Tag Archives: dig deep

March 23, 2022 · 3:30 pm

How does one discern God?

For me it is a couple of things, Studying the word, and Studying other people or groups that are discerning God.

Now, when I am studying for myself I am eclectic in my ways, I do not have(yet) a proven methodology of just doing one thing at a time. I am doing probably 10 things at a time, which I seem to like, because I haven’t changed much over the years. I have curiosities of different subjects on my mind at all times it seems so I am trying to tackle all of them at the same time. I am curious. This should be every christian in their walk with God. Never going without that everlasting water to feed us God.

Those that do not feel that they only need to spoon fed a drop of water on a certain day, seems to be just asking for it. How can one be ‘satisfied’ all week long, with just a spoonful? As was Paul when He was a pharisee was a zealous pharisee. He was a 100% pharisee. It was also the case when He became a disciple of Christ, He was fully enveloped into being one with Christ. Paul says so in multiple verses in his letters to this fact. He knew the scrolls, but he more importantly knew what they meant when God and Jesus were orchestrating things on earth and his people to know.

As in the beginning of the 1st century, there was multiple understandings of what God or Jesus was all about. The first issue that had to be worked out was, who Jesus was. Was he a man, was he a prophet, was he imposter,was he devil, was he a god, or was he all of the above? There is time where there is indecision for man to work out the paradigm that was just starting with Jesus on the scene. What did it mean. For the gentiles it was plethora of answers, for their world was wide open to anything. It is for the Jews that it was in their back of their heads, “Was this the ‘Messiah’ that we had been promised?”, How can we tell? People were giving all kinds of answers to these questions. It wasn’t until Jesus started to ask his own disciples(seems weird asking these men that had been following you around for months,who do you think I am?) who do you think I am? It was Peter that said “You are the Messiah”.

Some people believe that it is detrimental to get your hands dirty in ‘knowing’ other peoples mindset to a question or a belief, or a religion, but the significance of this is very important in my mind is that how does one minister to someone without ‘knowing’ them and their viewpoints. I am a believer in knowledge of the other christian beliefs to be able to ‘know’ what is out there to see what you are contending with.

I read. I don’t read just the things that I like. I have multiple books on things I need clarification on,new things, subject matters, people of the bible, history, prophecy,spiritual realm, authors,reference material, outside materials such as apocrypha, Pseudepigrapha , and some other inter-testimonial books. I watch sermons,talks,lectures, debates, and bible studies. It is cool just to listen to things outside the box of my beliefs that it strengthens my standing in my faith, but it also challenges it too. I have to ask myself, why do I believe this or that.

One thing that I have been coming across with people that I talk to in various discussions is the ‘concreteness’ of their stand that it is solidified in stone that this stand is and was the final statement that mankind was to believe in. My question to them is ‘if this was so, then it would of been seen as the ‘way’ for “everyone” in a instance. I believe that ‘we’ are getting close to that point but not yet.

I challenge people to do not sit on your tufit, waiting for you to be spoon fed that teaspoon of water, but to dig into it with a fork and a knife, to not only get the juice but the thick meat and vegetables of that hearty stew of God.

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December 24, 2021 · 1:17 pm

Let’s get past ‘face value’

Studying any book or subject takes more than just reading the item. It is opening our eyes and looking at the similar or contrasting word pictures that are being shown throughout the book or the bible. We have to look diligently and keenly into everything that is being presented to us.

God is mysterious in all his ways. He is spiritual in all His directions. The scriptures are a narrative storyline of God, His Kingdom and His people. If only it could be so simple. But it wasn’t, or isn’t. This is why our interest should guide us to want to dig deep into God’s word. This journey is not just a quick remedy of doing one thing to say that you have accomplished it. It is a long and tedious journey to get even close to say your even started on the journey.

I believe that in my journey, that I can say that I have learned alot in my own personal study and research,reading books, listening to authors,speakers,new information, old information,things I agree on and things I disagree with, but I have always ‘looked’ outside the box of my usual understanding or what you could say was my traditional belief. My view is now wide and open to all of God’s influence with people and things.

*I was going to expand on this subject in another blog, but I have decided to add it here*

I believe that we have a christian problem of staying in a box, once we say we are a believer. We are caught up in ‘denominational’ thinking or at least a ‘concrete’ and can’t be influenced by anything I hear or see that we hurt ourselves by not being open to anything, and I mean anything that we deem out of another box. It is this kind of constitutionalism that can kill christianity in a heartbeat. I can see that this is what did happen in the time of Luther and his revolt from Catholicism. It started with a thing that was different from another and just expanded from there.

What we need to know and understand that ‘Christianity’ has not yet been perfected in it’s perfect state, no matter what we ‘americans’ think! It has been a work in motion! It will not be in the Holy and Perfect state until God says His bride is ready. I have come to realize these last few months that this constitutionalism of any particular religion has created alot of damage to christianity. We have been put ourselves in this little box of an ‘identity’ and refuse to been seen as anything else.

One aspect that I have noticed that we have done is to do the ‘church hopping game’ where we go and just hop to another ‘building’ to see if it satisfies our ‘needs’,for now. But it is much worse than this, we are set in our ways of ‘believing’ in ‘something’, whether it be the stance of believing in God’s plan for salvation, His way of doing worship, or something that is an immovable concept in your mind and you will not move on it.

I do believe that some where down the road we will be all in agreement on What God’s eternal purpose is for all of us will be. But it will take some groundbreaking moves on our part to change, our understanding, our ‘seeing’ God on who He really is.

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July 6, 2021 · 1:55 pm

How do you ‘see’ the scriptures?

I might be all over the place with this blog, I’m feeling like I need to point out alot of things to everyone! Yes, it’s my turn! lol

My life’s journey has brought me thru alot of things and places because of my heritage thru my fathers’ line of work. You see he was a pastor for all his life and it took our family to some different cities and different states. Which I enjoyed them all as a kid, I didn’t know anything else but to enjoy it. It was a adventure to me as just a new place to check out.

It is in this adventure that I have looked back and tried to surmise the things that my father was doing as a pastor to people. Now, being old as I am I have forgotten some things that occurred or where they happened but their are things that have stuck out in my memories whether they be bad or good, they have. The memories that I have are the ones that were of my father, and my mother that were of the ‘teacher’ method of shepherding people. Let me say at the outset that I believe that this method of ‘teacher’ was the correct mode of said ‘pastor’, but I fear that it was all in vain, because this way was shallow in it’s presentation. What I have seen and read of various authors,pastors, evangelist’s, is that there was a ‘Theology’ first, then a foundation of scripture that fit the scenario. This is backwards.

It is the scripture that should create our understanding of God. This is the model which should of been emphasized from the very early beginning. The good news is that it seems that this is starting to come out thru the works of alot of theologians who have put in tireless work in digging out the storyline of the bible. It doesn’t come out easy, it is searching for God’s work in everything that He orchestrates thru his hands. But it is making a difference in how we see the bible as the word of God, and his people.(for more information on this,just make a comment to me at the end)

Another thing that is closely tied to this is the failure of the previous story, and even now, that there was and is a failure of the people of God that are failing to read and ‘know’ the scriptures! I don’t know for sure what the reason is, behind this, but I have a few. Lazy on the individual,lazy to know the pastor will tell them sunday, I have heard it before, read all the stories in the bible, doesn’t pertain to me, and the list goes on. People have not, and were not told of the storyline of the scriptures from day one of their interest in God. This is major flaw of christianity to the world. We have not presented the God of our World to the people in the right way.

Our way was to tell the stories of all the great people of the bible and their stories, to impress them of such great men or women to loft up our God and his purpose. But that is to shallow. God started from the beginning, Genesis to start this journey and a blueprint of what God was going to do in the now, and the latter. In which the now and the latter were the same. Compare Genesis 1-2 with Revelation 21-22. God’s book should be read and ‘known’ from beginning to end. There is storyline, WE HAVE TO FOLLOW IT! The New Testament(covenant, I prefer) is the continuation from the Old Testament(old covenant). This brings out the biblical thought with using Covenant, instead of ‘Testament’.

I would recommend to people to get a few people together and start in genesis and just get a fresh perspective on how God has put very specific things into place and also people to make his story come alive for us. Go slow and methodical, to ‘see’ God’s design of his people and his Kingdom.

You might have a revelation in doing it this way by realizing that ‘we’ can all become ‘one’ in our ‘knowing’ and ‘seeing’ God, and not be split in our ways as we are now!

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June 30, 2021 · 12:11 pm

It’s the eternal purpose,people!

I sometimes wonder how christianity has gotten where they are by what I read in the scriptures.

Maybe if you read it enough times you start to see things that weren’t there the first time, or second time, or third time. But it is that continuing searching that it starts to show that underlying theme or storyline that come into focus for you. You just wonder with the pharisee’s and the saduccees that were known for their reading of the scriptures over and over again, why they didn’t see things that were connected to each other that would spin itself into a deep and amazing story for mankind. Maybe their ritual, or tradition was to just ‘say’ the scriptures was just a mundane chore for the day? Maybe, this was the problem with Israelite’s in that they were to much in the tradition of reading the scriptures that their was no meaning in it.

I have come to rely on history. In history we see not only actual events of time, but of the social events before and after said big event. It is how we base our understanding of mankind in all thru time. It is in this realm of digging into history we see even more and more of people in their own stories, communities of understanding everything around them and their actions and beliefs to those events. We, right now are doing the same thing, we just might not know it, we are acting and reacting to all the events around us, and to some extent to things far away from us with advent of the internet.

I have become over the last twenty years have been that forensic detective that doesn’t just ‘see’, or ‘read’, or ‘hear’ something without digging past the obvious things. This should be the mark of Jesus follower, digging deeper every day that you are a christian. What I have learned thru the years of studying the bible is that it is a goldmine of information about God and his people and his world. I once was asked ‘How long should it take to read the bible?’, the usual ‘church’ answer would be the 1 or 2 year plan that the church gives out. But this is not the ‘idea’ for what the bible is. It is to ‘know’ the Bible! My answer to the question was “50 years”, I think my answer may have been to short in its answer,tho! We can only scratch the surface with God. But I do believe that we should ‘see’ what God is telling us and showing us on what his intentions for us.

The models of what we have perceived to be the existence of God’s people in the world and how they are to be in the world, and how they are to meet, act, or to exist has be skewed in that we have not understood the eternal purpose of God.

I want to point out that this is because of a few things. One is the misunderstanding of God’s eternal purpose in mankind. We are very,very limiting of God. We have put God into thousands of little buildings all across the U.S., when the scriptures says the opposite. God will be, and is Everywhere. This was and is His Goal. But we have failed to see this in His New Covenant. It is actually following the first covenant of the Jews with God in that we were supposed to build a temple and place God there!? What’s with that? Just maybe we have not reached the understanding of the New Covenant with Christianity yet? I don’t know either. But I do ‘see’ the dawn of the light coming into the world.

The second thing, is that the failure of christians failing to read and to study the scriptures in a way that is done in a more deep and investigative way to find the truth of God. We have realized way to much on the person in front of congregation to give them snippets from the bible, as does the media on the national news. Look how that has gotten us! Until we realize that as a God believer that we dig deeper and deeper into God’s word to know him. This is not going to be a easy fix, but it can be done with the fortitude of God’s people. Where two or three people are gathered together, there also is God. He will guide and direct us in his word. I strongly suggest in having a small group of people that are in agreement in your quest in finding the truth in the word of God.

The third thing is maybe(it is) the glue that holds this all together. Jesus died on the cross, rose again to be with the father, it is in this action that God has sent someone to follow us in our journey here on earth to unite God’s people together. It is the “Holy Spirit”, this is our “Christ is in Us, We are in Him” fact that we seem to forget or just don’t understand. I tend to think the latter. Christ living ‘in’ us, We ‘in’ Him means we are in fellowship with Him, and We are ‘WORSHIPING’ Him. This is the design of God’s ultimate purpose! Why do we not see this? The Holy Spirit is our temple,church, body,bride whatever you want to define it as. (It is not to have a fellowship with other people in a building, it is to have fellowship(worship) our God. Period. This reasoning of other people as fellowship has to go away to understand the true meaning of worshiping of God!)

Now, taking those three things as corrections in our understanding of our eternal purpose as God’s people, and He our God we should be able to ‘see’,’know’,’hear’,what God’s purpose for us in the world, it is that ‘WE’,All His People are His, unto all the nations, forever and ever! Praise His Name!

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