Category Archives: the Way

The christian life the way it is supposed to be. The church,the bride, the spirit!

Standing Up, or not.

I believe in conversation, or maybe even a stronger word, discussion or even debate on christianity and all that it details it in our current moment. I love the descriptive words, the references, the interpretations of the said discussion. It widens the mind of anything that anyone talks about a particular subject. It challenges us to think outside ‘our’ box. I love reading comments on discussion blogs about something that I am interested in, the 60 degrees of answers that I read that tell me alot of things. One thing, that is obviously we are not yet in the state of ‘one mind’ as God wants us to be such as in Phil. 1.27Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one [fn]mind striving together for the faith of the gospel.

With this being said, I find things perplexing when I present things in blogs or discussions on topics of various things that I write or bring up in discussion, and I find no rebuttal of background of their beliefs or of their ‘proof’ of their belief. Now, I am not sure on how to take this ‘blankness’ of rebuttal’ on their face’s, but I have a few ideas as why.

There is one idea is that it is a heritage of belief that has dragged on for generation after generation of the same thoughts and understanding of God,faith, and the bible. It is one that is taking for granted that is one that is discerning because of our lack of knowing for ourselves as truth of God ,faith,and the bible is mute for us, we believe what our previous generation does. But it is also because our ‘beliefs’ are set that we are not being tested by ‘fact checked’ beliefs by not having a need to check the scriptures for ourselves.

Continuing on the last reason of the lack of bible scriptures being attested to the same beliefs, it is in the ‘church’ paradigm that it is prevalent in the structure of embodiment of the body of Christ. There seems to be a very low in our comprehension of the bible. Although there is a few standouts of theology minded people who are earnest in the bible studies and research and loving the word. There seems to be not all of the ‘body’ that is fitting into this ‘knowledge’ of the scriptures.

I am one of those very studious people that love to dig into various questions that have been presented to me and I will search and dig until I find the answer. My joy is staying in the realm of God and his ways to be in the mind of God, and Spirit of understanding. This should be the attitude of every christian who is follow God and his eternal purpose for his ‘image’.

We must push ourselves to be loved by God, and for us to Love Him even more to do everything that is ‘of’ Him. Including the reading and understanding the ultimate goal of God to have a ‘people,a world, and be their God’ for eternal eons.

Advertisement

Leave a comment

Filed under New Perspective, Organic Church, the Way

and on the 7th day He rested.

Doesn’t this sound of familiar. We have heard it a thousand times in sunday school, church,mom and dad and every evangelist out there.

And also, you have heard the meaning of the statement at least a thousand times. We are to take a day off from work and just chill and watch the football game on that day, right.

We haven’t done a very good job of taking the day off the last 30-40 years so lately, we have made sunday the day to go out and “do” multiple things such as shopping,eating out(making other people have to work),and just going away for the weekend.

I believe that this understanding of what we are supposed to do is fringed on the “7th day” part of the statement. This connotation of the 7th actual day of our work week we are to stop what we are doing and rest because God rested is where we are today.

Let me make a bold statement here, “We have no better understanding of what God was telling us than the Jews took of this statement.” 

God’s desire for the Jews, as His people, was to be with Him,all the time. It was His desire from day one was for His people to be His forever. Now if we take this logic, and then apply it to this statement in Genesis 2:1, we have to understand that this is not an reoccurring cycle of every 7 days, but of from the 7th day on we are to have rest in God.

This has been the stigma of the Jewish community and for us in that we have set aside a “day” for us to rest in Christ to satisfy the commandment. I wonder if the Lord works in weeks or months or years like we do?(I doubt it)

God’s creation is solely for the community,fellowship,communion with Him. period. Why have we decided that it is all about all the things that we bring up in christianity?

Church,politics,programs,jobs, government, organizations, singing this or that, this pastor or that pastor, this group or that group, why have we made it into all this qualifying things that matter to us when all God wanted was to commune with us in the garden to begin with?

I know! The next question from your mouth is now what! That little or big word depending how you look at it is “faith”, do we have it or not. This my friend is the biggest question we have to ask ourselves individually, and then act on it.

I am personally at this stage right now and it is a big moment for me. I pray that you and I can come to the realization at this point that we know what the answer is.

I will be praying for you and for me, let our faith be in God, with our body,mind and spirit,let us be sold out for Him. In Jesus name, I pray.

Leave a comment

Filed under the Way

Covenant

Has the word ‘Covenant’  been swept away in christianity message of today? Have we only understood the ‘old covenant’ for Israel, and the new covenant to be passe’? Why do we not connect the dots from the old to the new, and see it’s relevance? Do we see God working in everything that was brought in the new covenant? People, places, stories,parables,symbols, foreshadow, all work together to show the foundation of the ‘new covenant’. Our first priority has to be understanding the old first. What it meant, what it was, what it was to God,who it was for, are the questions that we must understand to see the relevance of the ‘New’ and see how things changed but were better!

My heart goes out to all believers to understand in a deeper way the old covenant and what it was. It was not a black and white(1-10) issue as we have made it to be! I pray that as believers we can sit down and look at this covenant of God with his people, and truly see his desire for Him and his children.

And then we will look at the new covenant.

Leave a comment

Filed under the Way

Have we been looking at this the wrong way?

The bible is a very unique book that has withstood thousands of years of scrutiny,volumes of translations, attacks of authenticity,historical accuracy and many more attempts of blemishing of it’s Holy words.

This last year has kept up with the trend to attack it’s power and identity. Let me say something here that might sound sorta weird, This attacking of the bible for what it is and stands for has given many  the believers and nonbelievers something to openly discuss things in a very new and exciting way. And for what it is worth, there always comes out of these discussions,some new thoughts and what if scenarios that can boggle my mind and many others too. Personally, I love it.

I truly believe that the “real” church is outside the  walls of the church’s that we see at every corner. I believe that the people that are truly seeking God and His understandings are very creative and diligent in their search. This is why I believe that blogging,authors writing outside the box,theologians that are not afraid to go outside their structure of comfort and tell what they believe, that is really bringing about the corporate church.

For the ones that are stuck in an environment that is in “just keep on doing what your doing” brick and mortar  environment  I feel sorry for you. You are very sheltered, and non-thinking of but a minuscule piece of the eternal purpose of God. After all, God is concerned with the whole church, not  the pieces of it. This may sound harsh, but I believe it is the mistake that we “Christians” have made. God’s crescendo  that He talks about is the bride and  not billions of people to become His  people(church), but just his Church, and she has a name, “His Bride”. This is the corporate name of His church.

If we could somehow look at what the bible or God is showing us throughout the bible that he is not concerned with the little pieces of the pie, but the pie itself is the goal.

This brings me to the point of “are we looking at the references of the bible the wrong way” when it is mentioning the humanness of the story of Man and Woman?

We seem to take the stance that God is talking about us as humanity is to act and do as the two identities are portrayed. Think about this for a moment- If God knows that we are of a flawed nature, and that there is nothing we could do to change this nature, not even being good would correct it, then why would God give us instructions on how to do something to mask the flaw in our nature?

But what if we are being told and shown in this divine way that if we are “reborn” into Christ that we not of this “old nature” but of a “new nature” an Divine Nature that is of God and we(as the church) then will be a virgin bride for Him on that glorious day of the Wedding feast!!*

Look at the message of the bible,from beginning to end, what God is looking for and who and how is being shown us of God’s Eternal Purpose.

He wants a Bride.

* For a more in depth study of this train of thought of God’s Eternal Purpose, find the book at your bookstore of Frank Viola’s titled  “From Eternity to Here”. It is a great read and shows you the underlining message throughout the bible of what God is showing to His people. His Church. His Bride.

Leave a comment

Filed under the Way

Same song,different verse

I, in my blogging history have touched on this subject a few times but in different ways. I have had one blog in particular that had some good conversation on it coming from different sides but let me come again with a different twist.

The subject “The old testament(covenant) is dead”. Now this statement in its present wording (I believe) is correct. I believe that what could be the issue in this subject is our understanding of the words testament,covenant.

Let’s look at the word covenant first, covenant is the relation between two parties that have agreed on  promises to each other.

A testament is a confirmation of a such covenant,like a will and testimony of a passed on family member.

What I will maybe reword my past believing quote is that the Old Covenant IS dead,(because a new one is in effect) but the fact that the Old Testament is Yes,still alive. It is a said statement of God and His relationship with His people.

But the main emphasis here to understand is the old covenant is over and Christ is the new Covenant.

Let me show you how this is possible with the New Covenant(testament). Yes, the N.T..

The Bible,God,Spirit is really amazing in it’s just coming to you in such a way that opens your eyes and your mind to what God is doing in His infinite wisdom of his eternal purpose.

Do you even notice on how many times the writers of the new testament quote,mention,refer to the old testament? There is anywhere from 200 to over 600 complete verse by verse quotes to some kind of references of the old scriptures. This is at least a minimum of 10% of the new testament is from the old.

Now this is my take on this, pointing back to the old testament must of been a important commentary on the new testament to do this. If we are to really understand the significance of this method of inspiration by the authors we will have to go past the obvious.

Quoting something from the past is just that, the past. Whether it came from someone that we just met or from some esteemed dignitary it has to been really understood to make sense. The references going back to the old covenant, was and still is “for” God’s people, whether they be for the children of Israel or for His People today!

Remember, these “past” remarks were said in front of God’s people(children of Israel) and they didn’t understand the real meaning of God’s word’s. I sometimes see us as the “New” old children of Israel.(This is actually a blog that I am working on,the similarity of the two identities.)

We as God’s people have to have the mind of God to be in the spirit with God. This is a very important key to walk with God. I guess that is why Romans 12:2 has been one of my verses to know.

Romans 12:2 – And do not be fashioned according to this age,but transformed by the renewing of the mind that you may prove what the will of God is,that which is good and well pleasing and perfect.

Our mind is a key intricate path to God’s understanding of his eternal purpose. My mind needs more help than others it seems on some days, but I pour myself into Him, whether it be in His word,prayer,or in solitaire waiting for his whispering in my spirit.

God’s covenant with His people is two fold. One, It is with an identity, a “corporate” one, not a singular method of acclaiming,(we have to re-look at this at the thinking of the evangelicals that has made what they are today,and the message they are sending. His people are already His people, He just needs them to come back to him, not we need to get everyone on board one by one to get “His” people together.) This is a real thought provoking thought, think on it, and study it. Deuteronomy 30 is a good place to start.

Secondly, the first covenant, was just test, sorta, it was to show His people that they could not find or more importantly show them that they could not “do” the covenant and succeed. They would fail, and they did. I think they thought they eventually would tho?

The second covenant, or the New Testament, was that His People, through Christ  would be that perfecting people of God that He had planned for them. They would be indwelt with Christ,Spirit, and God.

After all, isn’t this what He was referring to in 1 Corinthians 6 :17!

*For some insight into God’s eternal purpose I highly recommend that you do a study on “second’s” of everything in the bible. You will be blown away after you do!!

 

Leave a comment

Filed under the Way

Nature

I want to go back to a similar post that I wrote maybe a year ago, where we looked at the scenario of Man in the garden of eden looking at two trees and picking which nature that He wanted.

 

If we as man can understand the huge implications of this decision of ours we then can go back and understand what we did wrong, or even know what the real identity we were supposed to be. I wonder if Adam really understood the underlining path that his decision would take him.

 

It has all boiled down to “nature”. No, it isn’t the surroundings that Adam was in. The garden of eden was the most extravagant garden that God could of designed for anyone to live in. It had everything, it was the ultimate man cave!! God thought of everything. There was the beauty to the eye, their was substance,food to live on, for this was what adam thought that life was all about. The food that he did pick was good to the eye, and then to the taste. There was also entertainment for man, animals beyond your imagination to care for and to watch. There was also the heavens to look at while man was resting while laying down in the garden, what a panoramic view it must have been to see the universe from its beginning. But this is not the nature I am talking about.

 

The nature that was to be chosen that day was of “man’s” or “God’s” nature.

 

Do you realize that this decision was simply to say “Do you want life or death”.

For adam to make this decision was not a simple one but a very influential one that he maybe didn’t understand fully.

We need to stop here and truly understand at what a pivotal and deep message that is being brought to us by God.

 

God’s message to us was simply Life or death, it was a condition that would “come “ to us in whatever we choose. If our decision was to be the “tree of knowledge of good and evil” it would bring death. If we chose the “tree of Life” we would have life “come”to us.

Our result of choosing the tree of knowledge of good and evil has brought us death but also all the precursors of death to us in the pain and agony of death in the absence of life.

 

But although we as man have made the worst decision of mankind, God still wants us to have “life”. This could be where the term “give him a second chance” came from. Let man choose again.

 

We need to view this pinnacle of the bible as the key to God’s eternal purpose to us. It is not the fact we as His people need to know that we have sinned, and need to repent, and to share this revelation to everyone we know.

 

It is the decision of Life(Christ) that we must answer. We (This is a singular plural word) meaning God’s people,children of Israel,christians. This is also a sticking point that we need to understand better, in context of this moment. You see in whatever decision that was/is made it will be passed on from generation to generation to generation.

 

It’s simple: Death begets Death, and Life begets Life.

 

What we have to know is that Christ’s dying on the cross for us(same as before,singular plural word) was to kill death,do away with it,capture it,overcome it and subdue it. The end. This was a means to the end of death. This should not be construed as the main point in understanding of the bible but as the way to LIFE.

Let us all go back and now chose Life!!

 

Leave a comment

Filed under the Way

The old is over,the new is now.

I struggle with church in so many ways but this one could be the biggest one that I see that hinders it the most.

The old covenant is over and the new covenant takes it’s place as is now the Covenant that is God’s promise to us.

Let is look at this closer, church I believe has seen or heard of the new covenant but has relied on the old covenant to live. We try to instil the principles of the old covenant into the new covenant to continue the promise of the Lord. But this is not the same.

There are many examples that we can choose from, just look at our practices of faith, and our works, do they mirror the ones of the jewish nation as to going to the temple and having sacrifices, or having ordinances, or regulations that we have to follow.

The old testament was an example of a people trying to be a people of God, thru living the laws of God, which were only there to prove to them that they would be unable to follow because of their fallen state. We were not ever going to be perfect enough to follow the laws of God. Our nature was and is not ever going to allow this.

So something or a new nature had to come in to replace the old. God’s people, the Israelites, and even us today have mingled both covenant’s together thinking that this is the way to precede.

We need to know that the first one is dead, the new one is alive! Because Christ is alive, the law is dead because it does not lead to Life.This is so important to understand in many ways, which we will only touch on one now.

Let’s look at a verse that will be glowing to us in this understanding of the new covenant.

Matthew 17:4 (Recovery Version)And Peter answered and  said to Jesus,Lord, it is good for us to be here;if you are willing,I will make three tents here,one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah. 5 While he was still speaking,behold,a bright “cloud overshadowed them, and behold,a voice out of the cloud, saying, This is My Son, the Beloved,in whom I have found My delight. Hear Him! 6 And when the disciples heard this they fell on their face and were greatly frightened. 7 And Jesus came to them and touched them and said Arise, and do not be afraid.  8 And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw  no one except Jesus Himself alone.(Recovery Version)

To understand this passage we need to understand Peter and the disciples at this moment of time. To understand peter and the disciples in this, is first to understand the symbolism of Moses,Elijah and Jesus.

Moses,was symbolism for the Law, Elijah, was the symbolism of the Prophets, and Jesus, was symbolic of the new covenant. Peter,disciples were mixing all three of the covenants together as tho they were to work together as the new. But no, God’s intervention into Peter’s building of three tents to three  symbolic periods was meshing of the old and the new together. The old was over, there is only one now. Even Peter and the Disciples had to understand this.

Look at verse three, then look at verse eight, now you see three and now you don’t. you only see one, Jesus.

The New is now and has been for awhile since Jesus Resurrection.

I pray that we as “Overcomer’s”, that we can  see one and only one thru our eyes,Jesus.

May we live out our new understanding of the “New Covenant”!

1 Comment

Filed under the Way

Our use of the word “church”

It is such a simple word, but we seem to say the word church  to mean an inanimate object. Where did we get this meaning from?

The jewish sect was the first to hint of a structure of worship, in their own way, that was called a tabernacle.  Us gentiles stole the concept but called it a church for worship. Our understanding of the purpose also was taken from the jews of the fact that we have to all get together to form a group to worship.

What we must understand is that God was using the imagery of the tabernacle as a picture for us to see,if we were to come to him and just commune with Him. This would be a complete picture of God and His people together as one.

This is a stopping point from this blog to highlight a characteristic of God. God’s understanding of “LIFE” is almost beyond words for us humans, but it is easier to understand if it is told in a story or a parable if Jesus was trying to get a point across to the disciples.  We have to go beyond our thought process to understand God’s ways. Our ways are not His Ways,remember.

God’s economy(business) was in the old testament to keep the jewish people(Israel) together in way that they would be protected from the outside world without to many incidents. The rules and regulations that the jews added to the commandments and to eating and sacrificing laws added to their issues. This scenerio of keeping the jews together is actually the parable or story that you here in the psalms and other places that refer to the shepherd and the sheep. The description  of the shepherd taking care of his sheep and protecting them from the wolves and lions is in reference to the world and to satan. (WoW)

But then, Christ came and changed this scene. The Shepherd was just a temporary condition for his people, until He came to change things. His dieing on the Cross,thus killing the natural way of doing “religion”, and bringing  to Life the all-inclusive Christ which has now been processed for us, with Christ being born,dieing,and being raised to the Father, He is now complete in Us.

The Old ways are now over, a new way has been created that is better is now in affect. We now have a tabernacle or home with God in us,and us in Him.  For this new way to be complete and stand on its own, all the old ways have to die. God’s living in us and us in Him is complete into it’s self!!!!! Why do we need to use the old ways to improve on the new way? But we do.

Our understanding of God’s People,His Church, His Bride, has got to change and it will.

Let’s come at this from the angle from the brides perspective and see if we can make it clear to us.  Hear is the preface, God has already asked us the church to be his bride(He chose us before time!) One key here is realizing that this is in a corporate setting not as individual way of looking at it. The ones that accept the plea to be apart of Christ as one entity(His Bride) is the picture that we are at now. Now, since we as the bride have committed ourselves to Christ as the bride we “should” be focused on Him and Him only. This is not the case, in christianity.  The bride’s only goal from this point on is to get ready for the wedding. Staying true to the groom is the ultimate goal from here out. My experience with girls and weddings are my forte’, I have 3 girls and 2 weddings. We know from the time they are asked til that special day, it is all about Him!!.

Where we are confused is that when Christ chose us and we said yes, We are now apart of Him, it is as we are already married or that we are ONE. This is also considered the body of Christ, or the Church.

Our being with Christ makes us apart of His body,church,bride. Let us see this revelation so that  we may become what God wants us to represent.

His new BRIDE!!

Leave a comment

Filed under the Way

Un-Natural

I wonder if we realize how we view things from God in the bible. I would almost guarantee that we come from a natural view of man when we read the bible.

I believe that we have come to the wrong conclusion when we read it, We are reading it as if we are in the natural realm. When we read,listen to God’s word’s(God’s words are His character,we need to realize this)He speaks to us in a different way,God’s way.

We are reading or listening to God in our “natural” way, God ‘s  way is not our way, our way is fallible. God’s design of His people was and is to be indwelt in Him. This means we are apart of Him. He is after all the creator,designer and architect of His Kingdom . He’s in Charge of everything! He is.

Now let me show you an example on how we misread texts in the bible. This comes from the Living Stream Ministries of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee on LSM.org. This excerpt comes from an article of ” The Divine Revelation”.

This example of only seeing things in the natural way is still hampering the believers of the world. Let me share the article now.

 

The fourth commandment requires man to take only God and all that God has accomplished for man as man’s satisfaction and rest (Exo. 20:8-11). This commandment concerns the keeping of the Sabbath. I read the Bible for several decades, but I did not quite understand why in His Ten Commandments God made such a commandment to set up a day and require man to keep it as the Sabbath. What is the meaning of this? Furthermore, when the Lord Jesus came, He did not want man to keep the Sabbath. Before the Lord Jesus came, God wanted man to keep the Sabbath. Then when the Lord Jesus came, although man still desired to keep the Sabbath, the Lord did not want man to keep it any longer. What does this mean?

It was not until these last six years that I began to understand what it means to keep the Sabbath. The keeping of the Sabbath means that you can take only God and all that He has done for you as your satisfaction, enjoyment, and rest. Keeping the Sabbath indicates that you have nothing on earth other than God; you take only God Himself and all that He has accomplished for you as your enjoyment, satisfaction, and rest. Your God is your everything, and He has accomplished everything for you. All you need to do is enjoy Him and take Him as your satisfaction and rest. Let me give you an illustration. I remember my old mother, who was a Christian. She loved her children very much and often cooked good food for us during holidays or on the Lord’s Days. She had a peculiarity that while she loved to cook good meals for us, she had to do it all by herself and did not want us to do anything. If we would sit there and watch her doing everything and then praise her for doing such an excellent job, she would be very happy. If we would say, “Mother, you have been too busy; let me help you,” she would be unhappy. She did not want us to help because she considered that an insult to her. Hence, we children knew that we just needed to wait for our mother to prepare the food for us and that we did not have to do anything. When the dumplings were done, we just praised her that her dumplings were really delicious; then she was very satisfied. While all of us were eating, she did not eat but just watched us and waited on us that we might have the enjoyment. When I was young, I could not understand her, but now that I look back, I realize that this is the way God deals with us. He is doing things for us, but if we try to help Him, the more we help, the more work He has to do. He does not want our help. Rather, He wants to do everything for us. Today everything is ready, and all we need to do is to come to the feast and enjoy Him. What does it mean to keep the Sabbath? To keep the Sabbath is to take God and everything that He has done for us as our satisfaction, enjoyment, and rest. Otherwise, we violate the Sabbath. When the Lord Jesus came, the Sabbath was simply the Lord, for the Lord is the real Sabbath. Therefore, there is no longer the need for us to keep the Sabbath as a ritual.

Until we come from an Un-Natural state of seeing Christ we will not see or hear  God’s real Message!

God- “I only want you to rest in me”

Leave a comment

Filed under the Way

Bible reading

How is your Bible reading? Are you reading it? Is it confusing? Is it just Greek or Hebrew to you?

Let me put a different spin on this subject with you.

Look past the actual words that you read, look past the obvious storylines that you see. Look deeper, See and Hear what God is telling His People that He wants from them. Start in Genesis 1 and 2,this is the instructions and plan that God had and has for us. What is it?

Second, we know about the fall that mankind made,now try to find out how God did and is trying to get His people back on the plan of God’s eternal purpose*.

*-Notice this asterick,This is very,very important! There are three words in the phrase. The first one is “God’s”, now this shows ownership, it is His purpose,know one else. Second word is “Eternal”, now this shows where,or of what realm.(This is not our realm as where we live in now). The third word is “Purpose”, This is actually God’s “WILL”. His plan,His design,His way.

God’s eternal purpose is not what we see or hear or feel. It is “of God”. It is His will that we must capture in reading the bible. We have to continue past those few bumps in the road that we all know about in the bible and understand that it is apart of the plan but it is not “the” Plan.  Make sure that we go back to Phase one where God sets things up in the garden for His Home. Then,see how He has to bring His people back to the garden (Home). 

Ok, Now how close or far away is God getting His People back to the Garden of Eden?

Leave a comment

Filed under the Way