Archive for August, 2011


Say Goodbye to Desperate Loneliness

Do not be afraid–you will not be disgraced again; you will not be humiliated.   You will forget your unfaithfulness as a young wife, and your desperate loneliness as a widow.  Your Creator will be like a husband to you–the Lord Almighty is his name.  The holy God of Israel will save you–he is the ruler of all the world.  Isaiah 54:4-5 Good News Translation

          If you consider yourself a religious “outsider”, or one who has no background (or an unhappy background) in religion, we would like to give you some good news.  What you have heard about God being angry with you and wanting to condemn you forever to some fiery place of unending torture–it’s no longer true, if it ever was true (and we don’t believe it ever was).

          Oh yes, you probably have good reason to be afraid, disgraced, humiliated and lonely.  But you see, dear reader, it is not up to you, and it never has been.  The religious “insiders” are quite adamant about man’s free will (they are right, man does have free will and so do you) and they are also quite adamant about consequences for wrong-doing (what they call “sin”, and they are right, there are consequences).  But you probably already know all too well about those consequences–you didn’t become afraid, disgraced, humiliated and lonely because it was in some water that you drank.

          But here is what the “insiders” tend to forget–Father has a will also, and it was His will to give all authority in heaven and on earth to Jesus the Messiah.  You will never guess how Jesus chose to use that authority–He took all of the punishment for all wrong-doing of all people for all  time upon Himself!  As a result of that, God is no longer counting the wrong-doing against you (or anyone else either, for that matter)!  If that seems incredible, click on the above link, and read it for yourself.

          When God concilated the world to Himself through the blood which Jesus gave on the cross, He made possible something even more wonderful (if that is possible) than removing all of your wrong-doing.  It is now Jesus’ will to pursue you like a young man pursues a maiden that he wants to marry.  Thus we come to the wonderful prophecy from Isaiah which began this post.   Do you see, dear reader, that even though you were “unfaithful” once upon a time, Jesus promises that you will “forget” it.  And not only that, but your “desperate loneliness” will be forgotten as well.  It is exactly the loneliness felt by a widow, which is of course the reason Isaiah said so.

          In legal terms, you once belonged to Jesus because He created you.  But He gave you the freedom to use your will, which separated you from Him.  (Most of us will agree that we left His ways and His paths, not the other way around.)  Having now died and raised out from the dead, Jesus is free under God’s law to marry you.  That is to say, He wants to enter into a loving relationship and one-ness that is the reason He created the husband/wife relationship in the first place, as a picture of what He intends for you, dear reader!  It is a simile, and one that is used often in scripture, to depict the loving one-ness of Jesus and those foolish enough to cast their all upon Him–all your fear, all your disgrace, all your humiliation and all your loneliness.  You see, He cares for you.

          You may be saying:  What is my part?  What am I supposed to do?  Here is the simple answer, and it is no more difficult or simple than this:  Believe it!

Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?”   Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”  John 6:28-29 English Standard Version (ESV)

          This amazing passage has a number of marvelous truths within it.  Do you see that even during Jesus’ time, men wanted to DO SOMETHING to be right with God?  But Jesus pointed out it is not DOING but BELIEVING, and even the believing is not of yourselves–it is the work of God.  But if you can cooperate with Father in this work, the promise of a new life is for you.

          Nevertheless, we can confidently say that if you are even an occasional reader of this blog, Father is working to prepare your heart to be wooed by Jesus.  Our advice:  Give in!  Fall in love with Him and forget your unfaithfulness and say “goodbye” to your desperate loneliness.  He will never leave you nor forsake youYou are alone no more

Blessed are You, O Lord.  Our wonderful God, You are the King of Forever!  Pour out Your Spirit upon all mankind as You have promised, and end the terrible emptiness of lives being lived as You never intended.  May Your kingdom come, and with it the marriage of Messiah, the lover of our souls.  For a brief, brief moment did You turn away, but now with great chesed (lovingkindness) will You come and gather us.  Baruch ata!

Pssst. Want To Know A Secret?

As you read over what I have written to you, you’ll be able to see for yourselves into the mystery  (secret)  of Christ.   None of our ancestors understood this. Only in our time has it been made clear by God’s Spirit through his holy apostles and prophets of this new order. The mystery  (secret) is that people who have never heard of God and those who have heard of him all their lives (what I’ve been calling outsiders and insiders) stand on the same ground before God. They get the same offer, same help, same promises in Christ Jesus. The Message is accessible and welcoming to everyone, across the board.

 This is my life work: helping people understand and respond to this Message…When it came to presenting the Message to people who had no background in God’s way, I was the least qualified of any of the available Christians. 

And so here I am, preaching and writing about things that are way over my head, the inexhaustible riches and generosity of Christ. My task is to bring out in the open and make plain what God, who created all this in the first place, has been doing in secret and behind the scenes all along. Through followers of Jesus like yourselves gathered in churches, this extraordinary plan of God is becoming known and talked about even among the angels!

All this is proceeding along lines planned all along by God and then executed in Christ Jesus.   Selected portions of Ephesians 3:4-13 The Message  (Author:  Paul the apostle)

         Go tell everyone you know, dear reader:  the same promises in Christ Jesus and the same help is there for the taking by everyone, and it is God’s plan that ultimately everyone WILL take it!  The irresistable love of Jesus (which was given to Him by Father as a part of Father’s own nature) will conquer everyone, everywhere–this is now and has always been Father’s secret plan since before the creation of the world.  His secret weapon to accomplish this:  your wonderful Lord Jesus, being revealed in spirit and truth in the overcomers.

          What once was a secret that has been concealed from humanity by Father for “eons” or ages, is now out in the open:  in spirit, the nations (meaning, all people everywhere–and we mean ALL PEOPLE–are going to be joint enjoyers and joint partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus.  What “spirit”?  The spirit of the law of life (zoe) in Christ Jesus, of which we wrote earlier.  What “promise”?  That Jesus will, by the power of an indestructible, unending, holy, righteous, and perfect life (zoe) MAKE you, dear reader, just like Him!

          It doesn’t matter one iota whether you are a religious “insider”–meaning your particular religion or sect is (you think) “chosen” to be God’s holy ones or people–or whether you believe the church building will fall down the day you enter it as a religious “outsider”–meaning you think others might be saved, but because of x, y and/or z, (you can fill in the blanks here with the worst sins you have committed) there is just NO WAY you can be right with Father.  If you are in the latter group, do you want to know a “secret”?

***WE INTERRUPT THIS POST WITH AN IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT FROM OUR SPONSOR:  THIS ENTIRE WEBSITE IS DEDICATED TO THOSE OF YOU WHO FEEL YOU ARE RELIGIOUS “OUTSIDERS”.  THANK YOU.***

           The hints have been there, laying out in the open, for literally thousands of years.  But because it was a secret, awaiting the time of Father’s revealing through the appointed messengers sent out by Jesus, no one “got” it, simply stated.  Let’s take a look at some of them (all from the New American Standard Bible):

(YHWH speaking)…but indeed, as I live, all the earth will be filled with the glory of the LORD (YHWH).  Numbers 14:21

All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD, And all the families of the nations will worship before You.  Psalm 22:27

 All nations whom You have made shall come and worship before You, O Lord, And they shall glorify Your name.  Psalm 86:9

 (A)nd He Himself  (Jesus) is the propitiation (or satisfaction) for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.  1 John 2:2

Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy; For all the nations will come and worship before you, for Your righteous acts have been revealed.  Revelation 15:4

           Even now, today, some prefer to try to maintain the secret.  Usually, but not always, they are religious “insiders.”  The reasons for this are no longer important.  What is important, dear reader, is that you have found out that it is no longer secret.  See for yourselves, just as the beginning passage says–“turn” to the Lord, cease your running FROM Him and try running TO Him. 

          We did.  And you can, too.  Jesus is welcoming EVERYONE!  Why wait?  Join the “new order” today.

Blessed are You, O Lord our wonderful God.  You are the King of Forever!  You are so wise, Father–who can be placed beside You, to be compared to You?  You are AWESOME in praise, O Lord, doing wonders everywhere.  Your laughter and joy over everyone who turns to You will one day be completed when all have seen Your righteous acts.  Baruch ata!

The Law of The Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus

Jesus, your lovingkindness is life that’s changing my heart, drawing me near….to you.  Your love is better than life, I know it well.  And I’ll find all that I need in you.  Hillsong United, Your Love, 1997 Copyright

         It is a most unfortunate practice prevalent in almost all English translations and paraphrases of the New Testament that different words in the original Greek text are translated using only one English word.  Probably the most well-known example is “love” which is used in place of three different Greek words.   Such practice renders the texts confusing at best, and misleading at worst.  A lesser known example of such a word is “life.”  The above popular Hillsong song is an illustration of our point.

         Take a look at what has been done with “life”–click on the “LexiConc” tab next to “Primary Results”.  In short, there are at least six different root nouns each translated “life.”  We will consider only a couple of them in this post.

          The first word is “bios“, from which we get our words “biology”, “biosphere”, and “biography”.  It refers to created, natural life that has come to each person through our common ancestor, Adam.  It is finite, or has an ending, and originates in this realm.  There are different levels of “bios”.  Starting with human bios, there is a lower level of animal bios, and below that, plant bios.  In the same way, there is created life higher than human bios, and it is angelic bios or “life”, since angels are also created beings.  (We have for purposes of simplicity combined all forms of angelic life into one level, although we believe there are actually several levels of angelic life.)  The scriptures say that man has been created lower than the angels, for a little while. 

          Now take a look at the ficus tree or ivy in your home.  Let’s say that the ficus knows the words and the tune to the famous Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah.  And let’s say that the ficus wants, with all of its being, to sing them.  The ficus has a problem:  it has no lungs with which to draw in air, so that it can expel the air through its vocal cords (that it also doesn’t have) to form words with its lips (that it also doesn’t have).  You see, in our silly example, that the ficus lacks the capacity to sing–the capacity to sing is not indigenous to its species.  The same is true, to a lesser extent, for your dog, even though it is one level of bios higher than the plant.

            The second word we’ll consider is “zoe.”  It refers to life that is NOT created, that is endless and indestructible–in short, it is divine life.  Zoe is higher than angelic bios, since Zoe has no beginning and no end.  Here is the critical point:  it is not from this realm, but is from the heavenly realm–from your heavenly Father, to be precise.  Thus, it is holy, righteous, and perfect.  In the Bible, it is usually referred to with a number of different adjectives, such as “eternal life”, or “everlasting life”, or “abundant life”.  These adjectives do not describe so much Zoe’s duration as they describe its species!

          Just like the ficus in our examle, your bios, dear reader, is at least two life forms lower than the life form that exists in Father and in His son, Jesus the messiah.  Divine life is not indigenous to our species!  Furthermore, our life form simply does not have the capacity needed to be holy, righteous and perfect.  (We sincerely apologize to all who are struggling mightily to be holy, righteous and perfect–if you arrive there, please let us know!  And we also apologize to anyone who has been told by their church or denomination that they CAN get there, if they would just have faith, or try harder, or whatever, but whoever told you it depends upon your effort was wrong.)  Like the ficus, we may know the “words” and the “tune”, and we may want with all of our heart to be holy, but the capacity is simply not there.

          Jesus did not come, live, die, be resurrected, and leave simply to tell you to try harder to live according to divine Zoe.  He knows it is not indigenous to your species–He CREATED your species!  Instead, He came to IMPART HIS ZOE INTO YOUR BIOS.  What we are talking about here is a change roughly comparable to enabling the poor ficus to sing the Hallelujah Chorus, and to sing it better than anyone has ever heard it sung!   Anyone, anywhere, who wants to, can become a partaker of His divine nature!  Now, let’s look at the Hillsong verses again with a better translation:

Jesus, your lovingkindness is life (zoe) that’s changing my heart, drawing me near….to you.  Your love is better than life (bios), I know it well.  And I’ll find all that I need in you. 

          Hasn’t God commanded us to be holy?  Actually, before the cross it was a command; after the cross it is a promise.  And so we come to the Law of the Spirit of Life (zoe) in Christ Jesus.   Look at these amazing words:

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.  Romans 8:1-2 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

          The author of these words, the apostle Paul, is making the point in the eighth chapter of Romans that the Torah, the comandments given to Moses and Israel at Mount Sanai had a fatal weakness:  it couldn’t do away with sin permanently.  So God sent Jesus as a final offering for sin to accomplish the satisfaction of the law, and at the same time, provided for the imbuement of His own nature into those who believe in Him.  This nature, His own “zoe”, once imparted would inexhorably accomplish the requirement of the Torah within the believer.

For what the Law (of Moses) could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us.  Romans 8:3-4

          The Law of the spirit of life (zoe) in Christ Jesus was not a part of the Torah given to Israel, but a higher law, one that did not originate “through the flesh”.   Do we not say:  two things are certain in life (bios)–death and taxes.  Actually, it would be better to say, death and sin.  The laws of Torah were not able to overcome these certainties, because they (sin and death) were higher laws.  In the same way, the law of the spirit of life (zoe) is such a higher law, but one even higher than sin and death.

          Think of the law of gravity as similar comparison:  you can defeat the law of gravity for a period of time, but eventually you must succumb to its inexhorable effects.  In the same way, the law of the spirit of zoe in Christ Jesus cannot be ultimately overcome; instead, IT OVERCOMES.  Its effects are continuous–and those effects are freedom from sin and death.  Moreover, while it is at work, it is changing your heart, drawing you nearer and nearer to Him, and fulfilling the law of Torah, all of God’s commandments, in your heart!  Do you see, dear reader, why we sing of Him and of His lovingkindness?  There is simply nothing more wonderful than this good news–for all who will trust Him to do it, He will give you His own nature, and that nature will eventually change you into His likeness with an unending divine life!  It doesn’t matter who you are or what you have done–choose life, the divine zoe of Jesus.

Blessed are you, O Lord of Life, and blessed are You, Father, for the wonderful gifts of Life You have ordained for all mankind.  Open the eyes and the hearts of our readers–may they have this Life and have it more abundantly!

 

 

Loving Like Jesus Loves

Do you want more and more of God’s kindness and peace?  Then learn to know him better and better.  For as you know him better, he will give you, through his great power, everything you need for living a truly good life:  he even shares his own glory and his own goodness with us!  And by that same mighty power he has given us all the other rich and wonderful blessings he promised; for instance, the promise to save us from the lust and rottenness all around us, and to give us his own character.

But to obtain these gifts, you need more than faith; you must also work hard to be good, and even that is not enough.  For then, you must learn to know God better and discover what he wants you to do.  Next, learn to put aside your own desires so that you will become patient and godly, gladly letting God have his way with you.  This will make possible the next step, which is for you to enjoy other people and to like them, and finally you will grow to love them deeply.  2 Peter 1:2-7 The Living Bible (TLB)

          The natural progression of the Christian’s life is to become like his or her Master; so why do so many Christians lament the fact that they do not have the love of Jesus…that is, they do not love like Jesus loves?  They are painfully aware that the love of Christ Jesus, so evident in some, is sorely lacking in their inmost being.  No amount of effort can “gin up” the love of Jesus, because the source of the love of Jesus is neither our efforts nor our vast learning.  This amazing passage from The Living Bible uncovers, for the most part, what is lacking and what actually blocks the love of Jesus from full expression in the lives of many believers.  The problem, dear reader, is in our spirits–we have enthroned a false image of God, and until the image is corrected, one can only reflect the image of God that one has. 

          Therefore, if your image of God (whom, as a matter of fact, Jesus is the exact representation of) is unloving, your image of Jesus is also.  In other words, you can project no more of a loving image than you actually believe God has.  God will not allow you to project an image of Him that you do not believe He has.  The main theological point here is that the Father and Son are one, in nature, in actions, in words, and in attributes.  Do you believe we need a loving Jesus to save us from an angry God?  Then stop! and go no further until your view of Father is corrected.  Listen to Peter’s words:   Then learn to know him better and better.  For as you know him better,…he even shares…his own goodness with us!  The source of the love of Jesus is, in point of fact, your loving Father in heaven. 

          Perhaps you do not view God as angry; instead, you think He is ambivalent, or at the moment placated, but able to become very angry again.  Perhaps, you think He is hopeful, having His fingers crossed that enough people will come to their senses so that He won’t have to unleash great tribulation and punishment on the earth.  Here is the main question:  do you think He is poised to send the vast majority of everyone who has ever lived to hell to be tormented and tortured in fire and flames forever?  Your answer to this question determines whether the love of Jesus is blocked from full expression in your life.

          Father has specifically stated in His laws dealing with man’s punishment of man, a very important limitation on man’s authority:  do not punish to the extent that your brother is degraded in your eyes.  The Bible clearly testifies over and over about the love of God, and at one point the apostle John even says “God is love.”   As the previous link proves, it has been the plan and purpose of God from the beginning to manifest Jesus’ love in us, those who are the first to believe.  The problem has come in, after the time of Constantine, that the angry God of the Old Testament must exact revenge for all the people living in sin and unbelief–as though the blood of Christ did not pay for all sins for all times and absolutely, irrevocably destroy the works of the devil, and conciliate all men to Himself!

          If you think God is indeed going to send millions or even billions to hell for eternity, then you have degraded your brother in your own eyes.  Much more could be said about the ramifications of this judgment that you have formed, but we urge you reconsider–this is the reason the love of Jesus is blocked from full expression in your life.  If you truly desire the love of Jesus to flow out from you as a sweet savor and aroma,  pray that Father’s will be done in the earth as it is in heaven, and believe that some way, some how, He will drag all men to Himself because Christ was lifted up.  He will do this, and He will not violate their free will in the process!      

          The problem is the doctrine of eternal punishment–banish this hideous doctrine from your heart, and here is a wonder you will find:  you can begin to know the true, loving nature of your heavenly Father, and His real character.  You will stop degrading your brother in your own eyes as “going to hell”, and you will begin to see him as your Father sees him:  as a future brother in Christ!  Finally, you will grow to love him deeply.  This is the love of Christ.  It is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes!

Blessed are You, O Lord our loving God.  Who is like You O Lord?  Soon everyone will be like You!  Amen, let it be so.