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The Church needs to talk about this
The Elephant
No one seems to notice. Or few seem to care. It has been there for so long, it seems like it should be here, shouldn’t it? After all, everyone uses it, so it must be the normal thing to use. Why bring it up? We have room. We’ll just walk around it.
The purpose of this blog and website is to bring information to the body of Christ that will help believers truly walk in the freedom that Christ has given us all. But sadly, we all walk in different kinds of bondage even though we have been given total freedom by the Lord. Some forms of bondage are self imposed due to either ignorance or due to a root cause that is too deep in the heart to be understood by anyone but the Lord Himself. Other types of bondage are forced upon us by other people and we do not have the ability to break those bonds in our own strength. Then there are bonds that are forced upon us and have been on us so long that we forget that we are in bondage and are ignorant of the bondage. This is the bondage I am addressing here. This is the elephant in every American living room that is accepted and ignored as simply part of the furniture. The elephant is the Federal Reserve banking system that is both unethical and unconstitutional that forces us to use their willfully inflationary monetary system through government decree. Read the rest
A child of God is immature, but sons are responsible and inherit the kingdom.
Why There is Evil
“If God is good, why is there evil in the world?” Frankly, I have never heard a good answer. But the answer is basic and foundational to our lives in Christ. First, let me reaffirm that God does not create evil, nor does He do any evil (James 1:13). Yet He takes full responsibility for the existence of evil. He fulfilled His responsibility for allowing evil into His creation on Calvary.
Evil was a calculated consequence of giving life free will, and specifically mankind. He counted the cost (Luke 14:28) of this calculation which is why He was slain from the foundation of the world (Rev 13:8).
Evil can be summed up in one word: selfishness. The essence of godly love (agape) is selflessness: i.e., other centered. Whereas the essence of worldly love is self centered; i.e., what’s in it for me?
This won’t last long because it is embedded. They may take this offline. But this video shows how much of a formula is used to conduct a church service. Does this bring you to God, or are people simply being manipulated in their feelings?
Business by Kingdom rules is for the King, not our selves
The Lord’s Business
I own a Christian gymnastics school. The Lord moved me in this direction four years ago. In that time I have done much meditation on both how to run a business and keeping my priorities right according to the Kingdom of God. From the outset I understood that business is a worldly affair. That does not mean Christians do not own businesses, but it does mean our priorities will be different.
As a citizen of the Kingdom, my responsibility is to build His kingdom, not my own. The natural tendency in owning a business is to see it as your business and make every effort to build your business into your own kingdom. But that is not the way of the King. Everything belongs to Him. He gives us stewardship over some things, but those things still are His.
It is noteworthy that in the parable of the talents (Matt 25), the rich ruler gave his servants the talents. The servants did not take the talents from the rich ruler. If we are engaged in a business that the Lord is not directing us into, we are stealing from the Lord and those to whom He intended to give that business. Adam and Eve were guilty of the same crime. All the fruit belonged to God, yet they were given the right to eat freely from all the fruit except from one tree. When they ate that fruit, they stole it from God. So, as believers, we are not to engage in just any business activity. We are to pursue only that business that the Spirit has led us into. Read the rest
Too many people do not trust their own senses. Too many believers rely on the law instead of the leading of the Spirit in their lives. We have been encouraged to not trust ourselves which results in rootlessness. The political government encourages us to rely on them not ourselves. The church government does the same. The book of Judges is considered to be a time of anarchy by most in the Church. The famous line that is quoted is,
In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes. (Judges 17:6 KJV)
which is also repeated in Judges 21:25. As I began my journey away from organized religion and began to question the role of governments both in the Church and politically, I wondered if we had misunderstood the book of Judges. In 2008 I wrote my first blog on the topic . No one responded to the topic, so I let it go.
However, the Lord has brought this back to my mind and I have been meditating upon it again. I must confess at the outset that I am so influenced by the general negative opinion of the verse that it still seems like a negative statement. But the facts of Scripture speak against that feeling which shows how we are so easily influenced by other people’s opinions that it blinds us to the plain facts.
The influence of the world permeates every area of our thinking. Christians think that more laws are the cure for society’s ills. Recently I heard Jerry Tuma make a similar statement in his radio broadcast. He recognized that the problem is government, and broadcast the soundbite of Reagan’s famous saying:
“Government is not a solution to our problem, government is the problem.” — Ronald Reagan Read the rest
In my last post I mentioned two fascinating ideas presented by JRR Tolkien in his work, “The Lord of the Rings.” The first was the unending life of the mortal elves (a contradiction in terms) and the gift of death given to men. It is the second idea that I am addressing here.
Death in the New Testament writings of Paul is presented as our enemy.
Rom 6:23
23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (KJV)
Rom 8:6
6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. (KJV)
1 Cor 15:26
26 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. (KJV)
1 Cor 15:54-57
54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
56 The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.
57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (KJV)
After becoming a Christian, these and other verses that declared death to be our enemy, made his statement ludicrous. So what did Tolkien mean when he called death the gift of men? He was a Catholic, so he had a some Christian world view that he wrote from. And I think he had a Christian meaning in this statement. Read the rest
The elves of Middle Earth are immortal yet can not die
Long before I ever knew Christ personally, I loved JRR Tolkien’s, “Lord of the Rings.” His depiction of elves fascinated me. All I knew before that time was the tiny pointed ears of Santa Clause and Keebler cookies. For the elves to be this strange and majestic people who lived forever, yet could die in battle, amazed me. I had always thought this characteristic to be odd. Why should Tolkien create characters who could live forever, yet could die in battle? Equally mystifying to me was his oft repeated claim that death was a gift for the children of men.
I put these thoughts aside after I came to know the reality of Jesus Christ. The hope that all believers share is immortality. As a new Christian I used to think that our glorified bodies would be like Superman. Our example is Christ in his post resurrection appearances. It seems that He was able to appear and vanish in a blink of an eye. It seems that He could walk through walls, enter rooms when doors were locked. Philip was translated and instantly moved from one location in Israel to another. Besides, we will all have died before we get our glorified bodies, so when we return with Jesus on white horses in the sky to stop the Anti-Christ, we can’t die again. That battle will be a cake walk for us. No fear of death since we have already died, and the brightness of His coming will end the conflict instantly. Read the rest
As the commander of the army of the LORD I have now come.
Josh 5:13-15
13 Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, “Are you for us or for our enemies?”
14 ”Neither,” he replied, “but as commander of the army of the LORD I have now come.” Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, “What message does my Lord have for his servant?”
15 The commander of the LORD’s army replied, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so. (NIV)
Joshua asked the natural question when he encountered the angel of the Lord before beginning his campaign against the Ammorites. We ask the same question as the Church whether someone is liberal or conservative, pro-life or pro-abortion, for big government or free enterprise. But this is the wrong question for the Church to ask. It is the same mistake that Joshua made.
In the same chapter Joshua was commanded by God to circumcise the Israelis since a new generation had grown to replace the generation that died in the wilderness with Moses. The circumcision was the renewal of their covenant with God. They were now in covenant again. But they, like so many of us in the Church, thought that God was now on their side.
It is believed by many, and I am one, that this is a Christophany of Jesus before His incarnation. Jesus is the Captain of the Host. His reply set Joshua back on track: God is not serving Israel, but Israel is serving God. Jesus is not serving the Church, but we are serving Him.
Many who have left organized religion disdain to call themselves Christians. Instead they prefer, “Christ follower.” I don’t think it is necessary to drop the name Christian, but I do agree with their intention. We are not to follow organized religion, but only Jesus. Which means we do not take either the side of organized religion or the world. We follow Truth, of which Jesus is the source. Read the rest
I said in my haste, “All men are liars”. (Ps 116:11 KJV)
I am continuing to meditate on what it means to have root in oneself. I am convinced that this is essential for discerning truth from lies. Its bottom line is one’s trust in one’s own senses. But it is not just trust in the 5 senses for the physical world, but also includes one’s spiritual senses.
Our spiritual senses are developed as we listen to our heart and gut feelings. Sensitivity to the spirit increases as we meditate on the meanings of our dreams. It develops as we sense right and wrong through our conscience. It develops as we learn to trust our instincts.
Developing root in oneself must occur before salvation. Everyone who comes to Christ has developed some roots in themselves, otherwise they would not believe in Jesus. Belief is the foundation of knowledge. All that we know is what we genuinely believe. To know something is the completion of faith. Mental assent is the beginning of knowing but it is not knowing. To know something is to be fully convinced in the conviction of what one knows. It is completed faith. Read the rest
When we build our views on the opinions of others we precipitously see only the tip of the iceberg.
This Word has been growing in my heart for several weeks. I wanted to write this earlier, but my business had kept me quite busy.
A few weeks ago in teaching gymnastics at my Christian Gymnastics School one of my children was practicing a handstand to a bridge. She fell on the landing mat without doing the bridge. I told her to push up the bridge. She said, “Yes,” then began to stand up. I told her to get down on her back and push up the bridge. She looked at me perplexed then realized I meant “now”. So she pushed up the bridge.
I stopped the class and told all the students that unless they do the movement for themselves, they will not learn to do gymnastics. I asked the children, “Where in the Bible do we have this command?” None of the kids knew. One of the moms sitting watching raised her hand, and said, “I know, I know!” So I let her answer. “In James. We are to be doers of the Word, not hearers only.”
So I turned back to the kids and told them, unless you make Jesus your own God, He will remain the God of your parents, not you. You have to believe Jesus for yourself and test Him for yourself, so that you will know that His Word to you is true. Read the rest
