When is there darkness?
When it is cloudy at night.
When you are inside of something that blocks light.
When your face is covered.
When you have your eyes closed.
When you are blind.
God delivered us from the power of darkness & transferred us to the kingdom of the Son He loves. Through Him our value is restored & our sins are removed (Colossians 1:13-14).
Jesus said in John 12:46, "I have come as a light into the world, so that everyone who trusts in me will not live in darkness."
Darkness steals beauty from even the most beautiful things. If you can't see it then you can't see its beauty. How do you quickly restore value to something that sits in darkness? You shine a light on it. We were never rotten or despicable. We were just in the dark. We couldn't see ourselves, we couldn't see each other, we couldn't see God who is light. People are afraid the light will expose them as evil but this is only because they've never seen themselves in the light.
The dark deeds we've done disappear in the light because light replaces darkness. But as long as we want to hold onto our deeds, our dos & don'ts, we will hold onto an idea of darkness by closing our eyes or covering our faces. Those things which we struggle to obtain, maintain, or throw away.. the light sorts it all out in an instant.
Those who know God are not blind, they are not imprisoned in darkness. But so many who have seen the light willingly close their eyes or cover their faces. In the light you can go anywhere & see anything. The longer you have your eyes open the more there is to see as you spend time looking around.
But when we who are in the light, who are children of light, close our eyes we embrace artificial darkness. There is light all around us & in us, but all you have to do to block out light is to close your eyes.
So we close our eyes because we've chosen to believe what we've read or heard about God. Things like "you can't have fellowship with God when you are walking in darkness" & then being told that "walking in darkness" is based on behavior. Ephesians 5:8 says, "You ARE light in the Lord!" You can never walk in darkness again!
But sadly you can choose to believe in darkness by closing your eyes to the light. And when you close your eyes that is exactly what you do. You believe in darkness, you make believe in darkness, you trust in darkness rather than light. You ignore the light of love that HAS set you free because you still WANT TO believe in darkness, your darkness, their darkness, even God's darkness, though you'd never word it that way. And it is make believe. We pretend that we're "good" while we believe we are dark & evil to the core. But the truth is we are good to the core & inherent darkness & evil are pretend.
I'm not saying evil or dark deeds don't exist. I'm saying we believe darkness wins, that one dark deed extinguishes light. But it is so obviously the opposite. Light extinguishes darkness at the speed of light. If Christianity hasn't been based on ingesting bible trivia more would have realized this. But the message of churches are "open your ears only to us & keep your eyes closed at all times." Religion is a fairy tale that you have to use your imagination with because it does not exist in reality. If you close your eyes & reject reality nothing can be done for you.
God only exist in reality because He is truth. If you look for a fake God in pretend darkness you should expect to find nothing! It is no wonder atheists & others reject the idea of a god because the bulk of Christians & Jews have rejected the real God by accepting a fake god in a pretend darkness. This is easy because they spend their time arguing about who is best at reading a book. It is seriously a "Who's better at living without the Spirit of God" contest!!
Open your eyes. "The love of Christ surrounds us" (2 Corinthians 5:14).
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
The world isn't partying, the world is performing.
The world isn't partying, the world is performing. Religion is the worldliest thing to ever exist.
Friendship with the world is in reality friendship with religion, with rules, with systems, with paradigms. They make you see God as your enemy. Friendship with the world is taking its substitutes in place of real friendship with God. It is doing what leaders & religions & books & businesses & cliches & cultures tell you to do.
I hate this "world." The world was never the people or the party but the performances, pains, precepts, & poorness we're being sold everyday from almost everywhere. So instead of seeing ourselves for who we really are, prodigious people with a prodigious God, we see ourselves as paltry pawns, puppets, or property. The world is a lie & Jesus is The Truth. Everything that steals your life is the world & everything that gives you life is God.
Friendship with the world is in reality friendship with religion, with rules, with systems, with paradigms. They make you see God as your enemy. Friendship with the world is taking its substitutes in place of real friendship with God. It is doing what leaders & religions & books & businesses & cliches & cultures tell you to do.
I hate this "world." The world was never the people or the party but the performances, pains, precepts, & poorness we're being sold everyday from almost everywhere. So instead of seeing ourselves for who we really are, prodigious people with a prodigious God, we see ourselves as paltry pawns, puppets, or property. The world is a lie & Jesus is The Truth. Everything that steals your life is the world & everything that gives you life is God.
Friday, August 9, 2013
Wind
While Jesus was in the flesh He feared death to the point of praying to God with "strong crying & tears." The Father heard His fears. Though Jesus was already God's Son He learned by His suffering.
What did he learn? Most translations say "obedience."
So God calmed His fears by putting Him to work? I don't think so. The word translated as obedience means to "hear/listen under."
So I believe what Jesus learned by His suffering in the flesh was the same thing we learn, how to listen to God, not in the "hear his orders" sense but in the sense of listening to His comfort, letting Him quiet our fears & give us joy. The Father did this for His Son to the point of taking Him from being terrified of death to seeing the cross as "joy set before Him."
His Father "made Jesus perfect." He "made Him complete," thus Jesus became the source of eternal salvation to all who trust Him.
Jesus is not incapable of sympathizing with our weaknesses because He has been through all of the harrowing experiences we have. Therefore we can confidently approach the throne of God's loving favor to receive loving-kindness and find God's love for us whenever we need help.
And that is what Jesus learned, to trust in His Father's love for Him, let His love drive away His fear, & enjoy knowing His Father. Jesus was intensely human.
We still want God to be the Lord of Hosts, the God who commands armies. But Jesus said, "He's our daddy, & if you learn to listen to Him you'll know it." Jesus did away with the law in part because it foremost pictured God as the supreme commander to obey.
Scripture says, "to obey is better than sacrifice." Remembering what obedience means I take this to convey,
"To draw near & listen to your Father is better than anything you could do for Him, give to Him, or give up for Him. He is the giver. He delights most in you being with Him in the moment. He doesn't give you a to-do list because everything that matters is done in the moment with Him.
You can have lists without ever experiencing love. Love is not made of deeds you can check off of a list. Love is part of living. Once you know you're loved that's when you start to really live & love in return.
God doesn't burden you, make you worry, or cause you fear. So if you're worried about your relationship with God then you are trying to relate to something else. You can list & learn all the names of God in scripture but without a doubt people regard Him as THEIR GOOD Father the least. They'll believe in every kind of god imaginable except the one Jesus knew.
John 1:18 says, "The law was given through Moses BUT the love of God for us & the truth CAME THROUGH Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time without His Son Jesus making Him known. Jesus knows God the because as His beloved Son He has rested on His Father's chest." This wasn't talking about seeing God physically. It was saying no one before Jesus ever SAW God. They never authentically knew the real Him. Today we take the testimonies of people recorded in the Old Testament & say, "There is God! Look at Him!" Scripture says even we who know Jesus now only see Him through a dark glass. Even worse it says of them that they looked through veils at an unreal shadow that had no substance.
So instead of letting God Himself reveal Himself to us through His Son Jesus, because we, like Him, are God's children, we've outsourced this to the bible, to religious leaders, & to man made traditions & doctrines. Thus most of us are left with "never SEEing God at any time." Instead of the living Spirit of God we've chosen to trust in the 2,000+ year old translated testimony regarding a shadow seen by people who were wearing veils. Don't forgive me for saying this, but doing that is like locking yourself in your house & googling your long lost father's name to learn about him while he lives next door with your older brother. Oh, & occasionally talking to the mailman about him. While the bible offers a lot of "fun facts" those "facts" alone will never connect you to your fun Father.
Life with Daddy blows. It blows your mind, it cools your heart, & it gently takes you to the places that are best for you. It blows the veil away. Just trying to gain knowledge ABOUT God is like chasing the wind. Stop chasing the wind & start being the wind.
What did he learn? Most translations say "obedience."
So God calmed His fears by putting Him to work? I don't think so. The word translated as obedience means to "hear/listen under."
So I believe what Jesus learned by His suffering in the flesh was the same thing we learn, how to listen to God, not in the "hear his orders" sense but in the sense of listening to His comfort, letting Him quiet our fears & give us joy. The Father did this for His Son to the point of taking Him from being terrified of death to seeing the cross as "joy set before Him."
His Father "made Jesus perfect." He "made Him complete," thus Jesus became the source of eternal salvation to all who trust Him.
Jesus is not incapable of sympathizing with our weaknesses because He has been through all of the harrowing experiences we have. Therefore we can confidently approach the throne of God's loving favor to receive loving-kindness and find God's love for us whenever we need help.
And that is what Jesus learned, to trust in His Father's love for Him, let His love drive away His fear, & enjoy knowing His Father. Jesus was intensely human.
We still want God to be the Lord of Hosts, the God who commands armies. But Jesus said, "He's our daddy, & if you learn to listen to Him you'll know it." Jesus did away with the law in part because it foremost pictured God as the supreme commander to obey.
Scripture says, "to obey is better than sacrifice." Remembering what obedience means I take this to convey,
"To draw near & listen to your Father is better than anything you could do for Him, give to Him, or give up for Him. He is the giver. He delights most in you being with Him in the moment. He doesn't give you a to-do list because everything that matters is done in the moment with Him.
You can have lists without ever experiencing love. Love is not made of deeds you can check off of a list. Love is part of living. Once you know you're loved that's when you start to really live & love in return.
God doesn't burden you, make you worry, or cause you fear. So if you're worried about your relationship with God then you are trying to relate to something else. You can list & learn all the names of God in scripture but without a doubt people regard Him as THEIR GOOD Father the least. They'll believe in every kind of god imaginable except the one Jesus knew.
John 1:18 says, "The law was given through Moses BUT the love of God for us & the truth CAME THROUGH Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time without His Son Jesus making Him known. Jesus knows God the because as His beloved Son He has rested on His Father's chest." This wasn't talking about seeing God physically. It was saying no one before Jesus ever SAW God. They never authentically knew the real Him. Today we take the testimonies of people recorded in the Old Testament & say, "There is God! Look at Him!" Scripture says even we who know Jesus now only see Him through a dark glass. Even worse it says of them that they looked through veils at an unreal shadow that had no substance.
So instead of letting God Himself reveal Himself to us through His Son Jesus, because we, like Him, are God's children, we've outsourced this to the bible, to religious leaders, & to man made traditions & doctrines. Thus most of us are left with "never SEEing God at any time." Instead of the living Spirit of God we've chosen to trust in the 2,000+ year old translated testimony regarding a shadow seen by people who were wearing veils. Don't forgive me for saying this, but doing that is like locking yourself in your house & googling your long lost father's name to learn about him while he lives next door with your older brother. Oh, & occasionally talking to the mailman about him. While the bible offers a lot of "fun facts" those "facts" alone will never connect you to your fun Father.
Life with Daddy blows. It blows your mind, it cools your heart, & it gently takes you to the places that are best for you. It blows the veil away. Just trying to gain knowledge ABOUT God is like chasing the wind. Stop chasing the wind & start being the wind.
Monday, August 5, 2013
What do you want to be... no artificial colors, flavors or preservatives
We have a habit of asking kids & teens, "What do you want to be when you grow up?"
I'd like to hear one say, "Do you mean what do I want to do? Because I still want to be me when I grow up."
We're apt to take our identity from so many things: our jobs, our hobbies, the entertainment we enjoy, our religious affiliation, our spiritual beliefs, our political beliefs, & even our family & friends. A lot of this comes from insecurity or fear.
We are given artificial flavorings, artificial identity. It is meant to imitate the natural but it is not natural. The world just sorta makes us fall in place that way.
You can't be content until you are willing to be yourself without fear. But people will either love you for who you are, hate you for who you are, or not care about you, not care about the real you. They'll hate you because you refuse to take your identity from what they take their identity from. They'll stop caring about you because you refuse to be afraid of them & their opinion, no longer needing their approval. Those who love you for who you are are the hardest to find.
While you could say young adults & teens are selfish the ultimate truth is that most adults don't end up being selfish. They end up having a type of "team" mentality. They give up their identity for an affiliation or role within business, religion, family, or any paradigm. The mentality is, "I'm gonna let this thing tell me who I am" or even worse, "Who I am not & thus who I should be. I'm not who I should be so I need this system to tell me who I should try to become." Obviously that's religion & marketing 101. Tell people they are missing something & then offer them a way to get what they are missing. Systems get people to work for them or buy from them. They exist to take & not to give, they are artificial flavors & they've got just enough preservatives for you to not blame them.
The difference between me seeing myself as "a dad" or "Melody's dad" is colossal. You can be a parent & forever leave your kids in the dark because you are trying to be "a parent," you're trying to fit the role, meet the cliches, meet others expectations, fall within the grace of others' opinions & the acceptable norms. Doing this sets you up as someone who's goal is to control & manipulate your child instead of know your child. And it is no wonder because doing things like this sets you up as someone who's goal is to control & manipulate yourself instead of know yourself.
So the question "What do you want to be when you grow up?" implies "I stopped being me & became this thing," & "what you are now has to go."
This all relates to the idea of being "in" the world but not "of" the world. Being of the world means you take or strive to take your identity from it. And let me tell you, the religion of Christianity is perhaps the most "worldly" thing in existence. It is the ultimate bait-and-switch.
Jesus saying, "Whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it" refers to our false life, that which was given to us by the world to strive to keep or improve. I claim this because Jesus immediately went on to say, "What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self?" Think about His question.
Whoever wants to save their world-made-life will lose it. It will be destroyed because God will not keep that false life for us. Whoever abandons the world-made-life for Jesus, The Life who gives the God-made-life, will save their true life. The world-made-life "seeks to conform you into its image" until you are no longer you. The God-made-life seeks to renew you. When you are renewed you know God's desire has been to give you abundant life, abundant real life with no artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives.
I'd like to hear one say, "Do you mean what do I want to do? Because I still want to be me when I grow up."
We're apt to take our identity from so many things: our jobs, our hobbies, the entertainment we enjoy, our religious affiliation, our spiritual beliefs, our political beliefs, & even our family & friends. A lot of this comes from insecurity or fear.
We are given artificial flavorings, artificial identity. It is meant to imitate the natural but it is not natural. The world just sorta makes us fall in place that way.
You can't be content until you are willing to be yourself without fear. But people will either love you for who you are, hate you for who you are, or not care about you, not care about the real you. They'll hate you because you refuse to take your identity from what they take their identity from. They'll stop caring about you because you refuse to be afraid of them & their opinion, no longer needing their approval. Those who love you for who you are are the hardest to find.
While you could say young adults & teens are selfish the ultimate truth is that most adults don't end up being selfish. They end up having a type of "team" mentality. They give up their identity for an affiliation or role within business, religion, family, or any paradigm. The mentality is, "I'm gonna let this thing tell me who I am" or even worse, "Who I am not & thus who I should be. I'm not who I should be so I need this system to tell me who I should try to become." Obviously that's religion & marketing 101. Tell people they are missing something & then offer them a way to get what they are missing. Systems get people to work for them or buy from them. They exist to take & not to give, they are artificial flavors & they've got just enough preservatives for you to not blame them.
The difference between me seeing myself as "a dad" or "Melody's dad" is colossal. You can be a parent & forever leave your kids in the dark because you are trying to be "a parent," you're trying to fit the role, meet the cliches, meet others expectations, fall within the grace of others' opinions & the acceptable norms. Doing this sets you up as someone who's goal is to control & manipulate your child instead of know your child. And it is no wonder because doing things like this sets you up as someone who's goal is to control & manipulate yourself instead of know yourself.
So the question "What do you want to be when you grow up?" implies "I stopped being me & became this thing," & "what you are now has to go."
This all relates to the idea of being "in" the world but not "of" the world. Being of the world means you take or strive to take your identity from it. And let me tell you, the religion of Christianity is perhaps the most "worldly" thing in existence. It is the ultimate bait-and-switch.
Jesus saying, "Whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it" refers to our false life, that which was given to us by the world to strive to keep or improve. I claim this because Jesus immediately went on to say, "What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self?" Think about His question.
Whoever wants to save their world-made-life will lose it. It will be destroyed because God will not keep that false life for us. Whoever abandons the world-made-life for Jesus, The Life who gives the God-made-life, will save their true life. The world-made-life "seeks to conform you into its image" until you are no longer you. The God-made-life seeks to renew you. When you are renewed you know God's desire has been to give you abundant life, abundant real life with no artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives.
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