

2011-06-13T10:20:00.000-03:00

C. Baxter Kruger Interview - Jesus: The Centre of All Things

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNVAt-T3t8s&feature=player_embedded#at=141

UNDERSTANDING THE "FINISHED WORK"

2011-06-01T19:57:00.000-03:00

By Bill Nieporte

The Gospel is that Jesus takes the SIN (singular) of the world upon himself (John 1). God creates of us a new humanity (Hebrews). Before the creation of the world, the Father's intent was to adopt us into His family - we were all chosen for that (Ephesians 1). The first Adam brought death to all. The second adam brought life to all (1 Corinthians). All of this is God's work. It is finished, complete, done, over, fine - all IN CHRIST ALONE.

Now, before anyone cries: "That's universalism!" let me say a few things...

1) It's not universalism, it's the Gospel - the FINISHED work of Christ. It places all the work in God's hands as it must.

2) Even FAITH is God's work. Saving faith is not my intellectual ascent to certain dogmas, doctyrine, or creeds. It is were, the work wold not be finished. FAITH is a gift. The faith of Jesus in the goodness of the Father is shared with us. "By grace you are save, through faith: and THIS IS NOT OF YOURSELVES, IT IS THE GIFT OF GOD." (Eph). or "I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet it is not I, it is Christ who lives in me. And this life I now live is by the faith OF the Son of God..."

3) Jesus' work was not to appease an angry Father, but to transform my broken down, worn-out, sin-ridden view of God as a a mean, vindictive, angry omni-being - replacing that with the view of a "loving Father" (Luke 15).

4) While I do do anything to "get saved" (finished work stuff again) I can reject salvation. I can refuse to allow God's love to flood into my being. i can stand outside the grace party (like the older brother). To stand outside the flow of God's love is a hell all its own, which starts in the here-and-now and (left unabated) will continue into eternity. Hell, then, is not the punishment of an angry God. Hell is the burning passion of God's unrequited love. I do believe there will be people in hell. I lived there a long time, myself. That does not mean they will be unloved by God because it is not God's nature to being anything but love.

5) That is the core of God's self-revelation as Holy Trinity. God is (has always been, will always be) Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in relational love. Everything else about God and scripture must be interpreted through the prism of God's self-revelation as Holy Trinity. Yes, God is just, holy, etc. But you cannot slice God up into pieces of a pie. (see a great blog post by @Steve McVey available also on my blog at http://nieporte.name/?p=1593 that addresses this topic) Our Triune God in ONE in substance, nature, character, personality, etc. So everything must been seen through love. We must see the Father to be whom Jesus revealed Him to be. We must see the Holy Spirit as whom Jesus revealed him to be.

6) This is why I believe that the "penal substitutionary" is a modern day heresy. It sets God up against God's-self. Either we have to deny the doctrine of the Holy Trinity or the doctrine of "penal substitution." You can't hold to both with theological integrity. If salvation is by "penal substitution" that "appeases an "angry God" (as Jonathan Edwards taught, then everything Jesus did to reveal the Father is a lie - and I don't think Jesus lied.

7) (Finally) the problem of the logic of the "penal substitution" view is that it makes God subject to some abstract view of LAW. Father MUST take out his anger on Jesus because of what we misdefine as holiness. Jesus must take the beating because of what we misdefine as justice. What I find so strange about this is that "exchanged lifers" (I was once in this camp) reject legalism. "We are FREE from the law because of Jesus," it is said. Yet the logic of this doctrinal formula makes God subject to the LAW (or what we misdefine as law).

The reason I left the "exchaanged life" movement is because this doctrine was contrary to the revelation of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It was a philosophical (not biblical) framework that the God reveal in Jesus did not fit it. The Father's love /grace is bigger than that.

Well, this is certainly enough to stir the pot, eh? LOL I am sure I will be blasted by some. That's okay. I've been there. I understand.

Go to......

http://nieporte.name/?p=1593

GALATIANS 2:20 - Part One of Six........By Fred Pruitt

2011-05-18T12:52:00.000-03:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2htXZU1zxxM&list=PL3ACB06A00972D704

SINGLE-EYED

2011-05-18T12:48:00.000-03:00

He (God) is the Alpha and Omega...the beginning and the end. One God person who is the beginning and the end. He is the All in All. The Bible tells us that we live and move and have our being in Him. Whether good or evil....all is "IN" Him. He is the sovereign God, and whether we go through difficult times or good times, He is in it working everything for our good. Everything has it's existence in God....Everything!   Even unbelievers have their existence in God. Nothing is outside of Him. If it were, then it would cease to exist. He is All in All.
So, even though ALL are IN God, not everyone accepts or believes this Good News. All do not believe that He chose us in Him before the foundations of the world. Many choose to live by their self will, rather than by His will, and as a result, the veil remains over their eyes and they are unable to see the truth. They love the darkness more than the light. The abundance of God's life is hidden from them, until such time that they are willing to surrender their will to His.
The good news is, that even in their refusal to accept Him and all that He offers, He is still at work....working all things after the counsel of His will...Eph.1:11.
A mind-boggling concept, to realize that God is greater than our self-will. He never gives up on us and is waiting with open arms for the day to come, for each to choose to come to Him.
God is opening up the revelation to man that, He is All in All. Everything is inclusive in Him. Even science is seeing this truth unfold through the science of quantum physics.
In everything, He is working out His purposes, whether through evil events or good. God has a plan and that plan will be completed!
Matthew 6:22 "The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light."
What does it mean to have a "single" eye? It means understanding God's sovereignty and seeing only God in everything....good or evil...working out His plan for our good. I am not saying God brings evil, but that He works in it His purpose for our good.
When we see double-eyed...we see God's power versus Satan's power....when in reality, there is only ONE power. Satan is not on equal par with God. He is a pawn in the story of life. When we allow Satan's schemes to overwhelm us, and we take our eyes of Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, then we are double-eyed and do not see God as Sovereign.   When we lose our focus and take our eyes of God, then everything can seem chaotic and distressing. The only way to really defeat Satan is to stop allowing his works in our lives to become our focus, but to look to Jesus and His purpose in it all. Then we will see victory and growth. Paul said, "Give NO PLACE to the devil." Do not see him in the situation, but see God, and watch the hand of God move on your behalf.
In Christ there is NO darkness....and we are IN Him. Darkness cannot overcome the light, but light will always overcome darkness. Our focus needs to change. We are the LIGHT of the world. As He is, so are we in this world. So, in Christ, we are always victorious and always more than conquerors. That's how we need to see ourselves. That is our mirror image! We see ourselves as He sees us.
In Christ we have become ONE with the triune God. It is no longer independent "I", but it is now He who lives His live as me.
As believers, we do not look "TO" Him, but we see with His sight.
Becoming one with Him means there is no longer a distinction. Our image is His image. When we see ourselves, we see Him. We are one and can no longer be separated.   Like a glass of hot water that dissolves a teaspoon of salt.......the two can never be separated once they become joined....the have become one new substance.
1Cr 6:17 "But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit."
So guess what? Just as Jesus, when asked who He was stated, "I AM"......so we also can say, "I AM."   As He is, so are we in this world.    This is good news! Just as all power in heaven and earth was given to Jesus, so it is given to us. Everything He has, we have.
The very life of Christ lives in us...through us....AS US!

NOW THAT'S SOMETHING TO GET EXCITED ABOUT!

WHY WE MUST SAY "AS US," By Fred Pruitt andTHE PILLARS, by Ole Henrik

2011-05-12T13:33:00.000-03:00

As us

Recently I read an article by a well-known writer about the indwelling Christ, who spoke of Christ "living through us." It surprised me that the writer stopped there, at the word "through." Perhaps the writer had a purpose in stopping his exposition at that point, but for me, the truth is not complete at that point.

Of course when I talk like this, often people first of all get all antsy, accusing me of "making them say it" some certain way, which anybody would resist since none of us really like others telling us what to do or how to say things. Or another argument that I've heard a thousand times if I've heard it once is the statement, "Oh, we're saying the same thing. It's just a matter of semantics."

I never have known what people mean when they say that. Usually we can tell when people don't mean the same that we do, even if they use the same words. I looked up the word "semantics," and as far as I can tell, the word has to do with the meanings of words and how they are used. I guess people are meaning that we are saying the same thing using different words.

But I say, "Christ lives as me," or "He lives as us," and any way you shake it, that does not have exactly the same meaning, at least to me, as "Christ lives through me." If people who say, "through me," mean what I am about to explain below, I have no problem with anyone saying the truth in different words, if indeed the "truth" is what they are saying. And Christ living "through me," is truth, no doubt, but I submit it is only a partial truth, and does not come to the total as we are meaning it.

One way to demonstrate that the meanings are not the same, is the effect the words have on people in general. "Christ lives through us," will hardly raise an eyebrow in most Christians who have some understanding that Christ lives in us. In fact, the "Christ in you" truth has become a rising theme in many Christian circles in recent years. As we have traveled through the U.S. over the past few years, everywhere we go we run into others who are familiar with the "Christ in you" truth, some from this source and some from that source. "Have you read so-and-so's book?" we are often asked. "He talks about what you are talking about." And many do approach it.

But most stop at this "through us" place, and that seems for most a very acceptable truth. Most people can get behind that. It offends only a few. Because everyone who names the name of Christ will echo John the Baptist's words, "He must increase, and I must decrease," at least as a goal, whether or not they consider it attainable. Because with "through us," that's what we end up with. We end up with a full Christ and some sort of "transparent" person (me) who contains Him. We see ourselves as persons who have to "get out of the way," so that Christ can be seen. In this sense, the person really has no part in anything, except to get himself out of the way.

And of course we never really can seem to get ourselves fully out of the way -- we always turn up here and there, sometimes in a mighty big way, too! And so while we're "trying" to get ourselves out of God's way, ("let go and let God"), so that He might have a clear unobstructed path into the world through some supposed transparency on our part, it is my observation that most people remain in consciousness and understanding in a "not quite there" situation. Sin consciousness prevails, incompletion reigns, and "Christ lives through me" is sometimes a hit and sometimes a miss. I hear the words, "I sin every day," and, "I'm not there yet," as much from people who say, "Christ in me," as from those who have no understanding whatsoever of this truth. What's the difference?

And all of this is still separation. God is over there, or up there, or even in me, but in me as apart from me -- maybe He lives on the right side of me, while my human me takes up the left side of me. Or however we perceive it. Anyway you cut the mustard, He and I are not one person, if the final result of His indwelling is that He lives only "through me." "I" am not involved, or at least the goal is that "I" am not involved. "Get me out of the way, Lord," we pray. We confess that we ourselves are God's obstacle. Poor God.

But that is not what we are here for, to "get out of the way." Jesus prayed in John 17, verses 11, and 21-23, that we would be "one" in the same way He and His Father are one. The exact same oneness. That's what He said, not me. And He was not just praying for the 11 apostles who were left at the supper table, but for all those who "will come through their word" -- He was praying the same thing for US!!!! Do we dare believe Jesus' prayer is not answered, or that He meant anything less than He asked for? The SAME ONENESS and THE SAME GLORY -- in US!!!!! That's what Jesus Christ prayed for.

Here is how He described His oneness with the Father:

Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. (John 5:19)

Someone might say, "Well, isn't that Jesus 'letting' the Father live 'through' Him?"

Let's read on before we answer that.

For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; (John 5:26)
What this is saying is that, even though the Son does nothing of Himself, He is not uninvolved. Everything the Father is, the Son is.

He offended the Pharisees to the uttermost when He said, "I and my Father are one."

"You are a man," they said, "but by that saying you blaspheme, because you make yourself God."

If you say, "Christ lives through me," they will applaud you because we can take that, especially if we keep it in the hypothetical or occasional realm. If we say, "He lives as me," they will accuse you of blasphemy and making yourself God just as they accused Jesus. Because you have involved yourself, deified yourself they will say, and have not properly gotten "yourself" out of the way.

"Show us the Father," Philip asked later. "Have I been so long with you?" replied Jesus, "that you don't know that when you see Me, you see the Father?"

Jesus doesn't get Himself out of the way. No, He is instead at the forefront, the focal point of the discussion. I AM the WAY, THE TRUTH, and THE LIFE," He says. He does not say, "God expressed through me is the way." Jesus and the Father are one. Jesus even goes so far as to say that no one comes to the Father but through Him. HE is the conduit to the Father. When you get Him, you get the Father. He is anything but "out of the way." He is anything but "transparent."

There is a Father ("My father is greater than I") and there is a Jesus and they are distinctly different in office and manifestation, but they are ONE.
And He prayed that we might be ONE in the same way. "When you see me, you see the Father," said Jesus.
"When you see me, you see the Father," I say. As offensive to fleshly ears as that sounds, just as it was so offensive to the religious authorities that they wanted to KILL HIM for it, what other confession can we make but that Jesus' prayer has been fulfilled in our human lives? We MUST say, if we believe Jesus, and if we are to enter into the total, "When you see me you see the Father," or, "He lives as me," or, "My human existence, my words and deeds, are Christ's existence in human form. My words and deeds are His words and deeds." Offensive? Yes, very much so, to some. Truth? Yes, it is the TOTAL TRUTH of who we really are, when Christ has come to live in and be the very Life of our lives.

"Well," many will say, "after all, He was Jesus. He was the only begotten Son of God, so He could say those things." I would agree, except for what He prayed in John 17. He prayed that we might live in the SAME ONENESS. Read the verses.

What about brother Paul? Does he not say the same?
Paul identifies very clearly exactly Who we are in Galatians. Paul is talking about God's promise to Abraham, given in Genesis 12:7: "Unto thy seed will I give this land," the Lord promises Abraham. Later, in Genesis 13:16, God says Abraham's seed will be such a multitude as if we could count the dust of the earth, and in 22:17,18, God promises Abraham's seed will be as the stars in the sky in number, and in Abraham's seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed. Paul brings out in Galatians chapter 3 that the "seed" God is talking about with Abraham is not plural, as in seeds, but singular in meaning. Abraham's "seed" is Christ, THE CHRIST, in whom all the nations of the earth are blessed -- but -- it becomes plural in the sense that the one seed is as the dust of the ground and the stars in the sky in number, because that one "seed," which is Christ in us, is the same seed in each of us, the same Christ, and therefore the same PERSON, who blesses all the nations of the earth, in each and every one of us, and AS each and every one of us. Paul says we are Abraham's SEED, that is, we are Christ. The Father has only ONE seed, Christ, and that seed, the most powerful seed in the universe, produces Christ. When you plant squash seeds, you get squash. When you plant apple seeds, you get apples. When you plant the Christ seed, CHRIST IS WHO GROWS UP! In us, as us.

And to reinforce the same concept Paul says that he labors and travails until Christ is formed in us. Christ -- in our form (Gal 4:19).

Paul again says in 1 Cor 6:17 that when we are joined to the Lord we are one spirit. One spirit, not two. That's what he says. Jesus told the woman at the well in John 4 that "God is Spirit," and since we know God has said He is "I AM," and Jesus also said, "Before Abraham was, I AM," meaning He is the same as the Father, "I AM." The scriptures very plainly bring out the fact that the human self is also spirit, and then Paul completes the picture when he says our joining to the Lord causes us to be "one spirit." One divine identity, one person, one Life. There is a human and there is a divine, and they are one. When you see the human you see the divine. The Divine lives as the human. The Divine expresses its divinity in humanity.

That is the purpose of our being born again. Not to become independent gods who become Christlike, but to be One with the True God, branches organically united with and offshoots of the TRUE VINE, out of which the fruit of God comes. No abiding in our organic union, as branches growing out of a Vine, no fruit, "For without Me you can do nothing." But abiding in Him, HIS fruit comes out of our lives out of our restful abiding, or remaining, in Him.

We find our true selves only as expressions of Him Who is the True Vine. "For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory." (Col 3:3,4) Do we think that Paul is meaning this as something for the bye and bye over in glory, or does not Paul's life testify to the truth of what he says as a NOW event? When does Christ appear in our lives? Right now He appears to the eyes of faith. Right now we discover our true selves, hidden only in Him, and only available to us, when we know the final death of the old "me," through the Cross. When we know that death, know our own emptiness, then His fulness comes in and we become OURSELVES, which is HE IN OURSELVES LIVING AND EXPRESSING HIMSELF AS US.

We come back in totality. We die, only to rise again and LIVE as fully functional, fully operational, fully affirmed RIGHT SELVES. We are no longer afraid of ourselves. We no longer have to "get ourselves out of the way." God doesn't manifest Himself by means of our lives as we in false humility say, "despite us," but BECAUSE of us, because He delights in us, because in us He sees the Son, and He is always delighted in the Son. And we are THAT SON. WE are THAT SEED!
Having once for all died to the old and all that the old was, we rise as only the new, trusting Him in us to be us, therefore trusting our will as his for we seek no separate will. We desire the desires of God, which He has placed in our hearts. We work the works of God, for it is He working in us, not around us, not despite us, but AS YOU AND ME!

If I want to do it, I do it. Because what I do is what I see the Father doing, since the the Father delights in the Son, and is continually in every moment showing the Son what He is doing, so that the Son is likewise doing the Father's works. The Father that dwells in us does the works, and we relax in His working by being simply ourselves.

As we have said over and over, "This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes!"

The Pillars by Ole Henrik first appeared hereThe types, shadows and parables which abound in the Old Testament all points to Jesus Christ, who is All in all and the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the earth. We cannot escape the fact that we are inextricably united to Him so that many of the processes we are taken through in the temporal have a clear and distinct goal, namely to expand our consciousnesses so that we in increasing measure can come to terms with His “allness” in everything, including us.

God led the Israelites out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and He led them through the desert by His Spirit who appeared as a pillar of clouds during day and a pillar of light during night. The pillars are a parable of how God in the desert appeared to the Israelites as in a separate visible form, as if He was another person apart from them. This is how we all begin our faith journey. We see God as a celestial power separately from ourselves. He is in heaven somewhere, whereas we are stuck in the temporal with all its apparent limitations.
This renewing of our minds, or transformation of our consciousnesses, as it were, relocates heaven from the sphere of abstractions to a tangible reality, viz. in you and me. We have by a mighty work of the Spirit internalized the cloud and the fire.However, when the Israelites crossed Jordan this separation gap had been bridged and it was no longer God external, but God internal, because in the instant they entered the Promised Land the pillars were gone. This is the exact same transformation or transition which takes place in us when we take that leap of faith Kierkegaard referred to. This leap of faith aligns our consciousnesses with what is and not what seems to be. This is a bold and daring maneuver on our part since we have to leave behind everything we know, that is, self-effort, and start a process of possessing or conquering a land of promises. It is here that we finally find out that Christ ultimately is All in all.

It can be no other way. A land of promises is governed by faith, and excludes any effort on our part. By faith we take what is ours to possess and lay hold on our inheritance among the saints. How can this be? When our ears are opened we hear “It is finished” reverberating through the ages. Christ has done it all and by us His word of reconciliation is dissipated to the ends of the world. It is by that same faith we recognize that God is the sustainer and upholder of everything. It is by faith we joyfully see that our nothingness is filled and is running over with His abundant life.

This renewing of our minds, or transformation of our consciousnesses, as it were, relocates heaven from the sphere of abstractions to a tangible reality, viz. in you and me. We have by a mighty work of the Spirit internalized the cloud and the fire. This further connotes that we no longer operate from a state of mind where we think we are led by a God apart from us, but we rest in the faith reality that God expresses Himself spontaneously and naturally as us. The pillars have in a sense reappeared to us in a new form. In our minds they manifest themselves as human beings like you and me.

UNDERSTANDING THE BIBLE ....By Francois Du Toit

2011-05-05T11:08:00.000-03:00

The Incarnation Code

The Bible is a dangerous book! It has confused and divided more people than any other document.

Yet its profound and simple message continues to appeal, overwhelm and transform the lives of multitudes of men and women of any age or culture.

It is still the best seller on the planet.

If it is such a dangerous document, how does one approach the book?

What is the key that unlocks its mystery message?

The romance of the ages is revealed here. The heart of the Lover, our Maker is hidden in scripture and uncovered in the pages of this book. He says in Isa 65:1 “I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me. I said, "Here am I, here am I."

What would it be that attracts God to engage with man?

Man began in God.

Man is the greatest idea that God had ever had!

It is not our brief history on planet earth that introduces us to God. He has always known us.

We are not the invention of our parents! Maybe your arrival was a big surprise to them, but according to Jeremiah 1:5 God knew you before he formed you in your mother’s womb!

The Bible records how the invisible engineer of the universe found expression of his image and likeness in visible form in human life!

When God imagined you, he thought of you on equal terms as he would of himself; a being whose intimate friendship would intrigue him for eternity. Man would be partner in God’s triune oneness! His image and likeness unmasked in human life.

Jesus says in John 10:30 “I and the Father are one.” And again in John 14:20, “In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.”

God has found us in Christ before he lost us in Adam! He associated us in Christ before the foundation of the world. Ephesians 1:4.

He has always known us; now in Christ he invites us to know ourselves even as we have always been known! 1 Cor 13:12

Jesus Christ is the context and meaning of scripture; his work of redeeming the image and likeness of God in man, is what the Bible is all about! Col.1:13-15. The whole Bible is about Jesus and Jesus is all about you! This makes the Bible the most relevant book. Jesus is God’s mind made up about man. The meaning of his name declares our salvation.

Initially the prophetic shadow of the Old Testament introduces us to the Promise. He is the Messiah-Christ, the Incarnate Word. He represents the entire human race. In the economy of God, Jesus mirrors humanity. The heart dream of God realized in the redemption of man; in one man, through one act of righteousness, in a single sacrifice! Rom 5:18 The conclusion is clear: it took just one offence to condemn mankind; one act of righteousness declares the same mankind innocent. Phillips Translation “We see then, that as one act of sin exposed the whole race of men to God’s judgement and condemnation, so one act of perfect righteousness presents all men freely acquitted in the sight of God!” Rom 5:19 The disobedience of the one man exhibits humanity as sinners, the obedience of another man exhibits humanity as righteous. (Greek, kathistemi, to cause to be, to set up, to exhibit.) Mirror Bible

Act 10:28 God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean.

When Jesus joins the two confused disciples on their way back from Jerusalem he introduces himself to them through the eyes of scripture: Luk 24:27 “And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.” Also in Luk 24:44 he does the same when he appears to his disciples: “He said to them, "These are my words which I spoke to you, while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the psalms must be fulfilled." Luk 24:45 Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures.

Philip joins the chariot of the chief treasurer and asks him, “Sir, do you understand what you are reading?” It is possible to read the right book and get the wrong message! Act 8:35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this scripture he told him the good news of Jesus.

The destiny of the Logos was not intended to be caged in a book or a doctrine but to be documented and unveiled in human life! Human life is the most articulate voice of scripture. Jesus is God’s language; mankind is his audience. Heb 1:1-3

Diligent research and study is not the key to understanding the scriptures; Jesus says, “You study and search the scriptures thinking that in them you will find eternal life, but if you miss me, you miss the point. The Message translation reads, “You have your heads in your Bibles constantly because you think you'll find eternal life there. But you miss the forest for the trees. These Scriptures are all about me!” John 5:39. Jesus is the context of scripture. Isa.53:4,5.

Long before the first line of scripture

was penned on papyrus scroll,

the Word, unwritten,

existed as the mind of God.

Before the books were gathered

collated as sacred text,

the Word, intangible; invisible,

was planning, was ordering

the ages that were to come.

This Word predates the Bible,

this Word predates creation,

this Word is alive and active

and speaking still today.

- Andre Rabe

John, now more than ninety years old, finally learns to write; unlike Mathew and Luke he has no concern with the genealogies that point to the natural lineage of the Messiah; he introduces us to a beginning before Abraham or even Adam was, he says:

Joh 1:1 Before time was the Word was; God’s eternal utterance originates, echoes and concludes in him. The Logos is the source, everything commences in him; the Logos goes full circle and always returns to its origin, GOD. (In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was ‘with’ God and the Word was God…’with God’ John uses the Greek preposition pros, which indicates direction; forward to; that is, toward the destination of the relation.)

1:2 When it all began the Word was there face to face with God. (The beginning declares the destiny of the Word, it would always only conclude in God; nothing that is witnessed in the Word (Jesus) distracts from who God is.”If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.”)

Joh 1:3 Everything’s existence is sourced in him; he remains the exclusive parent reference to their genesis. There is nothing original, except the Word!

Joh 1:4 His life is the light that defines our lives. (In his life man discovers the light of life) .

Joh 1:5 The darkness was pierced and could not comprehend or diminish this light. (Darkness represent man’s ignorance about their true origin and identity. Isa.9:2-4, Isa.60:1-3, Eph.3:18.)

Joh 1:9 The authentic light of life that illuminates everyone was about to dawn in the world! (The incarnation would make the image of God visible in human form. In him who is the blueprint of our lives there is more than enough light to displace the darkness in every human life. He is the true light that enlightens every man!)

Joh 1:10 Although he was no stranger to the world, he always was there and is himself the author of all things, but somehow no one took any notice!

Joh 1:11 It was not as though he arrived on a foreign planet; he came to his own, yet his own did not recognise him. (Ps.24:1)

Joh 1:12 But to everyone who realises their association in him, convinced that he is their original life, in them he confirms that we are his offspring, begotten of him. (Gr.lambano, comprehend, grasp, identify with. This word suggests that even though he came to his own, there are those who do not grasp their true origin revealed in him, and like the many Pharisees they behave like children of a foreign father, the father of lies. Neither God's legitimate fatherhood of man nor his ownership is in question; man's comprehending the truth about himself is in question. This is what the gospel addresses with utmost clarity in the person of Jesus Christ. “He has come to give us understanding to know him who is true and to realise that we are in him who is true.” 1 John 5:20.)

Joh 1:13 These are they who discover their genesis in God beyond their natural conception! Man began in God. We are not the invention of our parents!

Joh 1:14 Suddenly the invisible eternal Word takes on visible form! The Incarnation! In him, and now confirmed in us! The most accurate tangible display of God's eternal thought finds expression in human life! The Word became a human being; we are his address; he resides in us! He captivates our gaze! The glory we see there is not a religious replica; he is the authentic monogenes (begotten only by the Father and not by the flesh; In him we recognise our true beginning.) The Glory (that Adam lost,) returns in fullness! Only Grace can communicate truth in such complete context!

Joh 1:16 He is the source of our completeness. Grace against grace! (Grace prevailed against the tide of darkness due to Adam’s fall. His fullness is the source of all that grace communicates as our portion, against all the odds!)

Joh 1:17 Against the stark backdrop of the law; with Moses representing the condemned state of mankind, Jesus Christ unveils grace and truth! (He is the life of our design redeemed in human form).

Joh 1:18 Until this moment God remained invisible to man; now the authentic begotten son, (monogenes, begotten only of God) the blueprint of man's design who represents the innermost being of God, the son who is in the bosom of the Father, brings him into full view! He is the official authority qualified to announce him! (Greek, ek, preposition denoting source, and hegeomai, official authority) He is our guide who accurately declares and interprets the invisible God within us. Mirror Bible

The mission of Jesus was not to start the Christian religion or to win protest votes against Moses, Mohammed or Buddha. His mandate was twofold: first to reveal and then to redeem the blueprint image and likeness of the invisible God in human form!

Instead of an instruction Manual, The Bible is a mirror, revealing our redeemed identity.

We are not window-shopping the promises; we are gazing in the mirror of our true likeness!

Any striving to become more like Jesus through personal devotion and diligence, no matter how sincere, bears the same fruit of failure and guilt. Jesus did not come to condemn the world but to free the world. Religion has majored on guilt and will-power driven sentiment which engaged man in futile efforts to save and improve himself.

The Bible was never meant to be a manual; its message is all about Emmanuel! God with us! Every definition of distance is cancelled in Christ. Isa 40:4,5

When Scripture is interpreted as a mere instruction manual for moral behavior, its message is veiled! 2 Cor.3:15, “Whenever Moses is read the veil remains.” John 1:17, “Moses represents the law; Jesus reveals grace and truth. It is only in the mirror where the miracle transformation takes place, and the blueprint image of our Maker is again realized in us! 2 Cor.3:18. Jesus did not come as an example for us, but of us. Beholding Jesus in any other way, sentimentally or religiously will bring no lasting change. Now in Christ we may know ourselves, even as we have always been known; 1Corinthians 13:12. This is the truth that frees us to live the life of our design. John 8:32. John writes that this is not a new message, it is the word that was from the beginning, and yet it is new, he says,”for that which is true in him, is equally true in us!” 1 John 2:7, 8. “We know that the son of God has come, and he has given us understanding to know him who is true; and this is the understanding, that we are in him who is true!” 1 John 5:20

Paul brands his gospel with the words, grace and peace in order to distinguish the message of the revelation of the finished work of Christ from the law of Moses. It is a matter of, grace vs. reward and peace vs. striving, guilt and condemnation. Grace and peace express the sum total of every beneficial purpose of God towards us realized in Christ.

To discover yourself in the mirror is the key that unlocks the door to divine encounter. Tangible beyond touch the genesis of our being is unveiled. Our most intimate and urgent quest are satisfied here. “And we all, with new understanding, see ourselves in him as in a mirror; thus we are changed from an inferior mindset to the revealed opinion of our true Origin.” 2 Cor. 3:18.

As much as the world of science depends upon the senses to perceive, measure and calculate the facts and then to form reliable conclusion, faith perceives the reality of God and extends the evidence to reason. Faith is to the spirit what your senses are to your body. Faith is not airy-fairy; Jesus Christ is the substance of faith. He is both the author and conclusion of our faith. He is the accurate measure of the blueprint of our design. Eph.4:7 The gift of Christ gives dimension to grace and defines our individual value. (Grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of the gift of Christ) Mirror Bible

This is the mystery that was hidden for ages and generations; it is Christ in you! Col.1:27

He is not hiding in history or in outer space, nor in future! He is I am in you!

Anticipate the revelation of Christ within you. There is no greater reason for studying scripture!

Jesus did not point to the sky when he gave the address of the kingdom of God; he said, “The kingdom of God is within you! Luke 17:21. In Mat 13:44 he says, "The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in an agricultural field, which a man found and covered up; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” There is infinitely more to the field than what meets the eye! Jesus has come to unveil the real value of the field! Human life can never again be underestimated! The treasure exceeds any agricultural value that any harvest could possibly yield! The treasure defines the field! Paul says, “We have this treasure in earthen vessels!” 2 Cor 4:7, but while in our unbelief we do not agree with God about us, our minds are veiled and we do not realise the image of God unveiled in Christ as in a mirror. 2Cor 3:18, 4:4. We are not designed to live by bread alone. Bread represents the harvest of our own labour. He challenges us no longer to look for the wrong harvest but to lift up our eyes and see the harvest that is already ripe! The seed in the fruit matches the seed that was sown! The single grain of wheat did not abide alone! John 12: 24, John 4:35, John 2:19-21, Hos 6:2, Eph 2:5.

“From now on, we no longer know any man after the flesh! 2 Cor 5:14,16, Titus 3:2-5

Francois du Toit mirrorword.net

C.S. LEWIS .....on "THE FINISHED WORK OF THE CROSS"

2011-05-01T11:30:00.000-03:00

What, then, is the difference which He has made to the whole human mass? It is just this; that the business of becoming a son of God, of being turned from a created thing into a begotten thing, of passing over from the temporary biological life into timeless 'spiritual' life, has been done for us. Humanity is already 'saved' in principle. We individuals have to appropriate that salvation. But the really tough work--the bit we could not have done for ourselves--has been done for us. We have not got to try to climb up into spiritual life by our own efforts; it has already come down into the human race. If we will only lay ourselves open to the one Man in whom it was fully present, and who, in spite of being God, is also a real man, He will do it in us and for us. Remember what I said about 'good infection' One of our own race has this new life: if we get close to Him we shall catch it from Him." (Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis, pp. 156-157)

STEVE MCVEY: Was C.S. Lewis saying here that everybody is a Christian? No. Was he suggesting that everybody is going to heaven? No. Was he suggesting that since the work of Jesus on the cross includes all mankind, there is no need for us to place our faith in Him? No.

What he is saying is that the work of the cross is finished whether we believe it or not. We "have to appropriate that salvation" but "the business of becoming a son of God, of being turned from a created thing into a begotten thing, of passing over from the temporary biological life into timeless 'spiritual' life, has been done for us."

This is the message that we have the joy of proclaiming to everybody! Not a potential gospel of "what Jesus will do for you" but a pure gospel of what has already been done in the man, Christ Jesus, for every person. Yes, people need to believe and receive it, but we believe because it is true. We don't believe so that it can become true.

WE DON'T ACCEPT JESUS....HE HAS ACCEPTED US! (That's Good News)

2011-04-26T14:10:00.000-03:00

When we think of the word salvation, we think of that time in our lives when we decided to accept Jesus Christ into our lives. We see it as a decision we make that allows Him to become the Lord and Savior of our lives. How does this view in looking at Ephesians 2:8-9? "For by grace you have been saved through faith ; and that NOT OF YOURSELVES, it is the GIFT of God; NOT as a result OF WORKS, so that no one may boast."
If there is one thing that man can claim credit for, then it is no longer grace. Us asking Jesus into our heart is something we do....and although many have believed and followed this road for hundreds of years, this is not what the Bible teaches.
"We are told that HE CHOOSE US in Him before the foundation of the world" ...Eph.1:4.
Eph.1:5-6 "He PREDESTINED us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of HIS WILL, to the praise of the glory of HIS GRACE, which HE FREELY BESTOWS on us in the Beloved."
Because we have been told and believed something for so long, it is hard for many to see it any other way, yet Salvation is a "FREE" gift. It is and has been, the heart of God to bring each of us into union...making us "one" with Him, the Triune God, before the foundations of the world. It was in the mind of God long before Adam and it was a perfect plan. Out of love, He was creating a bride for Himself for which He could have complete union and fellowship.
Now, how many can honestly say that the plan God had before the foundation of the world could fail? God made the plan, Jesus executed the plan, and Holy Spirit is pulling it all together as He woos on the hearts of man toward their love...Jesus Christ.
Now, for many this will seem radical, but salvation is NOT a matter of you giving 'Your Life' to Jesus. The covenant made for man's was not made by man, but between the Father and the Son on man's behalf. Man had nothing to do with it, and has no part in it whatsoever. If he did, then He could somehow earn his salvation. Salvation is a gift. So, it has nothing to do with anything we could ever do, but it has everything to do with what He did....what He has given to us, NOT what we give to Him. When Jesus said, "It is finished," He was letting us know that He gave us His life. We could stop trying now to do enough......stop trying to be accepted......stop trying to participate in 'everything' that we think is the Christian responsibility. He's telling us that He HAS MADE us "accepted in the beloved." Eph.1:6 Paul is saying that He's already done it. Paul does not say, it will be done when we accept Him into our hearts. Christ has done it. It IS finished. We cannot add anything to this. It is a done deal!
So many believers do not see this and they go about their lives struggling to do better and trying so hard to be accepted, because they have no idea that they already are! When will the church begin to preach the good news with out the list of conditions. Jesus has done it....accept it, believe it and walk in this wonderful reality!
I love what Steve McVey said......"We didn't start the ball rolling regarding our salvation. He did, and to suggest otherwise diminishes Him and exalts us. Salvation is God's work. Our response to Him is because He initiated the whole thing. We love because He first loved us. Grace means we are merely recipients of what He did through Jesus Christ. He is the initiator, activator, and the perpetuator of our salvation. From start to finish, it's Him. We contributed nothing toward our salvation. After all, we had nothing to contribute."

IN HIM WAS "LIFE"

2011-04-18T19:45:00.000-03:00

We all know that Jesus is the visible manifestation of God Himself....Emmanuel, God with us. This is mind boggling....that God almighty would come and live in human flesh among His creation. That He had an eternal plan for mankind that went a little off track because of the fall, yet He knew even from the foundation of the world how He would remedy that situation. He would come to this planet Himself in the person of His Son.   Jesus Christ is the very presence of Almighty God in human form. When we see Jesus, we see the Father. When we see Jesus, we see the nature and character of the Father. As we watch Jesus life through the years he lived on this planet, we see the love of the Father displayed. The Father is fully and completely LOVE.   As we watch the life of Jesus, we see the very life of the Father displayed. Jesus is what the Father is like. They are one and the same, yet two. Amazing!
As I began reading the Book of John, I asked the Father to open my eyes....to cause me to receive revelation from His Word as I read it. I know sooner got the words out of my mouth when my eyes were opened to a passage of Scripture.
John 1: 4. "In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men."

Life only comes from God. Nothing exists apart from Him....NOTHING.
Colossians 1:16-17 "For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether [they be] thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
He gives life to the universe....life to the animals, life to the creatures of the sea....life to vegetation, but there is no life like the life He gives to man, for only man is made in the very image of God.
The life He gives to man is the very life of God. It is a life full of vigour and power....made active in Him.
He came to unite us to Himself....enabling us to take part in the very life of the triune God, becoming one with Him.   Life in the Trinity is full, exciting, and happy. It is a life of celebration. It is one big party in Him. This is not saying there will never be difficult times, but what joy in knowing that He is in the difficult times, and He has already made a way out of the difficult times back before the foundation of the world. He sees the beginning to the end....the Alpha/Omega. He is our shield, our protector, our health, our righteousness, our conqueror, and the list goes on. He is everything we need for life, because He is life.......He is OUR life. He has entered into us to give us His life. We don't give our life to Him. He has given His life to us. He has invited us to join in the relationship of the fellowship of Himself....the Triune God. WOW!   We can only love Him because He first loved us. We can only receive Him because He's already received us and predestined us before the foundation of the world. We have been adopted into His very life because of the finished work of the cross.
"In Him" was life. Most of us believe that when we invite Jesus into our hearts by saying a prayer, that is when we receive His life. I use to believe that. I didn't think anyone was "in" Him until such a time as THEY made that decision. I know longer believe that.
The thing that kept coming to my mind were the words of Jesus, "It is finished." What did that really mean? I pondered it for a long time, always praying that the Lord would reveal to me what it means. Through prayer, and listening to wonderful men of God such as Steve McVey and C. Baxter Kruger and others, the Lord has caused me to "SEE" something really significant.
When Adam fell in the garden, his act of disobedience caused everyone of us to fall and inherit his sin nature. We didn't do anything ourselves. Adam's fall resulted in our fall. As I pondered that, I began to see what actually took place at the cross.
Romans 5:12,18 are very clear about it.
"Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to 'ALL' men, because 'ALL' sinned. So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to 'ALL' men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to 'ALL' men."
We became "IN" Adam the 'moment' he disobeyed back in the garden. I think everyone can agree to that. So, that being the case, then we became "IN" Christ the very 'moment' that Jesus uttered those amazing, life-giving words, "It IS Finished," understanding that this statement is inclusive of His resurrection and ascension.
Mind-boggling yes, but none the less true. If this is not the case, then what Adam did was more powerful than what Christ did. And we all know that this is not true. There is nothing more powerful than God. His plan was a perfect and complete plan. He had it all figured out before the foundation of the world....it was a plan without flaw....a plan to undo what was done at the fall of man, and HE DID!
IN HIM was life and that life begins at the cross. It doesn't begin when you say some prayer inviting Him in....but it begins at the cross when He invites you in through the door of Jesus Christ. We don't invite Him....He invites us, and He makes the way. There is nothing we can do. It's all Him....ALL.   Life is "IN HIM." This is a DECLARATION of faith. This is the GOOD NEWS.....That we are "already" in, now just "believe" it and live in that life that He's given.   Unbelief is what stops us from experiencing the life that He died to give us. Only unbelief....not sin.
When we come to the place of believing then the "Light" of the world begins to shine forth from us to the world around us. People are drawn to the Light....the Life that shines forth through us. And we are able to share with people what they "already" have "in Him." Not what they can have, but what they already have through the "finished work of the cross." Now that is the GOOD NEWS!   The good news is not telling someone they can be free from their sins. They already are, but just don't know it yet. And how will they hear unless someone tell them? That is what we are to do....share the Good News, that in Him IS Life....His Life flowing through you. It's already done. Believe it....live it....and let the LIGHT of the world shine forth through your life.

GRACE AS A DOCTRINE.........By Steve McVey

2011-04-18T19:41:00.000-03:00

Sometimes as I’ve traveled, people have said to me, “Our church is focusing on grace this year.” When I’m told that, I can’t but find myself thinking, “What did you focus on last year? What will you focus on next year?” I’ve even heard some say that grace is a very important doctrine and how important it is that we understand it.These kinds of statements sound good on the surface, but they completely miss the point of grace. Grace is not an important doctrine. In fact, grace is a Person. His name is Jesus Christ. He is Grace personified. When we talk about grace, we’re talking about Him.

Grace is the essence of our very lives in Christ. Grace is the foundation of who God the Father is to us through His Son, Jesus Christ. To say that grace is an important doctrine puts it in a categorical list of other doctrines, which undermines its value and meaning. Grace is not to be put in a list of doctrinal teachings. It is the fountainhead from which every doctrine of the Bible flows.

To suggest that grace is an important doctrine is like saying that breathing is an important part of my life. That would be an understatement of ridiculous proportions. Breathing is not an important part of my life. When Paul said, “For me to live is Christ,” he might as well have said, “For me to live is grace.” They are the same. John said that Jesus came “full of grace.” (See John 1:14) It’s who He is.

Yes, grace is as much a part of our lives as is breathing. It is the core and essence of the gospel. In Acts 20:24, Paul showed that grace is the gospel. “I do not consider my life of any account, as dear to myself, so that I may finish my course, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God.” Note how the gospel is inseparably joined to grace here.

The word gospel means “hilariously good news.” What is this good news that Paul said he had been entrusted to share with those around him? It was the good news of the grace of God. Once we wander away from grace in what we proclaim, we’ve left the gospel. We might be telling the truth, but we’ve left the gospel. We might be helping people to some degree, but we’ve left the gospel. The gospel is the message of grace. It’s the only thing that has the power to transform lives. Paul described it as “the power of God unto salvation.”

Let’s not think we flatter grace when we call it an important doctrine. It’s more than that. It’s everything.

WE ARE "MEMBERS" OF "HIS BODY"

2011-04-18T19:38:00.000-03:00

We are "Members" of the "Body of Christ." As I began to ponder on that this morning I began to see "IT."   This body that we normally see as our own...my body, your body, your friends body, your parents body, your sibblings body, etc., is not really "our" body. When we were born physically, we were born under the dominion of sin. Satan ruled our members then, but now that we are believers, followers of Christ, Jesus rules our members because we are "Not" our own. We have been bought with a price. The purchaser gets to do what HE WILLS with His purchase. He is in control. We are now members of His Body.

The necessity of seeing us separate from Jesus will always be a hinderance.   Because in seeing a separation, we will never surrender ourselves totally to Him. We are "HIS" members......members of "HIS" Body. He lives His live "AS US," working in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure. It is no longer "I" but "HE." He truly is "I AM" in our human form, living His life all over this world through us. Is it any wonder we can do the greater works? Jesus is no longer limited to one geographical location at a time. He is all over this world living and moving and acting in our human bodies.
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live, "YET NOT I," but Christ lives in me.....(Galatians 2:20)
The revelation is that He lives in me AS ME. This body is just one member of His Body....maybe an arm, a leg, a finger, etc., but it is HIS BODY.   Our whole mindset has to change. He is not just living in us....He IS us in human form. That is the great mystery of the Gospel that Paul speaks about....Christ in us, the hope of Glory.

So often man is referred to as a "vessel." A vessel only contains the substance that is to be poured out. The vessel is not that substance. Jesus is that substance. It is "His" life being poured out through each of us to this world around us.
Also, we are referred to as branches.....Branches of the vine. There can be no separation from the vine, or the branch is useless. It is the vine that gives life. It flows through and lives through each branch. That is what Jesus is doing in the branches of our body....flowing and living as us in this world. In Him we "live and move and have our being." We are nothing apart from Him. Without Him, we can do nothing.
Christ is our very life.
"For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.   When Christ WHO "IS" OUR LIFE appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory." (Colossians 3:3-4)

The reality of this truth changes everything. It will stop us from striving and trying to do things in our own strength. It will bring us to a place of rest. He is our rest. Our very substance "IS" His life in us AS US.
"As He is, so ARE we in this world." (1 John 4:17)

FAITH ....... YOU SIMPLY RECEIVE

2011-03-28T09:58:00.000-03:00

Essentially from eternity there has been only one Person.

This is difficult to realize. Yet throughout the Word of God it is underlined.
God was before all: He is the beginning and the end, the alpha and the omega.
He is love. He is inconceivable beauty. He is the all. If that is so, then the link between Him and us, whom He has created, is the link between the One and the means of manifesting or making known the One. In other words, our relation to Him is that of containing Him in such a way that He may be recognized. That is why the primary function of all creation, animate and inanimate, is receptivity. Your basic function, and mine, is the same—simply to receive. This is demonstrated, silently, around us all the time. It's never better seen than in the springtime. If there were no receptivity in the trees and flowers and shrubs, we should have a desert around us. These things spring to life because of their quiet reception of the sunlight and moisture poured on them. What they receive they utilize. But utilization is secondary to reception. In Biblical language, we call this faith...Norman Grubb..an excerpt from The Key to Everything...---------------------------

Faith in Action..Norman Grubb
We have been looking together at this ''mystery hid from ages and generations, but now made manifest --- which is Christ in you''; but we have said nothing, except by implication, of the one way , the one Bible way, of experiencing this union with Him. Nothing could be simpler, of course it could not, because we were created to live like that, but the exercise of the one simplest of all human functions. It is the faculty of reception, called in the bible --- faith. ''To as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of god, even to them that believe on His Name''; for believing is receiving. ''Received ye the Spirit by the words of the law, or by the hearing of faith?'' We have pointed out all along that the one capacity with which human beings are endowed is that of receiving. The Creator gives, the creature receives. And obviously nothing is easier or more automatic than its constant exercise. Food, air, knowledge, the stored riches of this world, nothing is ours except by receiving it.

''what hast thou that thou hast not received? asked the apostle of the Corinthians.

ANOTHER LEVEL OF CONSCIOUSNESS

2011-03-28T09:48:00.000-03:00

But then let us get this clear if we can receive it. These are our first halting steps in living in reality. We join Moses who 'endured as seeing Him who is invisible'. We have lived all our lives in the false habit of believing in what we outwardly see or feel as the real. It is a tremendous revolution to begin (what we did begin, as we have said, at our new birth) to live in the Spirit-dimension as the real; He, Father, Son and Spirit as the only eternal real, and we by infinite grace, in Him as body to Head, a true union.
And in this present second crisis of faith we are moving forward to a totally present-tense faith. No longer just that He took away our past sins or gives us assurance of future eternal life, but that He only IS, and we ARE in Him in the Spirit, and that this only is the real. Therefore even when He has given us evidence of our union relationship, we are now moving into a 'consciousness' which must not be confused with 'feeling' -- this subtle difference between soul (feeling) and spirit (reality). When a thing is, it just is, and all we do is recognize it and act on that recognition. We are selves for instance. We don't stop to ask: Am I a self? Am I here? I just am, and act on that fact. Now our eyes have begun to be opened to the one eternal fact -- that HE IS ('I Am that I Am' was the name by which He revealed Himself to Moses), and to this the added fact that WE ARE, in this eternal union with Him in Christ.
Put it this way again. You can't 'know' a universal. It is all there is. God is all there is. You may only know particular forms by which the Universal manifests Himself. So He gloriously and graciously manifested Himself in Jesus. But Jesus told His disciples it was necessary that He leave them in His physical form, so that He could come back to them and they find their eternal relationship to Him in Spirit. But Spirit is God the universal, and now in Christ we have moved back to union with Him the universal. And we don't know a universal, we can only be part of it. So in that sense we do not know Him on the outer soul-feeling level, and still less on the matter level. We just ARE in Him and He in us, and our consciousness is on that deep indescribable Spirit-level; as I say in the same sense in which we don't know ourselves, we just are ourselves, and that is the basic fact of our being and living.
I wonder if this makes sense to you. I am getting at the fact that we go through periods when we lose all 'sense' of God, all sense of Him being a peronal living Being to us. We are in the divine dark, as the old Mystics used to call it, dark with excess of light. Dark meaning that spirit is dark to matter and vice versa. So God being spirit, we don't know Him and feel Him by the same faculties by which we know and feel matter things. It is another level of consciousness, in which we are -- He is, we are -- eternally. And to settle in that, we have to go through educating periods where we have lost all outer sight or feeling of Him. Then we don't get all fussed up if we are not conscious of His presence or feel Him unreal to us or absent from us. We are not any longer living in that matter-believing dimension. We are, because He is, and we a part of Him, as a branch is part of a vine. And there we walk at ease and in confidence, for 'if I make my bed in hell, Thou art there'; indeed the Psalmist in that Psalm 139 puts it as well as anywhere else in the Bible.
But now here comes the paradox, which almost seems like a contradiction of all I have just said. Living in a visible and material world, really the world of shadows (just as in Hebrews it says the tabernacle ritual was 'the example and shadow of heavenly things', of which Moses was capable in the Spirit of being shown 'the pattern in the mount'), God does manifest Himself of course. The whole world is the manifestation of Himself. Therefore He does have ways in which He makes us know. There are the outer ways of answering our faith in the symbols of baptism and the Lord's Supper. There is supreme provision in the written word. There are the outer signs, the Spirit coming as a dove to the Savior, and in 'the cloven tongues like as of fire' and the speaking in other languages at Pentecost.
Yet we also know these are meaningless unless they are the outward stepping stones of faith which lead to the inner witness of the Spirit. So there is and must be this inner witness, whether accompanied by outer symbols or not. But then we are saying that even this necessary inner witness, which confirms our faith, is only the gateway into this wonderful fact of being. This oneness of the union, when we have been taken beyond the need of witness to spontaneous being.
An outward illustration which I have already used gives us some clue to what we mean. We sit on a chair by the act of committal (faith). The chair then bears its witness to us in that it is holding us. That is the substance of faith, and the evidence of its reality. But after that, we just forget we are sitting on a chair. We just are in that practically unconscious faith-relationship. That is about the best, though only partial way I can indicate by matter, what we are talking about in the Spirit-union.

fROM: Who Am I?......By Norman Grubb

GOD IS LOVE

2011-03-07T13:30:00.000-04:00

Today I was pondering on this fact, "God IS Love." This statement is so full of exploding power and revelation. It is the very heart of who God is, the fullness of His nature all wrapped up in this one thing.....LOVE!

I have been a believer for over 30 years, and from the day I came into the "Church," it was shown to me that now, in 'our' love for God, we are 'expected' to serve Him. 'Serving Him' is the one thing that we are led to focus on as new babes in Christ, and 'serving Him" is what begins to form the following years as we continue in this struggle of pleasing God. It becomes our entire life goal as we begin to contemplate on where do I fit, what can I do, which ministry will I be a part of, which program will I be involved in, I must get to all the prayer meetings and Bible studies, and the list goes on and on and on. How exhausting! No wonder there is so much burn-out in the church. Yet, as I ponder on this fact that "God is love," it just turns everything around because of what love IS. For the first time in my life, I am learning to rest in His love.....to relax and just live my life effortlessly.

The first few verses in the love chapter....1 Corinthians 13, clearly reveals to us one thing......LOVE IS 'NOT' SELF-SEEKING. Love is always outward, towards others. (NLT)

1. If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 3. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.

Then I read the rest of the chapter........

(4 - 7) Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

Wow.....is this talking about me? Or, is this talking about God? As I reread, I began to see this through the lens of grace. I began to realize that I can't possibly love this way....but because of my union with Christ, and because it is now Him living His life through me, loving this way should come naturally, because this is now who I am....ONE with Him. As He is, so am I in this world. The more I know Him, the more I understand what love is, and the more I understand my true identity as ONE with Him, the more I realize that it is never me doing it, but He is loving through me. I am His vessel....His conduit to do the 'greater works,' for now He is no longer limited to one geographical place, but in the vessel of every believer, He is at work all over the world.

I am now Christ-conscious and no longer "serving" conscious. It's not about our serving, it's about understanding love...who is a person, and allowing that love/person to live in and through you at all times and in every situation, whether good or bad, easy or difficult. It's all the same to Him. He is our All in All.

(8 - 13) Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! But when full understanding comes, these partial things will become useless.

When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.

When we begin to realize that love is NOT self-seeking, then the cloudy mirror becomes clearer, and we begin walking in the identity of who we really are.

But in all this, as I ponder love, knowing that He is love and that love is not self-seeking, I realize that God is not all bout Himself. He is not looking for our service, or our doing for Him. He is wanting to pour out His lavish love and affections on us. He is wanting to reveal more and more of Himself to us through His written word, through the prophetic, through that still small voice, through those quiet times with Him. He wants to pour out His blessings on us. He wants to rejoice over us with exceeding joy. As He reveals more and more of Himself to us, we in turn live out this revelation in bestowing His love on others as He lives His life through us. It is an overflow of the heart. The more you have/know, the more you want to give it away. Love is about giving. God is a giving God. Love is not something that can just be for self. It doesn't benefit self, but it is for the benefit of others. In His love, He died for the whole world....not for Himself. He did it for us. What greater love is this than a man lay down his life for his friends? (John 15:13)

John 15:15 I no longer call you servants, because a master doesn't confide in his servants. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me. (NLT)

This is all a two - fold thing here........understanding that God's love is outward bound, toward us, and also outward bound through us to the world. God lavishes His love on the world now through us. Believers are the Light or the Love of the world. As we shine that light/love, then the world will be drawn to Him. When a person is in darkness and can't find their way out, all they need to see is a tiny small light in the distance and they will begin to journey toward that light, watching it become brighter and brighter as more and more revelation of who He is, is revealed.

Isaiah 9:2-7 The people who walk in darkness will see a great light--a light that will shine on all who live in the land where death casts its shadow.

Israel will again be great, and its people will rejoice as people rejoice at harvesttime. They will shout with joy like warriors dividing the plunder.

For God will break the chains that bind his people and the whip that scourges them, just as he did when he destroyed the army of Midian with Gideon's little band.

In that day of peace, battle gear will no longer be issued. Never again will uniforms be bloodstained by war. All such equipment will be burned.

For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. And the government will rest on his shoulders. These will be his royal titles: Wonderful Counselor, [fn] Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

His ever expanding, peaceful government will never end. He will rule forever with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David.

The passionate commitment of the LORD Almighty will guarantee this!

LIVING IN THE LIGHT .......By Fred Pruitt

2011-02-24T09:01:00.000-04:00

Years ago, I reveled in being strident with folks, in “nailing” them, so to speak. In the 80s my ministry partner and I used to make a joke about our being assigned to go around “taking names and kicking butt.” But today for me to be “discovering and rooting out sin,” is the furthest thing from my mind and especially my heart. I would far rather affirm, console, lift up.
At this point, more than twenty-five (25) years later, it has settled in me that folks are exactly where the Father means them to be, at that moment. Things may change if necessary, but it is a great release to know that all are held in God’s hands, wooed by the Spirit, and it is HE Who brings forth the end in resurrection in those who hear and respond to His call.
We are only as “seed casters,” or farmers bringing up crops which grow of themselves by God’s sun, water, air and earth, with us really only being harvesters. We cast seed; God gives the increase, and then we participate in the harvest. It is glorious! This is something that has “taken me,” and despite the feelings of the flesh and soul, I am relaxed even in “process.” It has become something “fixed” in me.
That does not mean I have my head buried in the sand and do not see what is happening in the temporal or in the flesh. However, for me, my “seeing” just means that over and above and through all that “process,”(i.e., things in flux, changes, etc.), I see only God and His perfect loving purposes, moving all creation (including us), towards the perfect harmony out of which all things have come.
We might consider “trouble,” or “process,” when contrasted with harmony, to be dissonance. Imagine a great symphony, which starts with a rousing inspirational overture, beautiful melody, lifting us figuratively “into the heavens.” But as the symphony moves from one movement to the next, things began to clash, to be dissonant. The timpani beat ominously, sad minor key strings, alarming horns, and runaway melodies move us from the gentle harmony of the beginning, to the contrariety of the middle.
If we have not seen a symphony before, we may wonder where all the beauty and harmony went. We had been transported into the heavens by the first overtures, but now it seems like we have been taken down into the uncertain chaos of disharmony. Then, as the final movement starts up, the original melodious theme begins to be barely heard in the undercurrent of the chaos and disharmony. The dissonance seeks to hold its ground and fights to keep it, but little by little, the original theme sounds more and more, while the disharmony gradually recedes into nothing. We move finally into the grand finale’, where suddenly the same instruments which had seemed chaotic and disharmonious before, now all join one by one the grand theme from the beginning. As the theme rises, building and building off the tension and contrariety of the middle, until at the climax, everything becomes an explosion of beauty and sound, harmony and rhythm, that is now even more beautiful, even more grand, even more uplifting, and even more certain, than at the beginning. In spiritual terms, the end is greater than the beginning, made greater by the tension, chaos and “negative,” of the middle, so that we may see, by contrast or conflict of opposites, the greater and fuller resurrection of harmony and beauty, which now having overcome the conflict, becomes the final declaration and victory of the whole.
That is how I view our temporal world, and how I view life in every one of us. That is why I can look out into the world, filled with chaos, violence, disharmony, the elevation of the pride of self, and see through to God and the final resolution, which is already there and working, behind, under, over and through all things. I am a player in the symphony, knowing primarily only my part but also cognizant of all the others in their individual parts as well. I know the music of all the movements, and when I am playing my part, even though sometimes my part calls for dissonance, I see the Conductor with his baton, leading us perfectly, each one of us, into the end I already know. So I am not stressed in that middle part, because the end is already a fixed reality in my consciousness, for myself and also all the other players.
What I have also experienced is that, in God, the temptations, anguish and chaos of the world continually assault us. Nonetheless, it is also all swallowed up in the Cross, so that the release from this chaos and death we continually experience, is also continually coming out in resurrection and victory. The manifestation of the Light, built upon the anguish and darkness, comes out more radiant, more beautiful, more glorious on the other side. And through this continually occurring process, we learn to live in the Light, not in the anguish. The “anguish” is the process, and comes and goes. But the Light is always there. It is an absolute.
Let me put it in a brief nutshell. When we live in the Spirit of Jesus Christ, Life originates from the Eternal within us, where we live by a different framework from our old life. In the old life, we are defeated daily by the temporal realities, because we think that this unrest – violence, sin, whatever – is the only thing there is. Therefore, all our focus is continually on the temporal to “fix it,” to make it better, or “avoidance,” to escape from it. In a temporal world, things are happening 1-2-3 in sequence, so that everything appears disharmonious, and we cannot see through to the end result. We are stuck in time.
However, in the Spirit, God, “All in all,” is our reality. As we are seasoned through life, disappointing though it is, we learn that the anguish continually returns to find a foothold in us. We are continually assaulted, as I stated above. If we could clearly see with eternal eyes, into time, we would see as Elisha saw when his servant Gehazi could not see. Gehazi could only see the enemy army encamped fully around their city, and was undone in fear. But Elisha prayed that his eyes would be opened, and when Gehazi’s eyes opened, he saw an even greater sight than the fearful army that besieged them. He saw the whole host of heaven on horses and chariots of fire, surrounding the enemy army. (2 Kings 5:14-17). Here, then is the contrast. Elisha saw through the manifestation of evil to the chariots of fire round about. The servant could not see the heavenly host, even though they were already there. However, once his eyes were opened to the Eternal, then he really saw! And it is the same with us.
Now we see, that even though the darkness, anguish and chaos come, which we feel and experience in the depths of our humanity, nonetheless, through the Cross of Jesus, all the death, anguish and chaos are continually swallowed up in Him in us. So that by that operation of death, comes the also continual and Eternal manifestation of heaven. In other words, the death (which we experience in the temporal) is continually swallowed up ETERNALLY by the operation of the Cross, and are submerged, and in a real sense, not seen in God the Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Though there is the anguish, it is eternally swallowed up in the Cross and the manifestation of God as The Light, Word, The Way, and manifestation of Heaven in us. So what we end up with is that there is no anguish in God, nor in us, because we are in Him!
Though we may despair that the day will never come, there does come one day a “fixedness” of relaxation in the Light side, the Resurrection side. “O God, my heart is fixed,” as the Psalmist said. (Ps 57:7; 108:1; 112:7). There does come that day. John Bunting calls it the day of graduation. We DO graduate! We live in the Light, as He is the Light, and we KNOW it!
And that day is the Day we take all this in the simplicity of receiving any other gift. We just take what has been freely offered. “Oh, that’s it! Thanks, I’ll take that!”
I was thinking today that if you didn’t know me, had never met or seen me, and we were talking on the phone, that if I told you that I have graying blonde hair, am overweight, have pale white skin, etc., that you would probably take that at face value and believe it. If someone asked you later to describe me, you would probably simply give them the description I had given you. Unless you had some reason to suspect me to be a liar, it would be entirely reasonable to accept my description as truth. It would be no great strain on your intellect or your will to do so.
That is like the promises of God to us. It is really that simple. It is time to go beyond the process and say, “I really don’t have time for this. There is work to be done. There is a calling God has for me. I must be on with it!” I can say truly that life on the other side – on the “fixed” side – begins to exhibit a confidence and a authority that does not come while we are concerned overly with process and overcoming the negative. Yes, the negative still comes; yes, there are still temptations; yes, doubts, fear, hurts arise and claim their rights. BUT – and this is a BIG “but,” even in very throes of struggle and doubt, there is an inner confidence and Light, in which we continually consciously live, so that we KNOW, even in this anguish, that God is All in all.
It could be said we are like men in a foxhole with the enemy bearing down upon us. Who has time to think deeply if we have enough bullets or if the Colonel has made the right decisions? The battle is upon us. All we can do is rise up and give what we have and trust that it is enough. After all, we are already as dead men – are we not? What do dead men have to protect or to fear?
David overcame process (after all, he did take FIVE stones) and went to meet Goliath on the field of battle. I’m sure there might have been a butterfly or two. But he confessed only one thing — that this man could not defy the God of Israel and stand.
Do we say the same? Do we live continuously in that same place? That is our calling. We live in the Light, because He IS the Light. He shines “out of” darkness — but the point of that is that HE SHINES! That is where we place our bet, on the Light, not on the darkness!
Well, are we there? It has come to me that we are there. What I took so long ago has taken me. We ARE the Light! It is our whole environment.
God said, “Here this is for you,” and we say, “Thanks, Lord, I’ll take it!”

THE DANCING GOD

2011-02-22T01:57:00.000-04:00

The Dancing God, by Neil Carter

Once again, I find that C.S. Lewis put his finger on things that I didn't realize he had.

The words "God is Love" have no real meaning unless that one person contains at least two Persons. Love is something that one person has for another person. If God was a single person, then before the world was made, He was not love.

I came across this idea first in the writings of Norman Grubb. I'm sure the realization didn't originate with either of these two British gents.

What both of them are saying is that if God is Love, then He must be plural. He must be a community of at least two. One person alone cannot be Love, because there must be an object for His affection other than Himself. As it turns out, our scriptures describe three persons of God. The Father and the Son we understand (sort of). But this third Person evades description. Trying to describe our God strains our language beyond what it can handle, because even our concept of a "person" leaves some things unexplained here. Lewis goes on to say:

God is not a static thing--not even a person--but a dynamic, pulsating activity, a life, almost a kind of drama. Almost, if you will not think me irreverent, a kind of dance. The union between the Father and the Son is such a live concrete thing that this union itself is also a Person.

A dance. Now that's beautiful. My apologies to all the old school Southern Baptists out there. But this is a truly charming and illustrative image. So much of my confusion cleared up once this idea got a hold of me.

It works for understanding the union of the Trinity, as my theology professors once pointed out. When they said it, they had to use a fancy Latin word for it (circumincessio) so that they wouldn't feel irreverent. Everything feels more legitimate once it's put in Latin, you know. Circumincessio indicates a kind of mutual enfolding which expands and contracts, so that they are one, and two, and one again. As if one Latin term doesn't cut it, my professors felt the need to bolster this concept with a second, Greek term (perichoresis), which essentially means the same thing. But now it's in both Latin and Greek, so it's gotta be okay to believe, right?

But the Dance extends beyond the inner relationship of the Father, Son, and Spirit. Jesus said that we would come to know the same kind of relationship (it's at the end of John 17, I'm not making this up). We are becoming one with God in the same way that He is already one with Himself (!)

If you think about it, this explains a lot. I have always gotten confused about whether I am separate from God or one with Him. Sometimes I pray to Him. Other times I feel like He is praying through me. But which is right? Which is better?

It's a dance. You get what I'm saying? Watch two people dancing. They are two, then they are one. Then they are two again. Back and forth. Around and around. In front of, behind, between, above, below, apart, and together again. It's beautiful, isn't it? When two are joined in a dance, something arises between them that is more than simply the sum of two parts.

And that is what's happening with us and God. Christ is in us, then He is above us. He is our every breath and heartbeat, then we turn and address Him as if He were with us instead of in us. We are meant to enjoy and preserve both. Sometimes we lose consciousness of His separateness from us, because we are so one. But then He comes to us and gets our attention as if He were introducing some side of Himself that we've never seen before.

There will always be more. His dance has spins and steps you've never seen. But always He brings us back into who He is, so that folks looking on will hardly be able to tell where He ends and we begin.

It's a Dance.

USA 2011 - The TITHE of Abram - Binding and loosing

2011-02-15T20:07:00.000-04:00

USA 2011 - The TITHE of Abram - Binding and loosing

sunday2010-10-10-effortless-prayer

2011-02-07T13:54:00.000-04:00

sunday2010-10-10-effortless-prayer

SEEING SCRIPTURE THROUGH THE LENS OF GRACE

2011-01-06T11:29:00.000-04:00

The sermon on the Mount....Matthew 5,6,7
As believers in Christ one thing to remember is that we are brand new creations. Everything in the Bible is good, but not everything in the Bible is meant for us....the believer in God's grace and in the "finished" work of the cross.
It's important to see who is being spoken to in this passage of Scripture. This is not being spoken to the gentiles, but to the Israelites....the Jewish people. If there had been any gentiles listening in on this teaching of Jesus, they would
have had a hard time to know what He meant because they were not familiar with the Law of Moses. So it really needs to be noted that this teaching was directed to the Israelites, and not to the Gentiles.
We can learn from this passage, but this passage IS NOT directed at us.

The Jewish people were and even today are, without Jesus, a people who are trying to get to heaven by their works,
so everything Jesus is sharing confronts them on these issues of the law. Jesus came to fulfill the law....to live it perfectly (for man, on man's behalf because man just couldn't do it. Trying to keep the law always ended in failure because it is impossible to do. The law was given to lead us to Jesus....to set us free from it's demand. (Matthew 5:17; Galatians 3:24-25)

Jesus kept the law on our behalf.   Everything He did on this planet, He did for us....to complete what we could never do.   God has always wanted us to live by His grace. It was never His heart that man live under law, but under grace. Man is the one who chose to go his own way. They wanted a King like the heathen nations.....not realizing they had the greatest King of all...the sovereign creator of all that exists.   They didn't want direct communication with God....they decided for Moses to tell them what God wanted. That was never God's intent. He wanted relationship with all men.
Man's hard heart brought about the law for which God showed them their inability to succeed by tryng to live by it. He gave it out of love....for all that He does is out of love....it's who He is. He gave it to lead them to the one who could finally deliver them to real freedom.
Now, knowing that Jesus has fulfilled the law on behalf of mankind, then no one can ever break the law again. No one
can ever be charged for the same crimes. Jesus did it all.....that's why He could cry out, "It is finished."
Even sinners cannot break the law. Sinners do not go to hell because of sin. They go to hell because of their unbelief in what Jesus did....their unbelief in the total freedom for which He died.   They reject what He did. He completed all the necessary requirements on our behalf. What amazing love, yet still many refuse to believe it and accept it. How sad.

It is vital to read Scripture through the lens of Grace. If we don't, then we think that so much is personally directed at us and it is not. For example:
Mat 5:19 "Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be
called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach [them], the same shall be called great in
the kingdom of heaven."
Many think this passage is still meant for us today. It is not. It was only meant for those who lived under the law, which at the time of Jesus's teaching, these Jewish people were living under it....But we are no longer under the law. It was for freedom that Christ has set us free...no longer to be subject to the demands of the law.
In the very next verse, Jesus is showing them a better way.....
Mat 5:20 "For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed [the righteousness] of the
scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven."   He's actually telling them that it's not
through the letter of the law that you get to heaven, because no one can keep the law. He's is leading them to a better way.....better promises that can only be found IN HIM.

You see, people who try keep the law have something to boast in. For example, how many times have you heard
someone say, "Well, I'm not a bad person. I've never killed anyone." Yet Jesus tells them that by living under the law there are much more implications to consider. Jesus goes on to say.....
Matthew 5:22 "But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the
judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire."

Another example is:
Mat 5:27 "Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery".
How many can look at themselves and say with pride that they have never been with anyone other than their spouse? That is good thing, yet Jesus takes it a step further in the next verse.
Mat 5:28 "But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart."
So that takes it a step further with greater responsibility. Can those who don't actually commit adultery also say that they have never had an unclean thought of imaginations of being with someone else, or of looking at someone in a way that they should not?   It's all wrong.
We can never make it by trying to keep a bunch of laws that are absolutely impossible to keep.
By sharing this with the people, Jesus is trying to show them the impossibility of keeping the law, so quit trying. He wants to show them a better way.....He IS the WAY, the Truth and the Life.....no man comes to the Father
but by Him.

You see....when you try to live by law, and even by keeping some, you may feel good about it and about yourself, and give yourself reason to boast in any small attempt to succeed, yet Ephesians 2:8-9 "Your salvation was a grace thing from start to finish, you had no hand in it; because it is all God's gift to you, because He believes in you.
If this could be accomplished through any action of yours then there would be ground for boasting, (but you did not even invent faith. It was His faith in you that made you believe in Him.)"   ---The Mirror Translation
Our responsibility is to share the grace of God. We no longer preach law. The only time we should ever bring it up is when people start boasting in their self efforts or own works at pleasing God. Then we show them, as Jesus did in Matthew 5 that no one can please God by keeping the law, because it just can't be done. In and of ourselves we can do nothing. Jesus could do nothing on this planet apart from His Father. We can do nothing apart from Him.
Once we come into a revelation of Christ's grace and His finished work, then it is essential to read the Scriptures through that lens. We will begin to see things in a brand new light.......a light that brings life, and life in abundance. Jesus is that life and He's come to life that life of abundance out, in and through all those who trust in His completed work. It is no longer an issue of doing, but of trusting and resting in what He has already done.

LET THE PUZZLE BECOME CLEAR.....START TO SEE THROUGH THE LENS OF GRACE!

2010-12-25T09:34:00.001-04:00

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LET NOT YOUR HEART BE TROUBLED!

2010-12-13T13:41:00.000-04:00

John 14:1-4: "LET NOT YOUR HEART BE TROUBLED; believe in God, believe also in Me.

This verse is an imperative...a command, not an option. Yet, even as a command, they are the most gentle and loving words given, because when you understand the character of God, these words come wrapped up in so much love.....a love that desires only the very best for us.Prior to Jesus sharing these words, He had just revealed to his disciples that He was about to leave them (Chapter 13). The result of them hearing that bad news upset them and troubled their hearts, as could be the case in any kind of bad news or situation.....yet Jesus is telling them NOT to be troubled, despite the circumstances about to take place (or the any difficult circumstances you may find yourself in). The Lord is concerned with every emotion that we experience. He desires us to stay focused on reality rather than temporal situations....and the reality is Victory in Him. The greatest victory of all time was about to occur via the most horrendous means. So often we are unable to see the victory because our eyes become focused on the temporal instead of the eternal. We cease to see the big picture and become insecure in our faith as to who is really in charge. TAKE JOY......GOD DOES HAVE EVERYTHING UNDER CONTROL.

The amazing thing about these words is that Jesus knew all that was about to take place. He knew the torture and torment that He was about to endure, but where were His thoughts and concerns? On the welfare of those He so loved. His attention was on His friends. (John 15:13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.)Even on the cross, enduring excruciating pain, He turned His loving attention to the suffering thief who was dying beside Him....loving Him enough to ensure Him that He would be ok; letting Him know that he would be with Him that very day in Paradise. The God-love is never a self love, but an "other" love. It is always a love that gives. Our God is the God of all comfort. Stress is the biggest killer in the world today. It is stress that brings on every kind of sickness and disease. If we don't catch a hold of what it means to have peace, even the Prince of Peace who is our very being...Christ in us as us....then we will always be moved by the surrounding circumstances of life. The one thing we need to be convinced of is that circumstances are "always" temporal, but God's love and peace are eternal. Get that truth in you. There is nothing that takes God by surprise. Rest in the truth that He is now leading your life, and rest in the truth of His eternal love for you, that works out ALL things for your good.

There are so many things that test us in this life, and if we don't understand our identity....who it is that is really in charge, living His life through us, then we can become overwhelmed and stressed at every corner. Accidents, illness, disappointments, financial loss, business difficulties, wars, death....are some of the things, just to name a few that would rob our peace and trouble our hearts....but this can only happen if we forget who we really are and begin to walk in who we once were. All these things come to "test" us in this life. We would never become strong and secure in our faith without such testings. We "cannot" avoid these things. They are a part of life.

You cannot obtain or maintain an untroubled heart through optimistic thinking or any kind of human self-effort. It just cannot be done. The ONLY THING that can keep your heart from being troubled and that can keep you walking in peace, is Jesus.....knowing what He has accomplished for you at the cross. We are not just told in God's word to trust in Jesus. We are told that in this world we will have tribulation (John 16:33), there will be wars and rumors of wars (Matthew 24:6). The Gospel doesn't try to make us forget our problems, but to realize that there is a problem solver, and guess what? IT ISN'T YOU! Jesus said, "Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world."

How did He overcome the world? By willing to become man in all his humanity....suffer the garden agony, the trial and cruel death of the cross. To have His body broken for you, to die in utter despair crying, "Father, Father, Why have you forsaken me?" Of course, Father never really forsook Jesus. He was right there on that cross with Him...for they were fully and completely ONE, yet the Son part of the triune God became man in all his humanity, and in so doing, He felt as a man would feel....totally abandoned and separated from the Father because of OUR SIN which He willingly and voluntarily took upon Himself.

To deal with the trouble of our physical hearts and the anguish we can often feel due to the trials of life, one of the first things we need to do is to take hold of our emotions. So many live by what they feel instead of living by faith. Do not embrace defeat. Begin from the point of VICTORY. We do not have to submit to defeat and discouragement. That is a choice. The point of victory is to "believe." Jesus said, "Believe in God, believe "also in Me." He's saying "trust Me." Trust in my "finished work". Trust that I have triumphed and overcome the world on your behalf. Trust that we are now "ONE". There is no longer two....but "ONE" essence, Jesus, who lives in our physical body. We are the human tent that He indwells, and as we yield, He lives His life and purpose through us. It is NO LONGER I, but Him doing the living (Gal.2:20).

I know it is a mind boggling thing, but it is truth.....We are now completely ONE with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. There is no longer any separation. If we encounter a difficult situation, trial or test in this life....so does HE. We are never alone in any of it. God is a constant in our lives and see's the big picture. He has it all worked out before anything ever happens that could cause us discouragement or stress. Our job is to believe that, and to rest as He does His work in bringing us through each and every situation that arises. The more we come to KNOW Him and receive revelation of this wonderful message of Grace and Christ's finished work, the more we walk in the peace and rest that He so lovingly has given us. It's all ours. Heaven dwells inside of us. All of it's possessions are at our disposal, and all we have to do is "believe." It is so easy....something we just DO. Like a child standing on a high rock ready to jump, and the Daddy says, "Go ahead, I will catch you." The child doesn't even have to think about it. They trust Daddy....so, they jump in FULL ASSURANCE that He will catch them. And He always does! Trust Him in your circumstances today. Trust in His love for you. He will never let you down....NEVER!

BEATING THE ROCK ........By Darin Hufford

2010-12-13T09:43:00.000-04:00

There’s a story in the Old Testament where Moses and the newly liberated Israelites are fresh in the wilderness just after having escaped the Egyptian army through the Red Sea. The Israelites are thirsty and immediately start complaining. God tells Moses to take hisstaff and strike this rock in the middle of the desert and water would flow from it. Moses obeys, and water springs forth. Enough to quench the thirst of over a million people and their animals.
Later on, the Israelites find themselves right back in the very same place and in great need of water. Like clock-work the people begin complaining and Moses goes to God for answers. God brings Moses back to the same rock as before, but this time He tells Moses to take the staff, gather the assembly together, and SPEAK to the rock before their eyes instead of striking it.
Moses, in his anger and frustration, gathers the assembly together in front of the rock, takes his staff, and strikes the rock two times. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank.
Moses pays a great price for this little episode. God takes from Moses the honor of being the guy who gets to lead the people into the Promise Land. He was only allowed to stand upon a mountain and see this land from a distance, but he couldn’t lead the people into it.
For the first ten years of my Christian walk I shook my head at this story. It didn’t seem fair. In fact, it angered me because Moses was the most obedient guy in the bible, and God held him back from entering the Promised Land for something as stupid as this. The punishment just didn’t fit the crime in my opinio n. If THIS is what it takes for God to strip His promises away from us, I thought; then we’re ALL screwed. I eat this kind of disobedience for breakfast. Moses made this one little mistake after giving his entire life to God, and the Lord takes away the very thing Moses worked his entire life for. So much for the word “PROMISE.” What’s up with that anyway? What kind of a God would PROMISE you something and then not give it to you for getting pissed off at the same people God Himself wanted to wipe off the face of the earth just one book earlier??
You’d think that God would be even more understanding with Moses when it came to being upset with these particular people. Moses does something as simple as striking a rock instead of speaking to it and God takes everything away from him in an instant?
Years later, as I began to know the true Heart of God for relationship, this story took on a completely different meaning for me. I began to see the purpose of the two incidents being recorded in Scripture and what was really taking place in this story.
The first time the people needed water, God told Moses to take his staff and strike the rock two times in front of the Israelites. This is a picture of Christ being stricken. It’s also a picture of law. Moses is given exact directions on how to get the water and he follows them to a “T”. It’s almost caveman like. He strikes the rock twice with the same magic wand he struck the Nile river with, and water gloriously springs forth. All he’s got to do is follow the formula and the magic happens. It’s heartless. It’s mindless. Even a monkey could do it.
The next time around however, God instructed Moses to SPEAK TO THE ROCK. This is an entirely new covenant!!!!! This is a picture of the very essence of the New Covenant. It’s a picture of RELATIONSHIP. Can you see how this story goes from following rules andformulas to trusting in intimacy? Scripture later explains that this “Rock” was Christ, or a picture of Christ. He need not be stricken twice. He was crucified once, for all mankind. It is not rules and regulations that bring us closer to God at this point; it’s simply believing and trusting.
The reason why this is such a devastating story is because Moses insisted on doing things THE OLD WAY. He was presented with the quintessential spirit of the Promise, and he rejected it in front of the very people he was supposedly leading towards it. The lesson learned here is NOT that Moses should have obeyed God’s instructions, but that NO ONE can enter into the New Covenant realm through Old Covenant formulas. You cannot have it both ways.
The Promised Land wasn’t withheld from Moses because he disobeyed God. It was withheld because he embraced law-mindedness over intimacy. His “Believe” was put in the wrong thing. In fact, the Promised Land or the “Kingdom realm” is hidden from anyone who rejects its essence and relies on law to find it. It remains invisible to the man who attempts to obtain it through obedience, ritual, or formula. In fact, the law itself becomes the blinders that make such a person stumble around in darkness, unable to behold the Kingdom. Paul once said that, “... for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts.” (2 Co 3:14-15)
Whether we want to admit to this or not, the sad fact is that Christianity HAS subscribed to Old Testament beliefs and because of it, we have not witnessed a damn thing! This is precisely why the vast majority of Christians in every denomination DON’T WITNESS. It’s not because they don’t care and they don’t want the Gospel message spread to the ends of the earth. People aren rsquo;t witnessing BECAUSE THEY HAVEN’T WITNESSED ANYTHING!!!!
In essence, God was saying to Moses, “Put down the stick.” It’s time to lay down your little sacred tools and start trusting in something entirely from the heart; relationship. This must have been a difficult request for Moses. He had come to rely on his staff. He had come to believe in all the tools, objects, and utensils that he personally supervised while they were being overlaid with gold and silver. We always associate the Pharisees with those who loved and relied on the law, but remember it was Moses who actually wrote it. ThePharisees even referred to the law as, “The law of Moses.” Imagine how difficult crossing over from the Old to the New must have been for Moses.
In this particular Testament-Taste-Test, Moses favored the Old wine over the New. He was the first in a long line of people who would make the very same choice. Christ Himself said, “No one after drinking Old (Testament) wine wants the New (Testament), for they say, “the old is better.” This was true for Moses and it’s true for most of modern day Christianity.
Sadly, the very heart of this story with Moses is being played out week after week in churches throughout America and the rest of the world; and just like Moses and the Israelites of his time, I see millions of frustrated Christians with their staff in hand, striking this rock, and that for all they’re worth trying to get a drink of water. They’re dying in the wilderness without getting so much as a glimpse of the Kingdom that was promised to them. Our leaders lead us towards it, and even right up to its edge, but they themselves never enter because they choose the old over the new.
Sadly, because Christianity today does not want to give up the Old Testament, we have done our best to weave both covenants together in a way that makes them void each other out completely. We’re safe, and then we’re not safe. We’re loved, and then we’re not loved. Salvation is free in one moment, and then in the next it’s not. We’re forgiven, and then we’re not. We’re paid for, and then we’re in debt. We’re not under law, and then we are. God will never leave us, and then He does. We’re set free, and then we’re caged again. We’re given a guarantee of what is to come, and then we’re told there’s no guarantee. It’s all free, and then we’re charged for it.
Christianity has become a deadly roller coaster of contradictions and confusion at every turn. We take people to the top, give them just a glimpse of the Kingdom, and then we go into a nose-dive into a world of fear, insecurity, confusion, and condemnation, followed by a series of loops and turns that actually make you believe you’re going somewhere. The problem is that when the ride is over, you’re right back where you started, and there’s a guy ushering you off the car and pointing towards the exit sign until next week.
This is a picture of what happens when we refuse to let go of the Old Testament and fully embrace the New. We simply cannot have it both ways. It’s like watching a guy get married, but still maintain a “single-man” mentality in his heart. He destroys himself, his wife, and their children. Marriage only works when you give yourself over to it fully and let go of the single life forever. The difference between Old Testament and New Testament is that now God is married to us. Though HE has not changed from one covenant to the next, THINGS have changed. The intimacy that He desires to share with us now, is a thousandtimes greater than it was then. There’s NO room for the Old covenant in our hearts anymore because we are married now. In the Old Testament, we dated Him. He kissed us good night at the end of of the day, and we waited until the next time He showed up. Today, however, He lives inside of us. We sleep together and are one in every respect. To intentionally bring back the Old Way is a betrayal to the very heart of what we have with Him now.
The more I speak with Christians from all over the world, the more convinced I’ve become that this generation has absolutely no idea what was accomplished on the cross. I think people are trained to just say, “Jesus died for our sins” without having any depth of understanding beyond that. Amazingly, I’ve found that even pastors and teachers are almost completely ignorant of the changes that have taken place because of the death and resurrection of Christ.
I honestly believe that this is more than just a theological misunderstanding.
There is something hypnotizing and alluring about the law. Pastors literally get a high when they go through Old Testament passages concerning the temple rituals and the law. They’ll memorize the priestly procedures and go over and over them in their mind like an obsessive compulsive person. Even the mere mention of grace sets them off and causes an inner panic. They despise the freedom brought on through the cross because it threatens to strip away the very thing they’re addicted to - control.
Every area of a modern day Christian’s life is so saturated with Old Covenant residue that I honestly wonder if Christians today would even choose a New Testament relationship if it were offered to them point blank. Most Christians have no comprehension of what that means. It quite possibly wouldn’t even be attractive to the average churched person in America.
Most of us have been raised in a world where Old Testament thinking is the dominant mindset. Every single principle in Christianity has been poisoned with this thinking.
When we worship, we believe that God shows up because we’re told, “He inhabits the praises of His people,” so we do our best to lift Him up so He’ll “show up.” When we pray, we do so with a “God is not in us” mentality. We throw out fleeces, pray the prayer of Jabez, and listen for an audible voice from the sky like Moses did. We even focus our eyes on the upper right-hand corner of our bedroom as though He’s somewhere out there looking down on us.
When we give, we sit around and wait to receive something back because we’ve been taught if we give freely, we will receive freely. We read our bibles because we think we’re still in the same predicament as King David was thousands of years before Christ. We think we have to meditate on it night and day or we won’t ever know God. We even refer to our bible as “The Word” as though the Word never became flesh and dwelt among us. We go to church thinking we’re still in the Old Testament Era when God’s temple was a tent or a building that people come to in order to meet with Him. Rather than embrace that WE are now the temple of God, we prefer it the old way. When we do show up to church, we do so with the same Old Testament mindset that people had in Moses’ day. We wait for our leader to go to the mountain top and get the revelation from God for us. Rather than know and hear God as individuals, we have traded that New Covenant attribute for the way it was before Christ.
Several years before I ultimately resigned from being a pastor, our church took part in the National Day of Prayer. This is a time when all denominations come together and set aside our differences just to ban together and pray for our nation. The key verse for this particular event was 2 Chronicles 7:14
“ If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
This bible passage was plastered on billboards, canopies, brochures, and flyers all over the city. This passage completely negates the cross! It puts us right back in the pre-Christ time period when everything was based on works and law. Amazingly, I don’t recall one single Christian in my group of almost thirteen-thousand saying a single word about this. They all bought it hook-line-and-sinker. Today’s Church has eliminated the works of Christ altogether. Is it any wonder why we show up to these events with our staff in hand, striking any rock within reaching distance in an effort to get just a drop of water? We are a generation of women at the well who politely refuse Christ’s offer to give us living water that will spring up within us. We don’t want that. We like drawing water every day. It puts us in control.
I honestly believe that the only difference between the Old Testament lifestyle and modern day Christianity is that today, we don’t sacrifice bulls and goats. There is no doubt in my mind that if given the opportunity, many churches would go as far as to resurrect the whole sacrificial system again. According to the theology of a great number of Christian people today, the only ones who benefited from the death of Christ where the cattle and the sheep. Because of what Christ did, they get to live. We no longer sacrifice them, but other than that; NOTHING else has changed.
This mentality is what I referred to in my book, The Misunderstood God as an “Anti-Christ mentality.” At any point where we hold to Old Testament principles, we are embracing an Anti-Christ position. We are rejecting what was accomplished through Christ on our behalf. Our religion proudly proclaims the death of Christ on the cross, but we routinely deny the resurrection. Oh, don’t get me wrong; we pay it lip-service, but when it comes to what we teach and preach every week; we don’t believe a word of it.
We are infatuated, enthralled, enchanted, enamored, and hopelessly in love with Old Testament thinking. At the risk of sounding offensive or off color, I want to define exactly what the spirit behind modern day Christianity’s obsession with the Old Covenant is allabout. This generation detests intimacy and prefers to do things manually. They actually enjoy “beating the rock” if you will. It’s SO MUCH EASIER than
having to actually have relationship and involve another person. The “manual” way gives us all the control we crave, and make no mistake about it; our infatuation and attraction towards Old Testament principles, coupled with our complete disregard for the intimacy required in the New Testament relationship, is without question, a perfect picture of spiritual masturbation. It’s a way to avoid the intimacy of lovemaking and become one with ourselves.
If that offends you, let it, because this is the state of Christianity. Our religion is afraid to commit to the New Covenant completely because it knows the moment it does, people will be set free and they won’t continue to serve the system. Eventually everyone gets tired of the sticks and stones game and they want something everlasting. As long as we continue to vacillate between law and grace we will never experience the spring of living water from within that Christ talked about to the woman at the well. Our generation spends Sunday after Sunday beating the rock, in an effort to get another sip of something that was promised to us fully and naturally through Christ. Christ's words to the woman at the well are just as perplexing to us today as they were to the woman he was speaking too. We haven't found this water because we refuse to put our staffs down and speak to the rock!

Darin Hufford

YOUR IDENTITY HAS BEEN STOLEN....IT'S TIME TO TAKE IT BACK!!!!!

2010-12-04T08:08:00.000-04:00

This morning I was pondering on my identity in Christ and a clear thought came to my mind. The thought was that of an "Identity Thief." There is so much identity theft going on today, all over. People are being robbed of their identity and the thief is taking full advantage of what belongs to others. There has been an identity thief on the loose for over two thousand years, and believers walk in ignorance because their identity has been stolen and hidden by a very real enemy and thief.....Satan.   What better way to defeat the believer than to keep him from knowing who he/she is. Keep them from knowing what is theirs, thus keep them struggling through life's circumstances with their focus taken away from the real source of life.

Our identity was stolen way back in the garden. Man already knew the intimacy they had with the Father. They already knew all their needs were met. They knew they were loved, and they never even knew any such thing as sickness and disease. But then came the thief to lie and deceive. He has kept the church from knowing who she is for over two thousand years. How sad is that? But God, through this revolutional "Grace" message, is waking the church up to her true identity.   He is giving the church a revelation of the mystery of "Christ in us."   Most see this lightly, thinking, "Yes, I know Christ lives in me." But church, it goes so much deeper than that. The mystery is not just that Christ lives in you, but He is your very substance! We DIED on that cross with Him. It is NO LONGER WE who live, but He lives in and through us AS US. This is an entirely new paradigm shift in our thinking. A whole new concept! It is NO LONGER I, but now it is CHRIST LIVING IN ME....AS ME! (Gal. 2:20)
It is an awakening to a Christ in me as me consciousness. We are the vessels, the container of the true substance. The great mystery is Christ not only lives in us....HE IS US! We are "ONE" in union with Him. (John 17:21) Just as Jesus was "ONE" with the Father, so are we now "ONE" with Him and the Father. "As He is, SO ARE WE in this world. (1 John 4:17)This is an amazing and mind-boggling truth......let those who have ears to hear, hear!    Is it any wonder we can say with all confidence that "Greater is He who is IN ME than he who is in the world." (1 John 4:4)   Or that we can assuredly know that "We are more than conquerors through Christ." (Rom. 8:27)
To know that we have power to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over ALL the power of the enemy, so that nothing can harm us, is to know your true identity. (Luke 10:19)
We have EVERYTHING that pertains to life and godliness! (2 Peter 1:3)
By His stripes we ARE healed! (1 Peter 2:24)
The FULLNESS of the Godhead lives in us. (Col. 2:9...If the fullness is in Jesus, then the fullness is in us, for Christ is in us.)
ALL of heaven is at our disposal, yet so many believers walk in defeat because they have had their identity stolen, and the churches are so weak today in teaching the Body who they are in Christ. This reality is being restored to the Body of Christ, and as believers begin to grow in who they are in Christ and who He is in us....having knowledge of their identity restored back to them, we will begin to see a much stronger and victorious Church.

Satan is an identity thief. He comes to steal, kill and destroy....and he does this by stealing our identity....keeping us from knowing who we truly are in Christ. Well, the GOOD NEWS IS, we ARE the head and NOT the tail.   The enemy is under our feet. It's high time that we started walking out that reality, despite the circumstances and situations of life!
Live out WHO YOU ARE, not who you think or feel you are!   You ARE Jesus Christ in this world. You ARE His hands and His feet. ALL that He possesses is also yours. His inheritance is your inheritance. Walk in the richness of who you are in Him.

THE PRODICAL....AND THE UNCONDITIONAL LOVE OF THE FATHER (A Skit)

2010-10-18T16:13:00.000-03:00

A POOR MAN'S REVELATION ......By Darin Hufford

2010-10-01T03:01:00.001-03:00

I think one of the biggest things I’ve found myself trying to strangle out of my spirit is that dreadful, us-verses-them mentality that seems to creep to the surface of my heart when I’m in the midst of another frustrating conversation with someone who clearly hasn’t begun the “grace walk.” I’ve got a lot of Christian friends who are still in bondage to religious thinking and they all think I’m off my rocker because of the things I write about. For the most part I try not to get into any meaningful “God conversations” with these people because it’s like banging my head against a brick wall. Every now and then I’ll think I saw a twinkle of something flickering in one of their eyes like they may be about to get this, and I’ll jump up on their lap and start explaining the grace message at a hundred miles an hour. Before long I realize that, that twinkle I thought I saw, wasn’t a twinkle at all. It was just the lighting in the room coupled with wishful thinking on my part. I usually end up walking away feeling embarrassed, frustrated, unheard, judged, hopeless, and misunderstood.

One of these people flat out told me he thought I was arrogant and that I acted like I had come to a “more significant revelation of God than he had.” He insinuated that I was boasting in what I had received from God and was patronizing him because he didn’t see the things I saw. He thought I was purposefully trying to point out his lack of revelation and compare it to my abundance. Truthfully, that was the furthest thing from my mind. I wanted this guy to get this and I did everything I could to help him understand it, but in the process of doing so, it became increasingly obvious that his eyes were not going to open to this and in that process he became understandably insecure.

I remember leaving that confrontation many years ago feeling like I shouldn’t be comparing my revelation to his in any way, and the very fact that I could see a difference at all was proof that I had crossed some invisible line of “spiritual correctness.” I remember trying to convince myself in some kind of politically correct sort of way that in the future I shouldn’t acknowledge anyone’s lack of revelation as a “lack of revelation.” If I were truly spiritual I would be as blind as a bat to things like that. It brought me back to the whole politically correct racism conversation where somehow we’re not supposed to notice that Asian people are smart or Irish people have red hair.

There is clearly a powerful move of God that is taking place across the world where our understanding of who He really is, is being expanded in ways we’ve only dreamed about. This current revelation of God so life-changing and significant that I can tell who “gets it” and who doesn’t from a helicopter hovering two miles above the earth. I’ve come to the conclusion that, like it or not, there is an obvious difference between people who have received this and people who are blind to it. I will no longer beat myself up for being able to detect this difference. This isn’t to say that I think I am more spiritual than people who don’t get this message, but I will say that I’m more free than I was before I opened my eyes to thi

Having said all of this, I think it raises a significant question that must be answered. Why do some people get this immediately and others can’t see it to save their lives? What does it take to “get this” revelation? Is this a matter of God giving it to each of us or did our eyes open because of something we did?

I understand that it’s become very popular for people to say things like, “God just hasn’t revealed this to them right now,” or “They just haven’t come to this in their journey yet.” I’m not dismissing the idea that there might be a timing issue connected to this, but I think my biggest question is whether or not the “timing” has to do with “God’s timing” or ours. Is this something that God opens our eyes to, or is it something that WE open our eyes to? THAT is precisely where I want to park for a moment.

I believe that most modern day Christians would say without hesitation that this understanding we possess concerning the heart of God is something that only God Himself can open people's eyes to. The problem with believing this way is that many people end up with that overly spiritual glassy-eyed look on their faces, bumping and tripping over things right in front of them because they’re trying to focus their eyes on the unseen realm. The “revelation from God” mentality sometimes causes people to start looking for signs on cereal boxes and produce stickers in a desperate attempt to hear from an inaudible God so they can get the divine password their friends have gotten, and be in the club. I’m not denying that God gives us revelation, but I think He does that in the course of life. When we set out to specifically GET revelation from God in the spiritual realm I think we often go spiritually overboard and do some pretty whacky stuff in the process.

Let’s face it; it’s hip to get something straight up from God Himself. When you actually get the thing that you claim you got from God, it feels TOTALLY cool because you’re the one who got it. For one thing, it appears to everyone including yourself that He’s not mad at you. You feel good about yourself, confident and strong. Claiming divine revelation rocks the house when you’re the one who received it. When you’re not that person however, it sucks big time. You walk around feeling as insecure as you did in junior high, wondering if you said or did the right thing, worrying you might be in trouble with God, or if you just missed Him altogether.

It’s not surprising that when we start talking about a new revelation and understanding of God, some people get defensive and close down. I think the reason why most people who don’t “get this” are intimidated and insecure when it’s presented to them is because they don’t think they have what it takes to get to the “spiritual level” they think they need to get to in order to receive something like this from God. I think that this “get it from God” way of thinking is the primary problem.

Most people have tried to be that deep supernatural person they’ve dreamed about, but for some reason the heavens didn’t open up to them like they seemed to for the traveling evangelist or the famous author who gave them the “three steps to reaching God.” They can’t even imagine what kind of “pressing into God” it would take to get what we have, so they just give up. The climb is just too intimidating. The fact that they don’t understand it NOW is proof to them that God has rejected them and has hidden this away on the grounds of their own spiritual incompetence. When they see that someone clearly has something they don’t have, they automatically assume it’s because they didn’t jump through the same spiritual hoops as that person did.

I think the majority of Protestant Christians have been taught specific steps they must take in the spiritual realm in order to obtain revelation from God. They’ve been drilled with a lifetime of three-point sermons that outline step by step what supernatural calisthenics they must perform in order to hear and know His heart. In addition to this, they’ve also been given a lengthy list of things they must NEVER do, and another list of personal commitments they must make and master before God will open their eyes and ears to revelation of Him. Some have been taught that real revelation requires the pulling out of the supernatural “big dogs” like fasting, praying in tongues, a Greek and Hebrew dictionary and an olympic sized swimming pool of anointing oil. Amazingly, even after all that, I have found that people who diligently subscribe to all these religious practices are the least likely to get this message. Though these practices have their place in the Christian life, they are not the avenue through which this particular revelation comes.

So what does it take to get this message?

When a person isn’t getting this, it’s not because they haven’t spent enough time in the Bible. It’s not because they haven’t prayed or fasted enough, and it’s not because they harbor some secret unconfessed sin in their life. In fact, it has nothing to do with any of these things. The revelation of the grace and love of God is plain as day to some and yet completely confounding to others. God actually made it this way and He takes great pleasure in it being this way. The deciding factor which determines whose eyes pop open and whose eyes don’t is NOT based on spirituality; it’s based on HONESTY.

I learned almost ten years ago when I first started preaching this message that if I could get people to a point of absolute honesty with themselves, they’d get it. Almost every sermon I preached back in the beginning, started out with about twenty minutes of me trying everything in my power to prep the people so they would willingly put their guard down and JUST BE HONEST for once in their lives. I knew then, that if someone were willing to let go of all their religious obligations and be completely sincere with themselves about what was working and what wasn’t, they would receive this.

I call this revelation, “A Poor Man’s Revelation.” I love it. I love the fact that ANYONE can get this. The playing field has been leveled. You don’t have to be a Greek or Hebrew Scholar. You don’t have to be an eloquent “prayer warrior” or a super spiritual Guru. It doesn’t take any special gifting, commitments, or theological training. All it takes is good old-fashioned honesty with yourself. I believe that this fact is what separates the “getters” from the “non-getters.”

It absolutely rocks my world to see how rarely the “spiritually wise” people in the church get this. All their years of study and dedication to the system mean nothing because they refuse to tell the truth to their own heart. On the same note, it’s a total gas to see the number of folks who would be considered spiritual failures by today’s religious standards because of their fumbling prayers, their lack of bible knowledge and their shoddy attendance record, yet they get this message with almost no effort. It’s simple for them because they’ve got nothing to lose by being honest.

I believe that this is the primary difference and reason why those who are in positions of spiritual authority in the church are usually the least likely to get this revelation. They don’t because they won’t. They won’t because it’s offensively simple. Getting it would mean they’d have to admit that all their knowledge and accomplishments don’t mean jack. They’ve spent a lifetime climbing the religious-social ladder, memorizing, supporting and proclaiming church doctrines. They’ve put their belief in a system rather than in an actual person. Many times their entire identity is wrapped up in that system. It’s wrapped up in “being right.” I have found that most Christian leaders will stand there and lie till their dying day rather than come clean about what’s really in their heart. They’ve become so programmed to be dedicated and so dedicated to the program that being honest isn’t even an option anymore. When you spend a lifetime building a kingdom on the foundation of religion, the last thing you will ever do is be honest and risk losing everything in a moment.

I think that in many ways, the Christian “religion” has effectively disqualified thousands of people from simple sincerity. People have been trained to not trust themselves. Over the years I have found that a staggering number of people have been evicted from their own hearts. They’ve been taught to despise themselves so much that many are afraid to even take a peek into themselves to find out what they really think.

Modern day churches have basically evicted people from their own hearts and have taught them to follow a script instead. Surviving in Christianity today is about memorizing the answers and reading the lines. Very little is authentic anymore.

It always amazes me when I am confronted with the one or two people in the crowd who don’t get the message when I preach somewhere. Every one of their comebacks when they debate with me has a scripted sound to it. They literally sound like they’re reading a screenplay that was written by a pastor. I can’t get a personal opinion out of them to save their life. I think people have learned to trust the script over what’s actually on their heart. The religious script is a safety blanket for thousands of people today, and it’s astonishing to watch how quickly a person will go from speaking authentically from their heart to running back to the script the moment they feel intimidated or uncomfortable.

I no longer suggest to people that they should pray to God and ask Him to give this revelation to them. I simply tell people who can’t see this, that they’re not being honest with themselves. They’re believing in a script that they’ve read for years and they’ve never stopped to ask themselves whether it’s working or not. Even though they know damn well it’s NOT working, they will act as if it is, because their social standing and reputation is what really matters to them. I think for many people, getting this message is about coming to the end of their rope. It’s about finally getting to the point where they’ve got nothing more to lose by just flat out being honest. I’ve never believed that this revelation is a deep spiritual one. In fact, that’s what I love so much about it. It’s obvious to little children and impossible for the wise and learned.

GOD'S TRUE HIERARCHY .....By Rich Novek

2010-09-02T10:43:00.000-03:00

Take a Pyramid turn it upside down, the Pastor being the Servant of all, the least of the least! Remember Jesus words, if you want to be great in HIS KINGDOM you have to be THE LEAST....... I am among you as ONE WHO SERVES!

The heart of the... Pastor should be at the tip of the upside down pyramid, which is at the very bottom!

The deacons and elders should be occupying the the next least place, there to assist the Pastor for the EQUIPPING OF THE SAINTS FOR THE WORK OF THE MINISTRY! What does this equipping consist of? Is it formal education, elite roles and positions, programs on how to, and sermons on financial planning and behavior modification? NO! It's taking on the role of being the ABSOLUTE NEGATIVE!

Paul is a symbol of what a Pastor should be! Struck down, but not destroyed, ALWAYS, ALWAYS, AND IN ALL WAYS bearing in our bodies the DEATH OF THE LORD JESUS<> SO THAT HIS LIFE might be made manifest, to who? THE SAINTS, so they also know the bearing in their bodies, so they can see LIFE come from Death! It's beiing the CHIEF LAMB to the slaughter, the ONE WHO LAYS HIS LIFE DOWN FOR THE SHEEP!

It's not some elite position such as a CEO of a major corporation! It's not preaching regurgitated pablum week after week, while 99% of the sheep are neglected, starving, and eventually thrown to the wolves, outside of the protection of the sheep fold! It's a life of brokenness, isolation, and misunderstanding! Becoming the ABSOLUTE NEGATIVE....... SO THAT He might be the ONLY One who is manifested, it's exchanging and willingly doing so, a LIFE OF KNOWN DEATH, so that temporal death is manifested ONCE FOR ALL AS ETERNAL LIFE!

What is the WORK OF THE MINISTRY? It's knowing HE IS THE ONLY WORKER who can perform the work..... and apart from Him we can DO NOTHING!

Finally, the congregation is at the top of this upside down pyramid! They are cared for, loved without condition, and without favoritism! Denominations and division are things of the past to them, and everyone is together in one place having all things in common, and there is NO LACK! That upside down pyramid starts out as a point, and it has no end to it, because God Himself grows it to infinity, to "the ends of the earth!" And everyone is aware of the fact, that neither the one who plants or the one who waters is ANYTHING, ONLY GOD!!!!!!!

"Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work." (Ephesians 4:14-16)

Our churches today have become extensions of corporate America, run by the Pastors and his top executives, also called elders and deacons! They have become the served rather than what Jesus describes as the servant of ALL! What about the people of God? The congregation has become the bruised and beaten minimum wage employees scratching and begging for something more to sustain Life for themselves and their families!

Except a grain of wheat FALLS (It's ALWAYS good to fall) to the ground and dies, it lives only to and for itself! It has no other choice!

Gracebook is a company of like hearted men and women who have decided minimum wage is not enough, and have by faith chosen the road less traveled in order to find the PEARL OF GREAT PRICE! I for one, am proud to be among the lowly, and the base, and the broken! The things that are not, SO THAT like Paul, our message has a TRUE impact on society today!

"When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to KNOW NOTHING (so much for the god of education) while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a DEMONSTRATION OF THE SPIRIT'S POWER, SO THAT... YOUR FAITH MIGHT NOT REST ON MEN'S WISDOM, BUT ON GOD'S POWER. (I Corinthians 2:1-5)

“Gracebook” Church is that demonstration manifested RIGHT HERE, and RIGHT NOW for every "whosoever" who wants to SEE AS HE SEES!

Visit Rich's website at:
http://novek7.wordpress.com/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rich-IN-Christ/138375819516204

The heart of the… Pastor should be at the tip of the upside down pyramid, which is at the very bottom!

The Illusion of Separation - Peter Youngren

2010-07-29T13:54:00.000-03:00

The Illusion of Separation - Peter Youngren

THE GLORIOUS MYSTERY: GOD WITHIN US....By Clair Collinger

2010-07-29T13:48:00.000-03:00

Colossians 1:27

Jesus desires to be even closer to us than a brother or a friend. He is not only the God who is above us and the God who has come among us; he is also the God who desires to dwell within us. This is the fact that the apostle Paul described in Colossians 1:27 as “the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” It is the wonder he describes in Galatians 2:20 when he says, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.”

This is the mystery we were made to contain: the very life of Jesus. He means to live out the reality of who he is right here within the reality of who we are. He means to be our lives – the breath in our lungs, the thoughts in our heads, the energy and creativity in our jobs, the love in our hearts. He means to take on the stress and unravel the inner complications so that we can move through our lives just as he did, in gentleness and simplicity and harmony.

We were never intended to be more than containers: temples to contain his glory (1Corinthians 3:16-17), branches to contain the sap of his life (John 15:1-8), vessels to contain the new wine of his Spirit (Romans 9:20-21). We are the glove; he is the hand. We are the cup; he is the coffee. We are the lamp; he is the light.

This is what we were made for. This is the intended purpose of the human person and personality; not to be gods, but to contain God. This is the kind of unity that was present in the garden but that is sadly missing in this world. It is the sheer simplicity of God’s design that was shattered by humanity’s sin. And it is the reason that Jesus came and cared and was tortured and killed and laid in a tomb and raised to life again …… so that he could give us another shot at being what we were intended to be. christasus.com

THE SPOTLESS BRIDE OF CHRIST

2010-07-28T10:19:00.000-03:00

Ephesians 5:27 That he might present it to himself a glorious church, NOT HAVING SPOT OR WRINKLE, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.

I use to hear this Scripture being taught and it was always taught in future tense. I can remember thinking that it is going to be a very long time before Jesus returns because as much as we try, and desire to live a life free of all blemish, it will never happen this side of heaven.

If being spotless and without blemish is the criteria for the return of Christ for His Bride, then both Jesus and we, are in for a very long wait.

The Jewish nation tried for hundreds of years to live a sin-free life and the result was utter failure. To see things from this perspective would leave anyone without hope, but because of Jesus, we are not without hope. He is our Hope and we now live with the constant excitement and expectancy of His return.

Eph 5:25 tells us that Jesus GAVE Himself for His Bride, thus we are NOW totally clean without spot or wrinkle because we are hidden IN HIM (Col 3:3), and IN HIM we are completely righteous (Rom 5:19)

The Greek word for "righteous" is "dikaios", which means to be innocent, faultless, guiltless....to be approved and accepted by God.
Only those who are spotless and without sin can be acceptable in God's eyes, and because of the blood of Jesus, sin is no longer imputed to us (Rom 5:13), but now righteousness is imputed to us (Rom 4:11, 24).

Because of the precious blood of Jesus, we are now accepted in the beloved (Eph 1:6). If we are accepted, then it is because we are ALREADY SPOTLESS IN CHRIST. His Bride is ready and waiting for whenever Father God decides that it is time to consumate this marriage at the marriage supper of the Lamb.

Although we are now spotless, we are also being made spotless through the process of the washing of the Word (Eph 5:26) and the renewing of the mind (Rom 12:2). But even during the process of sanctification, our heavenly Father already sees us as spotless because of the perfect sacrifice of His Son. Father is fully satisfied in what the Son accomplished at Calvary. It is a finished work!

YES I AM.....By Norman Grubb

2010-06-16T00:21:00.000-03:00

(An article introducing Norman’s published book, “Yes, I Am”)

I have to say again and again that this union life is different from a committed, dedicated relationship to Christ in which we still see ourselves as two and thus are occupied in depending upon Him and receiving from Him the immediate supplies for life. Union is different. It is radical because I have stepped right over the line into “Him as me” as well as acknowledging “Him in me.” Yes, He is in me; I am I and He is He. We are two—yet that’s not what I live by. It is union—and in the union He is so much my all, and I nothing, that I live with Him as me! I talk the language of Him being the one thinking, choosing, acting—when it is really I. Enormous, glorious paradox! I thus speak of “replacement”.
Less than that is still short of a union leap, I may be saying “I have all—I in Him and He in me,” but I’m having to keep closing a gap. Here am I, here is He—and he’s doing these things for me: providing power, grace, victory, faith . . . and I receiving them. But this is not the same as you or I experiencing them all as me. No gap there!
This is why I gave this book the title of YES, I AM. It sounds bold and boastful, and is meant to be, because this is the missing truth about ourselves which is restored only in this union reality. We had, as selves, to go through the process of deceived self, then through self dead to sin and Satan, and thus out of self-condemnation into where the central fact now is, He is fully formed in us
(Gal. 4:19). But thereby we discover right self!
The whole purpose of God is that we should be the total persons by whom He can express His total self. So back we come again. Probably when we first experience our union reality it is He whom we are seeing and rejoicing about—He in us, as us. But then the further light dawns. We are real persons and are meant to be, just as a head can be in action only through the body. We rise and shine for our light has come. And how can we now accept and love ourselves as Jesus told us we must? Because we now know that He loves and accepts us to the total degree that He has made us His permanent abode. “The life I now live in the flesh,” Paul confidently said, “I live by the faith-recognition that He has loved me and given Himself for me.” So I then surely can love myself. If I’m good enough for Him, then I’m good enough for myself. This is something really new and fresh when it comes to us. At least it was to me. I am to drop those belittling, downgrading statements about myself. If I am an earthen vessel, it doesn’t mean earthy in a derogatory sense, but “human”; and Jesus was human, and God was manifested in that humanity.
So I am no longer a wretched man, but a whole (and holy) man. I am to be myself! Unafraid. Yes, I am, and like Paul, I can do all things in Christ, as Christ. I am well able (like Caleb). I’m full of power and of judgment and of might (like Micah). I am my Beloved’s and His desire is toward me (as His spouse) (Song of Solomon 7:10).
Once the Saviour knew at His baptism that the moment of His commissioning had come as the Christ of God, He never once hesitated in saying, “I am …”, “I am …”, “I am …”, and they crucified Him for it. And I must not hesitate to be my “I am.” If I am now an equipped, anointed, indwelt son of God, I say so.
Yes, I am.

OUR UNION WITH CHRIST - Part One

2010-06-15T23:05:00.000-03:00

As believers, it is easy for us to say we understand that God now lives in us by His Spirit, and that we are now "ONE" with Him, but the reality of this truth seems to escape many of us in experience.   What took place at the cross was a mind-boggling event that has set us free in every area of life, but most Christians don't see it, nor have a revelation of this amazing truth. Most Christians still view themselves as me and God working together.....but that is wrong theology. It is not we and God. It is God working in us. ( Philippians 2:13)
The Bible talks alot about us being vessels.(Rom 9:22-23; 2 Cor 4:7; 2 Tim 2:20; Rev 2:27) Vessels are "instruments" to be used....they are the object that holds the substance. That is what we are. Man was made from the dust of the ground, formed by the Master Potter. In His divine plan, long before the foundations of the world.....in eternity past, God had a plan for these vessels of clay that He had created and designed. These vessels of which we are, were created to hold something.   How amazing is this God of love....that even before the beginning of time, He saw each and every vessel that would be formed from that one original design...ADAM.   And He had a plan and a purpose for each one. Jer 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." (NIV)

We can never stop learning, but learning and receiving revelation are two different things. May our hearts have a longing for the deeper things of God. May we pray as Paul prayed, ...that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give us the Spirit of WISDOM AND REVELATION, so that we may know him better. And that the eyes of our heart may be enlightened in order that we may KNOW the hope to which he has called us, the riches of his glorious INHERITANCE in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. (Eph 1:17-18)

There are mysteries and treasures to discover in the Word of God. It comes through intimacy with Father God.   The greatest mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages was first revealed to the apostle Paul. I believe the Lord showed it to him during his three years in Arabia. It became a burning passion within him. Everything else was counted as dung compared to knowing Christ and the fullness of this mystery.   Paul referred to this mystery as a treasure. ("But we have this treasure in earthen vessels..." 2 Cor 4:17).

Paul told the colossians that this mystery that had been hidden throughout the ages and generations was now being revealed to the Saints of God. (Col 1:26)   And the mystery that has been hidden for so long, even from the heavenly hosts, was "CHRIST IN US THE HOPE OF GLORY!" This is a wonderful, glorious truth for those who can see it!   Christ in us.....His substance in our vessels of clay......His substance being poured out of our earthen vessels. Wow!   He couldn't do it without us. God needed a Body, a container in which to dwell in order to take back what the enemy had taken. Man, who had dominion in the garden and lost it in the garden, was now given back that same dominion. The only problem is, we have been walking without it for so long, that we need to have our minds and hearts renewed to the fact that it is now back in it's proper possession. Dominion was originally given to man and now belongs to man again! I could get off on a rabbit trail here, but my focus today is the Christ-Man Union.   Christ and man have now become ONE. No longer two, but one. If you take a glass of hot water (US) and a cup of salt (JESUS) and mix it together, the two become ONE and it is forever impossible to separate them again. They become so blended together that you can no longer even tell them apart. When we walk in the newness of our identity and dominion, the enemy cannot tell us from Jesus! That is how it is with us when we accept the truth of what Jesus did at the cross.......the realization of the union is what gives us that truly born-again experience, knowing that we are now children of God. "To as many as received Him, (believed the truth about the finished work of the cross...to totally trust in and rely on that fact) to them He gave the right to become the children of God." (John1:12)

IDENTITY.....WHO ARE WE?

2010-05-15T17:32:00.000-03:00

Before moving on to anything else, I just wanted to talk a little bit about "Identity." When we are asked to share some identification for any reason, the first thing that most of us would do is to either pull out our Driver's License, or if we are in another country, pull out our passports. These items reveal who we are...as far as our name, address, date of birth and so on....but the one thing these documents do not reveal is our character. That can only be realized through relationship....getting to know someone on a personal level.

Today, there is so much identity theft going on. For those who have experienced this kind of situation, it is one that is very disturbing. To have someone using your ID is very discomforting. And a real hassel trying to get everything straightened out.

A few years ago, I saw a program on TV of a young lady who had no identification. I think she had been adopted, and although I can't recall all the details, this young lady didn't even have a birth certificate and was not able to receive one because when she was born, her biological mother had never registered her birth. As a result, she wasn't even able to receive a social insurance card which would enable her to work. According to the system, it was like she had never been born. She had no idea who her biological parents were, whether or not she had other sibblings, and she had no idea of her exact year of birth. Really a strange and sad situation to be in. At the time of the program, she was in the process of trying to receive a social insurance card so that she would be able to get a job. Here was a girl without any sense of real identity.....who she really was or where she came from.
Many of us, in the Body of Christ, experience these same things. We do not really know who we are. We are like orphans trying to find our place and purpose in this life.

Your Identity Defines Your Purpose In Life. As important as our identity is in regard to finances and possessions, there is an even more important identity based on who and what we are –rather than what we physically own. Here's an example. When a man is asked to describe himself, he will typically respond by saying what he does for his work; he's an engineer, or carpenter, or auto mechanic, etc. It's the first thing he talks about when he's around other men. On the other hand, a woman identifies herself by her relationships with her family and others; she's a mom, a daughter, a wife, a friend ... And that's usually a part of what she talks about with other women.

These intangible identities can be lost. It happens when the children leave home and that mom, in one sense, is no longer a mom, nurturing and raising her children –or- when her husband passes away and she's not a wife anymore. After a man is laid-off or retires, he's no longer recognized as being the engineer, or carpenter, or auto mechanic, or whatever... These identities become the very purpose of our lives. The Core of who we were, and their loss, many times can translate into having no reason to continue living.

As people born on this planet, we have two identities.....our physical identity and our spiritual identity. Both are very real and very necessary to have on this planet.

As we look to the spiritual side of our identity, there is one key piece of factual information that we need to have established within our hearts and minds. When Christ is invited into a person's heart, just like a caterpillar in a cacoon, a metamorphosis begins to take place....that caterpillar is being changed, just as you and I are being changed. When one day, all of a sudden, that caterpillar realizes that it is no longer a creature that crawls, but has now become a beautiful butterfly that flys with such grace and beauty. The caterpillar has become a "brand new" creation. It is a new being with a new identity. That old being is gone and so is its identity. The caterpillar has become a "brand new" creation. If one were to ever try to find that old caterpillar that existed before, it is now impossible to do. It no longer exists. It's life is over...gone forever!

This is this very thing that happens to us as believers.
2 Corinthians 5:17-21 (New Living Translation)
This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin,[a] so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

New Creations......what has really changed? I didn't feel any different, so what actually happened to change my identity?

Paul tells us in Corinthians that the "OLD LIFE" is gone. What does that mean? It means that the person who stood condemned under the law has now become dead to sin. God no longer counts our sins against us, because Jesus took the punishment that was due to us, upon Himself. Every sin known to mankind, past-present and future, were nailed to the cross with Jesus. The requirement that had to be met in the law was now met and made complete in Christ Jesus. In reality, Jesus "BECAME" sin for us. (2 Cor 5:21)

The caterpillar had no part in the process of change...it just rested in the cacoon while it's creator did the work of change. Likewise, we have no part in our change, but just to rest in Jesus. He is the one who does all the work...He will complete the process. (Philippians 1:6)

The very moment that we invite Jesus into our hearts, accepting and acknowledging the finished work of the cross, at that very moment is when we break out of our cacoon. At that moment, NO SIN is ever counted against us again. Jesus Christ PAID IN FULL the price for redemption...for our freedom. The new has come....this is describing a "brand new person'....one who is no longer under the law, and one who is now in good standing with God....made righteous IN HIM. It was at that moment when God put His own Son's righteousness on us. It was at that moment we were given brand new identities. We are now "the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus."

The old person, with it's old identity is completely and absolutely gone. Even though this complete change is an instanteous one, it takes time for the believer in Christ to learn about it and to begin living in this new identity. Our old identity was very dependent on how our attitudes and our actions measured up to God's standard of good and bad....but, our new identity is not based on "US." Our new identity is fully and completely based only "ON HIM" through His grace and acceptance because of what HE (JESUS) HAS DONE (Eph 2:8-9), and no longer on anything we could ever possibly do. Our old identity is dead, but our new identity IN HIM IS ETERNAL!

WHAT I SEE MISSING IN THE CHURCH - PART TWO (It is finished)

2010-05-13T09:58:00.000-03:00

It is so important to have this truth (IT IS FINISHED) established in our Spirits before moving on. We have continued so long living in the circumstance, and so few of us have actually had our minds renewed to the truth of God's word. We can quote Scripture, but how much of it has really taken root in our hearts to the point where we don't just quote it, but we LIVE IT! It becomes a natural way of life....not having to think about it....just doing it.

When you are trained on a new job, it may take time for you to learn all the ropes, but once you do, then you just flow in the routine of that job. Most times you don't have to think about what needs to be done because you already know. It has become such a part of you that you just do the job without even thinking about the process anymore. It's like it becomes a mechanical thing that you just do....becoming a part of who you are. Yes, there are times when you may have to stop and think, or receive some wise counsel, but on the most part, you just do what has become natural for you to do. So it is in the things of God.

When we understand what these words, "It is Finished" actually mean, then we will flow naturally in who we are and what the natural course of our life is. But to flow naturally, we must first be trained. Learn the ropes.....read the manuel, believing what it actually says, and knowing that when we follow the directions and teachings given, then it WILL WORK in our lives and become so natural for us in the everyday flow of who we are. It takes learning, practicing, and simply just doing, to see results. All of this begins with a renewing of the mind. (Romans 12:1-2)

What do you think this term, "It is Finished" means? We know what happened in the garden, and we know it's results.....sin fell on the entire human race. How could we ever free ourselves of this dilema? We cannot live sinless lives. If Adam and Eve fell, who were created perfectly without sin, what chance did we have being born INTO sin. It is the core of our nature even from birth. Man could never take care of the sin issue....even in trying to obey the law. Do you know anyone who has ever been able to keep the ten commandments?   I don't. But under the law, there were around 613 laws that were required of the Jewish people. I couldn't even remember them, let alone try to keep them. But Jesus did. He fulfilled the entire requirement of the law and in His last dying breath said, "IT IS FINISHED!"

This term, "finished" is used many times in Scripture, but when used from the position of Jesus on the cross, it's meaning is totally different.   Where most may refer to something being done or completed....and this is true, but when it is used here, the definition is in accounting terms......like a stamp on a contract that says, PAID IN FULL!

The old contract of "LAW" under Moses has been paid in full! The stamp or seal on that contract to show it's completion is the Blood of Jesus!   We are now entering a much better covenant or contract, based on better promises. (Heb.8:6)--(But that is for another blog....hahaha!)

When I first started to see this wonderful truth, I began a spiritual detox of everything I had learned in the past. It was like I was a brand new babe starting all over in the things of the Lord. Although I was sad because of all the false information that I had lived in for so long, I was also elated that the veil had been removed and I was now seeing through the eyes of Christ. My understanding was opened and the freshness of His love and grace flooded my being.

So, as a babe, I started where babies start.....drinking milk. I read, listened and learned from as many avenues of grace and the finished work that I could find. I was feeding daily, and drinking in such amazing things that I had previously not known, or things that had not taken root in my spirit. There is much we may hear and consent to externally, but to receive "revelation" is a totally different thing. It is "revelation" that takes root as you move in it. It is revelation that will cause real growth and understanding, making you strong in Him, where you can see yourself as He sees you.

So, now that we know it is first necessary to be established in the fact that "IT IS FINISHED," we can now move on to begin the growing process. In my next writing, we will look at the babes in Christ. How do you know if you are still a babe in Christ? A person can be a believer for many, many years and still be a babe in Christ. Stay tuned in for more as we continue in the walk of grace.

WHAT I SEE MISSING IN THE CHURCH - PART ONE

2010-05-12T13:46:00.000-03:00

As I stated in my first blog, "My Nine Month Sabbatical....," I have been unhappy in what we call church, for a very long time. My thought was always, "Is this all there is? There has to be more to the Christian life than this!" For years I knew something was missing, but in all honesty, I couldn't put my finger on it. Oh, we can all find things to complain about and want to change, but what I was feeling went so much deeper than that.
After having taken my nine month sabbatical, and receiving so much download from the Spirit of God through many avenues, I can now clearly see what is missing in the church today.....at least from my perspective. The majority of believers have no idea WHO THEY ARE IN CHRIST! They have no idea about their true identity. Most would say they do, yet what they are actually saying is, I have a head knowledge of who I am. Head knowledge and revelation knowledge are two very different things. The latter comes through the heart by the Spirit of God.....and that can only come through relationship......intimacy with the Holy Spirit. He is our teacher and our guide who will lead us into all truth (John 16:13).

The majority of the church has no idea about the "Finished Work of the Cross," or what the wonderful message of "Grace" really means in their own lives. We have been brought up on a mixture of "law" and "grace," trying to live a victorious, overcoming life, yet never succeeding because it will never happen until you transition from the Old Contract to the New. You CANNOT put new wine in old wineskins or they will burst. You cannot try to live by the "old rules" under a life of "freedom" and expect to see results. It will never happen. You must either be hot or cold...never luke warm, which is living a mixture of law and grace. There is NO LIFE in that kind of existence. To move on from where we are, we must first find out what it means when Christ said on the cross, "It is Finished!"

Leonard Ravenhill referred to these three words, IT IS FINISHED, as "the most important words in all of history. The greatest words ever uttered, by the greatest man who ever lived!" "Could you try and imagine what Jesus was thinking on that road to the cross? I think the earth shook beneath His feet. I say God draped the sun - He would not let anybody see His Son bear the sin. He BECAME sin for us! Remember please, will you? When Jesus utters these three words - It is finished - it is after the three hours of darkness that covered the whole earth. There was a historian in Egypt at the time who wrote this, listen, "In this awful mid-day that has become midnight, either God is suffering or Somebody He loves is suffering." That was a pagan testimony. The whole world shook under the impact. He is not bearing millions or trillions or quadrillions, He is bearing the total sum of human sin. Not only committed sin but depravity as a whole."

And prior to all of that, he had taken on and carried every sickness and disease known and to be known to man....past, present and future! Ponder on that gut-wrenching truth. Think about what some of these diseases are and look like....leprosy, and how it eats away at your flesh; cancer...how it brings about tumors in your body and destroys your cells; diabetes.....liver disease, and the list goes on and on. There are diseases that most of us don't even know about that are so dibilitating beyond our imagination. Can you imagine what He looked like? His outward appearance was beyond recognition.

They spit on Him, punched Him, ripped out His beard, scourged Him and finally crucified Him....the only innocent man who ever lived....how sad, how unfair. We hear these things and we read about them, but have we really stopped to meditate on what He actually endured for our sakes. The magnitude of such love just blows me away!!!!!

Stop for a moment to ponder on the magnitude of these words. Say it aloud several times....IT IS FINISHED.......IT IS FINISHED.....IT IS FINISHED! Even the devil didn't understand the power of these words, until Jesus descended into the depths of hell and took back the keys.....the authority given to man before the fall. (Eph.4:9; Rev.1:18) I'm sure he got the point then, for if he had known and understood prior to the crucifixion what those words meant, he never would have crucified the Lord of Glory (1 Cor.2:8).

In this one statement, "It is Finished," lies all the possibilities of heaven! The heavens HAVE BEEN RENDERED (stop praying for that!). All of heaven is now at our disposal, and we can come BOLDLY to his throne of grace (Heb.4:16), yet so few do come boldly, because so many are still living under the condemnation of the law for which they have been set free. But, until you KNOW IT (revelation), a heart knowledge of this truth....that we are free....It is finished, then we will not walk in the truth of Romans 1:8 "There is therefore now, NO CONDEMNATION to those who are IN CHRIST JESUS...."

We will never be free of feelings of condemnation until we know WHO WE ARE IN HIM! In a series of blogs I will be doing, I am going to attempt to share some of the wonderful truths of what it means to be IN CHRIST JESUS. I hope you keep coming back to read more!

MY NINE MONTH SABBATICAL AND WHERE IT HAS BROUGHT ME

2010-05-11T10:56:00.000-03:00

I have been on the most amazing, yet often painful journey these past nine months....but a necessary journey for me to continue on in my Christian walk. About nine months ago, I made the decision to leave my local assembly. Please understand that, my decision to leave had nothing to do with the pastors or anyone else in that assembly. It was all a part of God's great plan and destiny for my life.

Was I frustrated? Most certainly! I thought that I was dying inside. Could I have blamed people from the church? Absolutely, but ultimately, most times when there is a problem, it usually lies with the individual going through the struggle or situation at the time. And it was only over time that I came to discover these things. God is so faithful!

For many, many years I wore a mask. I haven't been happy in church for so, so long.......we are talking years here. To me, I didn't see much difference between us and the rest of the world. What made us so different, apart from the fact that we asked Jesus into our hearts? Sadly, many of us didn't act any different than the world. My spirit was just so tired from playing all the mind games and wearing the mask to hide my true feelings, for fear of rejection. I just couldn't go on pretending like everything was ok, when it certainly WAS NOT! After years of hiding the real me behind a mask, I just couldn't do it anymore. I had come to the end of myself (which is a good thing), and I realized that if I continue going in the direction that I am going, my heart would become hard and bitter. I could feel it beginning to happen. Finally, I just went to my heavenly Father and told Him that I can't do this anymore. I told Him that I was dying and that I just had to leave. I felt a total release to do so, and I'm sure that many were wondering what in the world was wrong with me that I would take such drastic steps. I'm sure there were those who thought I was out in left field somewhere, but despite all of my frustration at the time, I did recognize my Father's voice and I knew that it was He who was leading me to take that step. In my heart, He gave me the ok....the peace that it was ok to leave.

In the past, leaving would have been something that I would never have agreed for anyone to do.....to leave a local Body of believers and go out to live in the wild....in isolation......yet I was not isolated at all. My Father never left my side. His precious Spirit lived in me to take me each step of the way. Only by pulling out and putting my focus fully and completely on Him was He able to teach me and lead me, showing me the things I needed to see, and helping me learn the things I needed to learn. I had no idea who I was in this great big world. I had no identity that I was able to distinguish, to show me who I really was.

I have always believed in my Christian walk that my heart was wicked and deceitful above all things.....that it could not be trusted. I have heard it so many times in the church....from friends and leaders. I believed it. This was the first false teaching that the Lord corrected in my life, and He did it through a wonderful friend, Jim Robbins. Jim had started a social site called The Good and Noble Heart. I really didn't go looking for this site. I stumbled on to it quite by accident, so I thought, but looking back, I knew that the Holy Spirit was taking my hand and leading me in His footsteps. Jim graciously sent me a book that he had written entitled, "Recover Your Good Heart." A wonderful book that I would recommend to everyone who feels that they can never measure up.
It was a book about living free from religious guilt, and the shame of never feeling good enough. This book started me on the most amazing journey into understanding the Grace of God, and understanding the new contract....the better promises found in the New Covenant. I was being blown away by Holy Spirit as He spoke to my heart through this wonderful book. Thank you so much Jim. I will be eternally grateful!

I learned that you cannot live a victorious life in Christ by living under two covenants, yet that is what the majority of Christians are doing today.......living a mixture of law and grace......choosing the parts of the law they want to keep and what others to let go off. To be truly blessed, the entire Old Covenant must be released from our lives or we will never experience the fullness of what God has for us. It was through Jim that I came to understand the passage of Scripture in Ezekiel 36:26 "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you." He was making me a brand new creature, just like was told to us in 2 Cor. 5:17. I saw it!!! Praise the Lord! You can never receive new life without first receiving a new heart. New life cannot live and flow through the old man....the old nature. It all must become "brand new!" If we don't come to the place where we acknowledge that God has given us new hearts, and actually made us brand new creatures, then we will always live a life of condemnation...living from the old man, under the old law and never being able to meet it's standard. We are not the same people any more. Jesus made us brand new....believe it! Live it! GLORY TO GOD.....HE GAVE ME A NEW HEART AND A NEW AND UPRIGHT SPIRIT! THIS IS WHO I AM NOW.....THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD IN CHRIST JESUS!

This revelation hit me so hard! I became so excited!!!! This was the beginning of my journey into a wonderful new life of grace! I was feasting at the table of the Lord and my appetite was big! I just couldn't get enough! A quote from Jim's book, "Holy Spirit has fused His life with our own and bound the heart of Jesus with ours, in order that His divine power may freely flow from within us." If my heart is bound to His, and if I am now the RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD IN CHRIST, there is NO WAY that my heart can be wicked. By the time I finished reading Jim's book, I had it fully established in my heart that MY HEART WAS GOOD, and it could be trusted, because not only did I have a brand new heart, but the Spirit of the living God lived there. He would never reside in a place of wickedness, for He is holy and pure!

Let me go back just for a moment. When I left the local assembly where I attended, there was another thing in my life that I had always struggled with. All my life I struggled in the area of believing that anyone could love me.....even God. I didn't understand love at all. How would I know it? How could I know God really loved me? I grew up in a home where I never felt wanted or that I ever belonged, but for years, kept all those painful feelings inside. How I needed TO KNOW AND UNDERSTAND THAT GOD LOVED ME! How could a person move on in their Christian walk, with any success, until we understand the love God has for us as individuals? Yes, I knew all the Scriptures that told me He loved me, yet I have never experienced that love. I couldn't understand it at all, so I sent another message to a Facebook friend of mine, a well-known author and travelling speaker whom I have come to love and admire so much, Steve McVey.

I shared with Steve that I had left the local assembly and how I struggled in understanding God's love for me. Steve, also, graciously sent me a book entitled, "A Divine Invitation." It was a book about experiencing the romance of God's amazing love. As I read through the book, I couldn't put it down, and then I reached chapter six entitled, "The Dance of Grace." As I began reading that chapter, I just became undone. I cried through the entire chapter. God so revealed His overwhelming love to me and it has become engraved forever in my Good and Noble Heart! LOL

In this dynamic chapter, I learned that the passion of Jesus was so great that He thought it better to die for His Bride....for Me, than to continue living without me! I learned that "Authentic Christianity is a love story between two people.....me and Jesus." I came to realize that every fibre of His being resonated toward me, and that His heart was for me, and that HE MUST HAVE ME!

I always thought that it should be the passion of our hearts to want to spend eternity with Jesus, but as I read on, I discovered that it is the overwhelming passion of His heart to want to spend eternity with me. WOW! I know that these may seem like mere words to some, but for me, these words jumped off the page! He was speaking directly to my heart....to the deepest part of my spirit, and I was finally getting it, and finally taking hold of it. Now it was mine, and there is not a person on this planet that could ever convince me that God does not love me. I KNOW HE LOVES ME, WITH AN EVERLASTING LOVE! Thank you Steve, for allowing the Lord to use you in revealing Himself to me in such an amazing way. Thank you for sending me that book. I will be eternally grateful!

After all these wonderful truths were taking place in my heart, I still knew that the desire to return to the local assembly was not there. I was lonely and hurting because I knew there were those who were not understanding where I was at in my walk, and that included my darling husband. That was the most difficult decision of all. I needed him to see what I was seeing, because I knew that a lot of it would be new to him as well. Only God could reach him, as He had reached me.

So, where was I to receive fellowship from the Body of Christ? God is so faithful! There is none like Him. Even before I left the local assembly, the Lord had a friendship developing between me and a very special person, who was not even a member of the same assembly. I had known this person for years, but we never really connected before. Over time, as we shared, our friendship grew. I came to know this person's heart and I came to love her so much. I was so thankful for the friendship that the Lord had allowed to develop between us. Thank you Brenda, for being there, and for being my friend! You are an awesome woman of God in whom I have been grately inspired. Your friendship means the world to me! Love you sis!

I wondered where else I could connect with a group of people who were on the same page as I was? ----THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF "FACEBOOK!" What an amazing media for meeting and bonding with people from all over the world. My first connections came through Jim Robbin's site, The Good and Noble Heart. Then, somehow, and I can't even remember how, the Lord led me to a church service online. The pastor was Frank Friedman......a wonderful grace preacher, who is the most relaxed and easy-going pastor I have ever seen. I love listening to Frank. Anyway, on Frank's church site, there is a section below the video where those tuning in can chat. I typed in my name to introduce myself. Through that I met two beautiful sisters.....Libby Delangie and Jean Rittenburg, who I found out were Frank's sisters. I found out they were on Facebook, befriended them and that was the beginning of my wonderful "GRACEBOOK FAMILY!" I started to get friend requests from all over the world from Christians who were strong in the message of grace and the finished work of the cross. I went from having about 50 friends to now having around 540....and climbing. I never saw a community like this in all my life, nor would ever have even imagined it. This was simply amazing......something only God could do....bringing together His family from all over the world! Wow!

We had church happening right on Facebook. Everyone was sharing nuggets from books, articles and videos they had received from, and we were all learning and growing together. I never felt so blessed in all my life. God opened up times of ministry.....lots of praying for one another, and even a weekly telephone conference call with the most amazing women of grace anywhere on this planet. I feel like I have known some of these people for years! I want to thank each and every one of my facebook friends who have imparted so much into my life. I love you all!

I stumbled on to another wonderful site, "citychurchinternational.com with pastor Rob Rufus, and also, Paul White Ministries....two amazing ministers of grace. These men, along with Jim Robbins and Steve McVey have helped greatly in changing the course of my life. It was through these men that I began to understand my identity. I have been a Christian for over 30 years, yet have never had a firm, established foundation on my identity, and I would venture to say, that there are multitudes out there just like me. I had no understanding of my new nature (I thought I had two natures....this is not true!). I had no idea of who I was in Christ, and these men, along with my many wonderful family on facebook, have been so instrumental in helping me grow and become established and grounded.

I have since met so many pastors and ministers of the gospel here on facebook, who have become dear to my heart, and whom I love listening to, reading and learning from......Andre Oostuizen of New Paradigm Thinkers, a ministry that really challenges conventional thinking.....I love it. Andre Van Der Merwe and Rudy Rodriguez....how I enjoy your notes and statuses. Francois Du Toit, who is presently writing a new translation of the Bible entitled, The Mirror Translation.....It is amazing! My good friend, Walking Church (Alvin).....whom I can share my heart with and always has a listening ear, and Rich Novek.....Your notes have been such an amazing encouragement and blessing to me, Simon Yap Wei Toong and Joel Brueseke who have shared amazing truth in their notes on 1 John 1:9.....bringing such clarity and understanding, Andrew Farley, author of "The Naked Gospel"....an amazing book that everyone should read, Bertie Brits, who has a wonderful teaching on tithing, revealing the truth that JESUS CHRIST IS THE "TITHE." Sammy Bilyea, another friend who has an online church service via Skype and has shared many encouraging statuses. Curry Blake, who is through his teachings, instilling a confidence in my husband and I in the area of healing. Joseph Prince, whose books, "Unmerited Favor" and "Destined to Reign" have been such a blessing to me. My friend, Joshua Tongol to whom God is going to give the Philippine nation to, and my wonderful friends Merrill and Beverly Thompson who have introduced me to many wonderful men of faith from the past. Malcolm Smith and Paul Anderson-Walsh both who teach wonderful truths that excite my heart. John Sheasby, who I just discovered shares amazing words of truth on grace and our righteousness in Christ. So many wonderful people who have helped me along in my journey....too many to even name them all. You have all been a big impact on my life in this wonderful grace walk......I am so grateful!

Then there is my very special friend, Kat Poon.....my friend from Singapore! I am so glad I met you. Thank you so much for sending me the book, "Walking on Water", by Joshua Lye. I am loving it. You are a dear friend....I love you sis! I have just been so blessed and my life enriched because of my wonderful grace family on facebook.

On the day that the Lord led me to Curry Blake's site, I knew this was the hand of God because I didn't go searching for this man. I didn't even know who he was and I am not even sure how I landed on his website, but I did. Curry Blake has a heart for healing and has actually taken over the John G. Lake Ministry. Curry had some online teachings that I started to listen to, and as I listened, I knew that this man could break through religious barriers and that he would probably be someone my husband would listen to because of his own heart to see people healed. I decided to send my husband the site via email. My husband did begin to listen to them and really loved them. We started to listen to them together. My husband became so excited by what he was hearing, and I was getting so excited that he was finally catching it. He was getting revelation knowledge that we are free from the law, and this wonderful message of grace and the awesome words spoken by Jesus, "It is finished," were finally taking root in his heart. My husband was feeding on Curry's teachings, as was I, and we began to once again have the same heart in the things of the Lord. This was the first step that led to my desire to go back to the local assembly.

In saying all of this, I did go to church this past Sunday, Mother's Day. I loved it! Everyone was so loving, like I had never left. When one of the church leaders got up to share communion, her brief sharing so blessed my heart. She started sharing about the finished work of the cross. Our pastors just returned from a trip to Redding, California, where they attended Bill Johnson's church. They came back so excited about what they had seen and experienced there. The service was a real blessing to me.....not that anything actually stood out, but in my heart I knew that the Lord was saying it was ok for me to go back now, IF I WANTED TO....THE CHOICE WAS MINE TO MAKE. Either way, I was free. I love the pastors there, and I know their heart wants the same as mine. They never once judged me for leaving and have always left the door open for my safe return. My choice is to go back, to be along side my husband and to love and serve God's people. My heart is, Lord, whatever door You open, I will go through.

This is a lengthy note, but I just wanted to share a little bit about my journey over these past nine months and to encourage others that are going through something similar, to just rest in Him and follow His leading. The future holds excitement for me as I enter into a new beginning in my wonderful new identity IN HIM! THANK YOU, JESUS!!!!