Monthly Archives: November 2020

November 30, 2020 · 2:56 pm

Say what?

I have multiple conversations with multiple people over this issue, the denial of having to ‘go’ to church to be in the presence of God. But their actions seem to prove otherwise.

It seems that thru multiple blogs,tweets, stories told on facebook that the church can’t be the church unless it is together in ‘their'(this too seems weird that they have a church, when I thought it was God’s,and only God’s)church. The constant telling of the parishners that “Yes, We will be back together as the ‘church’ once again this week for our congregation.” As if they weren’t when they were not together.

It is just the opposite of this, We are apart of the church when we are ‘in’ the world as God’s people, but we are not ‘of’ the world. Being in a building, such as a sunday meeting, does not reinforce the aspect of God’s people being ‘set apart’ as a people of God. It is again using the basis of the old testament as a example of a building where God would rest his head in a temporary form to the Jews in the period of correction of them.

This will be a telltale correction for the church if they will only pause and listen to God’s direction.

Eph 2:19-22

19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Eph 2:19–22). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (1 Pe 2:5). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

6 but Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son. And we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Heb 3:6). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

church, nature and foundations of

The church is the people called by God, who are united by their faith in Christ and by their common life in him. Various descriptions and metaphors emphasize the continuity between the people of God in the OT and NT.

Manser, M. H. (2009). Dictionary of Bible Themes: The Accessible and Comprehensive Tool for Topical Studies. London: Martin Manser.

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November 29, 2020 · 10:33 am

In the beginning,again.

I have blogged on this topic before in this forum to state my case of the ‘Eternal Purpose’.

King, Kingdom, Man.

These are the ingredients of creation that God uses in his beginning story

This is the picture that God has brushed upon His magnificent canvas of the world to view.

Why is this subject important?

This paradigm is the one that has been overlooked or just not realized in reading the scriptures. It is whole story of the Israelites storyline of existence as a people chosen by God to lead the nations away from Idolatry, as were the jewish people were participating in also. This fact that Israel had succumbed to the same offense as the rest of the world, now includes them in the same boat to the problem. This is main point to see, the Jewish people were to be different, set up by God to do things in the world different. One God, a strict way of living(to keep them from being apart of the world’s ways), and to eat of the Jewish ways.

Keep in mind as we talk about this in that what has happened with the so called ‘church’ and christianity has made their bed with.

The Israelite’s(the chosen ones) living in their promised land had been pushed out of their land to go live in the land of Egypt to be in the hands of pharaoh and his whip. It is here that we see God’s people being put to the test of their hope and patience for God to take care of them. It is their belief that God is still their God and He will get them out of this slavery. (This word is key to understanding the story) It is Mankind that is now also in this paradigm, of slavery, that it actually doesn’t know it is in.

It is during this time that God show’s his power and authority with Pharaoh and with Israel, but Israel and Pharaoh are both blind to it. It is not until ten plagues are used against the nation of Egypt that it relents into giving the freedom to the Israelite’s to go be with their God in the land that he had set aside for them.

It is then that the pharaoh realizes that he must still get them back into his fold, he then sees God is in control of everything and is drowned in the water of the Red Sea. Israel is also still in denial of the God of creation, when they do not see the power of God and control of the world that he has. God’s power over all the things that He has created including them. God’s journey with his people back to the promised land is still a trying time for them in their belief that God is in control with everything, including them. They are filled with unbelief that God can and will take care of them during this journey back to the land. Food and water, is their desire, will they get it and where. God is the provider. But they don’t seem to believe in God’s power or who He is.

God’s ‘people’ by definition has changed since this story, but it has increased exponentially by being of the whole world, which was the original desire in the beginning anyway.

It is now that we ‘see’ this story as the world as a whole being trapped in this same storyline as the Israelite’s. We are living in this world as we were still trapped in the bondage of the Pharaoh(slavery).

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November 4, 2020 · 2:41 pm

God’s World

It’s different.

It’s a different frame of mind.

Roman’s 12.2

[Rom 12:2 NASB] 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

My favorite verse, it always has for various reasons. Paul makes a very bold statement in the first of the verse, it’s more of a stop sign to most of us. But what does it really mean? What does conformed mean? to this world, what world are we supposed to be conformed too?

These are some good and serious questions to be asking ourselves in our day of time, let alone in Paul’s turbulent era. First,let’s tackle the era of Paul and understand why he said it. As usual there is alot of backstory to all of Paul’s narrative, he was a very accomplished man with alot of knowledge of his time and of the past too.He was a Jew, He was a Roman citizen, a Pharisee, a tent maker, a sojourner, a leader of people, but probably the most tell tale sign that He was full of knowledge was his encounter with God. This was one for the ages, meeting God on his own terms, right in the middle of road, where else!

God’s singling Paul out for an encounter, one on one is like getting called to the principal’s office! God in his unconventional way of grabbing one’s attention, was confronting Paul to get him to actually go on the right road(yes, a pun). He was persecuting the people that he was soon going to be in charge of! Paul was about to be schooled himself about what God the creator had in store of His people, and him.

God was changing course the road of his people, that would be a treachous, but very rewarding to their future. This was going to be changing of the mind for his people. From their mind, to His.

This was the issue for mankind from the very start, their mind. Man was subjecting everything thru his mind to the way that the world was to be. It would be up to him to decide what was good for him or bad for him. He was to be the king of his domain, the alpha and the omega, the king.

The narrative of mankind has for it to make all the decisions on everything that it came across, to reign on the judge,jury, and police. After all, what could go wrong? He was the man(kind). Man equipped with the brains,(that the creator gave him) why couldn’t he make the right decisions,why wouldn’t everyone else be the same way? Man is king!

Man has been hurting itself ever since it was alive,(just ask Able) but why do we continue to think that this hereditary trait would go away? We just can’t get along with each other. We devalue ourselves and others to a subservient man that we then have issue compounded on top of each other.

We can’t ‘create’ that perfect world that we are in no matter what program, constitution, leader, or location we try, it just doesn’t work. I am talking about mankind, but it sorta sounds like what we as christians are calling ‘church’, which doesn’t sound good either. which brings up the notion of where as christians got there ideas to reach their audiences? What could go wrong with this?

It is with paul that he says that we must leave this world’s realm of life’s ways that just like in the Israelites narritive that they were with the plight with being filled with corruption, even more being under the influence of the torah that they were incapable of following it their life.

It was and is that we must change the mind’s concept of life by reknewing (understanding that we we once in God’s mind)our minds to God.

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