Wise as a Serpent, Gentle as a Dove

¹Paul looked straight at the Sanhedrin and said, "My brothers, I have fulfilled my duty to God in all good conscience to this day." ²At this the high priest Ananias ordered those standing near Paul to strike him on the mouth. ³Then Paul said to him, "God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! You sit there to judge me according to the law, yet you yourself violate the law by commanding that I be struck!"
 ⁴Those who were standing near Paul said, "You dare to insult God's high priest?"
 ⁵Paul replied, "Brothers, I did not realize that he was the high priest; for it is written: 'Do not speak evil about the ruler of your people.'^[a]"
 ⁶Then Paul, knowing that some of them were Sadducees and the others Pharisees, called out in the Sanhedrin, "My brothers, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee. I stand on trial because of my hope in the resurrection of the dead."⁷When he said this, a dispute broke out between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided.⁸(The Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, and that there are neither angels nor spirits, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all.)

Paul is quite clever here...creating a stir for the purpose of confusing them and getting them to bicker amongst themselves??? All while maintaining a humble posture. I have much to learn from our brother Paul...back to the book, I want to see how the story ends...I'm just guessing here, but I think the saints persevere and God wins. Sorry if I spoiled if for you. :)

For I am Your Servant

Doubt and anxiety; May they be cleansed from me!

Answer me quickly, O Adonai, my spirit fails;
Do not hide your face from me,
Or I will become like those who go down to the pit.

Let me hear Your loving kindness in the morning;
For I TRUST YOU;
Teach me the way in which I should walk;
For to YOU I lift up my soul.
Deliver me, O Adonai, from my enemies;
I take refuge in you!

Teach me to do your will,
For YOU are my GOD.
Let Your good SPIRIT lead me on level ground.
For the sake of Your name, O Adonai, revive me.
In your righteousness, bring my soul out of trouble.
And in Your loving kindness, cut off my enemies
And destroy all those who afflict my soul,

For I am Your Servant

Psalm 143

What Am I Thankful For?

In no particular order, except the order in which I thought of them.

• Sunshine
• Blue Sky
• Rain
• Green Grass
• My Family
• My Son
• How he's gentle and tender
• My Daughters
• How they are strong
• How Makenzie is funny, wise, insightful and pure
• My eldest brother Greg; I'm very proud to call him my brother
• My elder brother Chris; how he's been an influence and helped shape my character
• My younger brother Phil; how gives me an opportunity to demonstrate Christ
• Losing my job at GSI
• It's taught me obedience, through suffering
• Losing our home
• It's taught me that my only possession is but loss, for the gain of obedience to Christ
• Being in financial ruin
• It's taught me that no matter what you think you have, it's all Gods
• The men's group I attend at Grace Evangelical Presbyterian
• It's taught me there's hope
• Grace EPC; 
• Taught me how to worship God
• How to be confident in my faith
• It's begun my journey of faith and obedience to the most high.
• My Sin
• It's brought me closer to God
• My Obedience
• It's brought me closer to God
• My Weakness
• It's brought me closer to God
• My Failures
• I think you know... ; ) 
• My friends
• The ones that abandoned me
• The ones that never did
• The ones that never will
• Living In America
• As much as I complain, there's no better place to live on earth
• The wandering in the desert
• For there will be far more, than less
• The Bible
• How wonderful and comforting it is to read again and again
• It's words never cease to amaze me
• That God is who he says he is
• My salvation doesn't depend on me
• Hope
• Joy
• Love
• I'm thankful that I have love and can experience it
• My parents
• They did their best, as will I
• My grandparents
• All of them for reasons that all people should be thankful for grandparents. They are a well of wisdom and if yours are like mine, they are models for right living
• My uncle allen, whom I've spent many of the last few months sharing our faith together
• Kim Hinkle
• A spiritual mentor and friend
• Harris Tate
• A new spiritual friend
• Stan Cole
• My best friend ever
• The fact that I can be making a list of things I'm thankful for, instead of hunting my food....
• ANNNNNNNNNNNNNNDDDD my gorgeous wife, without whom I would certainly be lost.

Amen. 

What are you thankful for?

Do You Know God's Name?

I've certainly been guilty of not knowing God's name...have you?

Deuteronomy Chapter 1

I've been having an interesting thought lately. It's multi-faceted and I warn you, it may NOT be as interesting to you as it is to me. But none-the-less, I'm writing it out because it creates a new thought wave pattern to study and analyze in the future.

The precept is basically this;

On what level did the ancient Hebrews know, or not know God that they would openly accuse him in such of the following ways;

1. Has God brought us out of Egypt to die?

2. God is set against us, he will surely destroy us.

3. It would be better that I was not born, for you have delivered me to afflict me.

4. Because the Lord hates us, he's delivered us out of Egypt into the hands of the Ammorites to be destroyed.

If you're anything like me, you quake at the very idea of accusing God of something. This is the flip-side of the phenomenon that I'm interested in.

Why are we so afraid to say that God is against us, when the ancient Hebrews seemed so willing?

Back to my precept; How did they know God? Perhaps the following contributed to their mindset;

1. Traditions and ungodly notions learned from civilizations being in captivity?

2. Truly depraved and the question is neither accurate, nor based in a knowledge of God?

3. It's accurate but misapplied?

4. It's accurate and properly applied, leading to repentance, and thus a nation enjoined to God for obedience?

Just considering these ideas makes me tremble. They all seem possible all at the same time, and yet, wrong, and yet, right...it's sounds confusing, but I guess this is how I compile it.

God in his history did to the ancient Hebrews, the very things that they accuse him of. God handed over the Hebrews to the Assyrians, Babylonians, Egyptians, Ammorites, and Edomites, just to name a few. The book of Judges is pretty clear that because of  the disobedience to God's holy days and ordinances, in other words, idol worship, God delivered them to judgement. He did however, always redeem them.

Part of what I'm wondering about, is the freedom that the Hebrews seemed to feel in expressing their opinion about what God's intention was. Now we recognize that shooting your mouth off doesn't require an established relationship or nor the explicit permission to do so. Obviously it would be easy to assign this to the Hebrews and move on, but! Moses did it too, so did Abraham, Jeremiah...NO ONE would say that these gentlemen didn't know God. Abraham was God's friend!

I cannot rightly divide where to come down on this, except to say that in our desire to pursue a relationship with God, we shouldn't be afraid to express how we really feel. God isn't afraid of our opinions and he's not looking for our approval. He's not going to get mad because you don't understand, if you're trying to understand. I think, in that paradigm, and certainly under his exceptional grace, there is room to have an authentic relationship with him.

I'm posting a short video to help fill in the tenor of this post.

False Dichotomy

I was in a discussion with a guy and this came up, so I thought I would make a short video and post about it.

Often times we do this, we create a false paradigm to view information through. Usually it's the worst when we assume a position of authority in rationalizing ideas. Don't get me wrong, I'm not an intellectual pacifist by any means. I like to wrestle my ideas to the ground and give them a noogie just like the next guy, but what I'm talking about is deeper than that. It's when we question ideas and conclusions that are bigger than we, carelessly.

I think questioning long established ideas is the best way to know if they are accurate and relevant to us. Otherwise, no doctrine would be formed. But, there's something wrong with assuming a position of authority when we rationalize to polar positions in this area, especially when that authority hasn't been given to us. Watch the video.

Some Practical Advice Of A Been There, Done That...

This is just meant to provide some practical advice about my own personal journey. I'm sharing how I've reasoned through this.

More writing soon.

And The Oceans Will Turn To Blood

Is this primordial ooze, or some pre-cursor to what might be the cause of the blood red sea's and oceans?

Listen, I'm not saying you need to pack your backs and have your ticket to Heaven in hand...I'm just commenting on something interesting. Keep in mind that God uses the simple to confound the wise and the base things to debase the proud and mighty. Your response to this should be same as anything...hmmm, interesting, now back to my fathers work!

In faith, hope and love! You're going to have to click the picture because my blogger layout sucks and I have neither the time, tools or interest to fix it at this point.

Here's the link where I got the story.

http://www.good.is/post/science-rules-antarctic-glacier-has-five-story-blood-red-waterfall-of-primodial-ooze/?GT1=48001

Little By Little, Everyday

How is God changing you?

An Email To A Dear Brother On The Doctrine of Grace

Greg,

I was re-thinking our conversation. I wanted to point out examples that I think demonstrates God's divine calling being necessary for salvation and at that, the only reason we are saved.

I want to lay a few foundations;

First, a spiritual work is anything you must do, (some disagree on this point even in reformed theology) but the act of believing something does not require an act of your will, though I contend faith does. Belief is simply a rationalization of an assumed fact to a position of relative incontravertability; IE 1+1=2. It doesn't require effort to believe that, it's a fact it exists whether you believe it or not.

Second, Paul describes man as spiritually dead to God when they are born and from the point of birth until something changes that status.

Third we're born into sin, not knowing God from ourselves, Paul supports this by saying "none seek God, nor are they even able to do so."

Fourth God in his pure holiness is not beholden to us in any way, the very nature of any agreement he has with us is purely at his discretion, upheld at his discretion and even though we may make agreement with it, that[our agreement] is upheld or denied by the power of God, since absent God's desire, we could NOT be saved.

Where I think we fundamentally disagree, and from there, several bunny trails of insignificant disagreement follow, is on the question of the depravity of man. Is it total, or is it partial?

My view is that it's total. My thoughts cannot even be trusted. Even the writing of this email should be tested. It's purely the benevolence of God that allows me to survive this condition. I think you may believe there remains some good in you, or at least enough to realize that you're sinful and need God, therefore you make a confession of faith.

Children are a perfect example [realize that full grown adults most of the time are spiritual infants]. Infants have no map of right and wrong, only a pleasing of self.

You don't let infants play with sharp objects, but you do allow them to play with toys. You don't allow them to eat foods that they could choke on, but you do allow them milk. If you blow this up to an adult who is a spiritual infant, or worse, not even spiritually born yet, then you realize that this infant can no more make a choice to follow a sovereign God than it could play with a sharp object you've kept from their possession. Christ reinforces this to many of the Pharisee's, not the least of which, Nicodemus. There's nothing wrong with God choosing for you, because you aren't able to ascertain the gravity of your decisions, nor rightly decide for you lack information. And there is nothing wrong with that. You may maintain that the desire/abiltiy of choice remains and there fore so does free will. While I can't dispute that, I would say there's no point, because your will in the child's life is efficacious, and theirs is not.

As further proof, I contend that we cannot possibly understand why God wants all glory to himself, or why he's jealous, or why he wants our worship. If you encountered ANY person who said they deserved this, you would readily dismiss them, that is purely self-serving and probably wrong. We can't understand why God wants these things and that very element defeats the notion that we could rightly choose God for any purpose, UNLESS, it was his divine will for you to do so. Because we have incomplete information...how can you make a right decision with a lack of information? You can't. I won't write out the examples, but you get my drift.

Therefore, if by allowing, or if by requiring, God is complicit in our salvation, in fact, Paul calls him the author. In either case, it was his choice before it was yours, so how then can we take credit for what we did not originate in ourselves? That would be like the infant, if he could speak, after you got him dressed saying. "thank you for giving me the choice to choose these clothes." The child clearly had no choice in the matter; and that is OK.

We've been assimilated for a long time into an evangelically trained mindset that frankly ignores large portions of the Bible. I know I was.

False Prophets, False Messiahs, False Teaching

I want to begin with a quick note about myself that will help make clear why this observation that I'm posting may be relevant. I have this 'interesting' ability, it's not mystical or anything, but I find it useful for evaluating information, trends and thus correlating them for a non-definitive, unprovable conclusion. I can take, what will seem to most as, random, disconnected, thoughts and events and connect them to a singular consciousness. It stops being fun, when I'm right. I won't comment on how often that is...I'm not a future telling prophet, I'm not a sorcerer, I'm not into mystics, magic...I don't practice voodoo...I do my best to be obedient to YHWH, to submit to his Son Y'ehushua, and the Spirit guides me. His mark on me, is evident by my life change; with that said...here's what I've noticed.

I've always wondered how popular teachings like the rapture could go unnoticed by the people left behind. But then a reading a scripture reveals that it will NOT go unnoticed, but that a GREAT delusion will be sent by GOD. Now I don't personally think there is any evidence that conclusively demonstrates a rapture of the saints. I don't think that early Christianity was appointed wrath, yet they died horrible gruesome deaths, appointed by God; I can say that because he told them it was going to happen. So using my own understanding of scripture, I didn't understand how, prophecies could be clearly missed by so many...certainly Ahjmadinjad(sp?) has read the Bible, or has people who have? They would know who Daniel was, certainly their empire is talked about just as much as any other in the Bible. This can't have escaped their notice. The fact that there are so many parallels with the Iraq war and America's involvement in Daniels prophecies, is uncanny. I'm not saying we're fulfilling them, just commenting on it's strange parallels.

So my conclusion was, I don't see how so many people could miss what's plain for anyone. To me that would be like saying the whole world would miss the olympics...well, even if you didn't see them, the amount of people on this planet who could possibly be interested in that, DICTATES that you will in some form or fashion come in contact with the olympics...even if UNWILLINGLY.

Let me show you what I've compiled. I'm sorry this is long, but you need to force yourself to hold your attention. Not that my information is so awesome or valid, but that is also part of the deception. We've been taught that if I can't glean what I need in 30 seconds, it's not useful, or I'll come back to it later; but you never do. Here we go;

• With the advent of social networking, it is literally possible to push information to the farthest point reachable in under one minute.
• This has provided a platform for those who wish to speak, (including me) to others about various topics, mine is my journal and passion for God.
• Christianity is, in the place where the most amount of social media creation takes place [America], largely un-persecuted; especially compared to Pakistan, China, India, Iran, etc.
• In America, there is great apostasy, for certainly 72-86% of Americans are NOT Christian.
• There has begun a revival of sorts for end-times discussion, mostly to do with economic downturn, attacks on our homeland, increases in moral decay, 2912, Mayan calendar, etc
• We've entered an age of entitlement and not enlightenment.
• We've been programmed, world-wide, but definately in America, how NOT to think. How questioning certain things is unpatriotic, or un-american.
• We've been programmed that all things are equal, lies and truth are equal in a public forum.
• We've been programmed that opinions are just as valid as facts, emotions are just as valid as evidence
• We've been falsely taught that you're not to judge anyone or anything, due to the above reasons
• We've been lied to that obedience to anything is a pure flight of fancy and good for you, but not necessary even if at all possible.
• Lastly and probably worstly, due to entitlement, we believe we all have a voice that should be heard, quite simply because we have a voice, and desire to be heard. (have you watched how people react when Simon Cowell tells them that they can't sing? Facebook anyone?)

So, enter the false prophets. I've begun to believe that part of the delusion is the prevalence of information. Specifically false information. Our way of learning and validating facts has SO fundamentally changed in the last 20 years that we're in danger of losing the truth...I'll prove this. If we were to lose all of our written resources, as many ancient cultures did during wars, our history would be lost in a single generation.

20 years ago, when I wanted to look up a fact, let's say about a bird. I had to get an encylopedia and go to the name of the bird and see if the information was there. If I was especially studious, I would cross-reference that citation with other sources, adding to it's validity. But as with all facts, the only proof could be to the naked eye, and under scrutiny of the scientific method of observation.

Not so today. Even though most enclyopedia's have been digitized, the said fact remains, with the internet, you can't be sure what you're seeing is ACTUALLY in that enclyopedia, or that for reasons unknown to you, that fact hasn't changed over time. You can still go observe, but the above programming, teaches you NOT to. For all is equal and thus trustworthy in the forum of public opinion and fact. We've been taught that the ease and access to information is not a factor in it's validity. Let me tell you it is...ease of access is a good thing, but especially related to things valuable, how much can it be worth if you were to come by it so easy?

Quoted from a movie: "We have a saying in Tenesee, if somthin' sounds too good to be true......[leaning forward] it ain't". Best line in the whole movie!.

Let me show you how easy it is to put data out there that's wrong and imagine if you will that I had an evil INTENT to do so, whether I realized it or not.

Take this phrase "Jesus is not the messiah, he's just a good dude, he was a hippie who hung out with strippers, but you should listen to what he says...believe in his name and you'll be saved, cuz he did die for you on the cross. The world will end in 2012."

Highlight it, right-click with your mouse and put it as your facebook status. Then fire up your webcam, create a short youtube video about it, then put it on your myspace, both text AND video. And while you do each of these things, make sure you have a BIBLE in your hand and leaf through the pages to make that popular and dignifying sound. Then put a priest uniform on, then refer to yourself as a priest, then act to speak for God. Then teach others that they are wrong if they don't believe as you do. Then tell the world that it's full of "false" prophets and quote scripture...make sure to type it up in your videos and quote it with sincerity...maybe even cry over something that you think will draw attention or make you seem more authentic.

You just became a false prophet and you can get all kinds of people to follow you....

This is part of the delusion. It's not that the truth is unknowable, it's that there is SO MUCH false information that literally EVERYTHING you think you know MUST BE CHECKED. You cannot take ANYTHING at it's word. You must check. And while we will all fail at this from time to time, a trend demonstrates growth, you need to decide is it toward obedience, humility and understanding, or toward, disobedience, pride and false understanding.

Are You Defensive?

I've not vetted their site or any of their other material, but this was spot on.

Compromise of the Church

I had a conversation today with my realtor; we talked in brief about some things, as Christians, we're seeing...it's troubling to me. In a way that I could not before appreciate. Because I was there myself. I was in the glass house, looking out, only woefully plugged into the matrix, not realizing that my very existence was powering someone else's, at my own expense.

There are a couple of words that I think identify what we're seeing and I want to share them with you, because if you see them, run! If you have them, pray, seek eldership within your body of believers...because they have no place in a Christians life. In fact, I've come to believe they are a sign that you *may not genuinely be a believer.

*caveat is, only you and God know the truth. For me, even though I demonstrated these things, I was saved. Sadly some who have knowledge of who God is and even practice his traditions will never escape this, because they are NOT saved.

This is why Peter tells us to SEARCH ourselves to see if the truth be in us. I say that these words I write, I do so, trembling. This not a happy message, nor one that I offer with joy. This is the stuff that makes me shudder, for it reminds me and makes obvious that the only salvation, is God's heroic, divine, active, and miraculous work in a my life, that has saved me.

Compromise

Frankly, this is the easiest one for me to point out now. I can remember, just like watching a movie play out before my eyes. "COMPROMISE! - I've COMPROMISED! I've said I CAN'T be holy, who can be obedient? I've abused God's grace!"

I was speaking to my brother. I was realizing that all this time I thought I was holy, or a little holier than thou, what I was actually doing is not putting my hand to the plow. I was certainly looking back if ever my hand was on the plow. I made every excuse why my obedience wasn't necessary, how it was impossible and even in the slight moments where I again felt the call, I was try to test it against somebody...who would reassure me of the lack of necessity. I've started to coin the phrase "I used to think of serving God as a 'part-time' job, that I took a LOT of vacation from". That's true. And in contrast, now I see it as my primary vocation. Everything else flows out of knowing God. Nothing is accomplished without God and therefore, knowing him, serving him, talking with him, serving him, must be first.

There are other compromises though; What started the compromise discussion for me was a church that I attended once. Called Westside Family. The long and short of it is this; my wife and I went there out of deference to my best friend and we happened to arrive on Easter Sunday. With a church of this magnitude, I'm expecting all the bells and whistles. I'm expecting to hear the salvation message. I'm expecting to be crying by the end. Sadly, not for me, but for the members of that body, what I say was 3 stacked high latte carrying, paritioners, finding their seat too late because they were busy paying for their entertainment and beverage. Yep, I said paying for it. At this church you can buy latte's, t-shirts, bibles, and any Christian sort of thing you have need of. Ofcourse when you bring up the passage in John about Christ kicking over the money changers and the guys selling dove sacrifices, what do their members say?

"We donate that money; It's just like a tithe. What difference does it make if I put it in the plate or in the till of the same church?"

I gently answered. Though I wanted to kick over some money tables myself. Friend if you can't see the difference; you've compromised. You probably don't know what the word says. Christ also kicked out the guy selling doves. Now, why would a GUY, be selling doves at a temple? Well, in those days, if you couldn't afford to bring your own fatted calf, as the law required, you could buy a sacrifice at the temple. You could buy a dove. Now some would say...well, I can see all sorts of good in that....many people are provided for, isn't that a good thing?!

It was good in fact, Christ didn't forsake the opportunity to make fools of them and throw him out of his Fathers house. So, you can see Christ wasn't willing to compromise. He didn't care about their feelings, he cared about the respect for the holiness of GOD. This is something we've completely lost sight of.

I used to attend a church and I won't name it, because it literally could be anywhere. This attitude is SO prevalent that where doesn't matter. It's everywhere. In a conversation about what a church should do, in order to get people to hear the message, here's what was said by the pastor:

"We've got to package the message so that they will hear it"

There's nothing wrong with tailoring a message. Nothing wrong with lights, camera's, bands, big productions, choirs, kantata's, men's retreats, womens retreat's, vbs, food kitches, motorcycle rallys or any other behavior that the leaders of a church desire to engage in for evangelism...BUT; if you think that you need to PACKAGE the holy word of God, then there is a problem.

You should be more concerned that you're actually teaching WHAT IT SAYS! Most "believers" are so woefully immature, as I am, was and continue to be, that they don't even realize that if you belong to the real church, the holy invisible church, that means you're CATHOLIC! Not Roman Catholic, but catholic, which means 'universal'.

• Most have not read the entire Bible, nor attempted to do so.
• Most misquote verses they've heard, misapply words meant for Israel, to modern-day America.
• Most believe in the 'prosperity' gospel. Joel Osteen anyone?
• Most are so intrigued with biblical prophecy and the desire to know the future, they forget the real ministry of God. Or worse, exchange one for the other.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not better. I've suffered through this myself. I'm merely describing me...I also happen to know that this applies to SO many out there.

God has called us to obedience, it's a high calling. It's not easy. It's NOT easy. In fact, it is THE HARDEST thing you will ever be part of. It's also the most rewarding, as things generally go.

If you feel that call for obedience and the need to cleanse your life of all things impure. DO NOT quench the spirit. DO IT. God bears up those who love him, those who follow him, those who are his children...