Tag Archives: live

April 20, 2021 · 4:03 pm

A strange thing happened on the way to…

I love reading. I love reading christian theology. I love reading the bible. and I do!

I had the opportunity to pick up some older books from my father that He had gotten from his pastoral Uncle, which would be two generations back. So these books are early 1900’s edition of christianity in all phases of literature. I have about thirty or so left to read(before the end of the year,I promised to have them read). I went thru the books trying to see which one I wanted to read next, after a store bought book which I was almost finished with to start on.

I perused the selection of books with no particular rhyme or reason on the subject on which to pick the book on, I usually stick with a theme of books for a period of time that peak’s my interest. So I pick this small withered book with yellow pages that was still in pretty good considered it was printed in 1966. It is book titled “Studies in Amos” by Kyle M. Yates,Jr. Now, this in round about way is considered a commentary on ‘Amos’, which exceedes it’s accomplishment as a book.

When I delve into a subject for studying I am never surprised that I don’t ‘see’ something new or a answer a question that I have always had, and it gets answered in the book. This book was no exception. I am a hound dog in always looking for insight and answers to questions that arise in my journey. If you haven’t read the book of Amos lately, I would strongly suggest you do, to remind yourself on what the prophet Amos was telling Israel that their indiscretions and turning from God was taking them down the road to destruction, and it was coming soon.

Israel was in trouble, God was not happy. God’s design for them was to worship Him.

It seems that their “seeking and Living” was being construed as something else as God had planned. The people were not using the temple as their understanding of worship it was meant for. John 4: 24 says that “God is Spirit,and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” This was not being done in the kingdom of Israel. The people of God had made their ‘meeting place the idol that it was the focus of their lives. After all, this was where God’s finger was touching still, even tho his people were not worshiping him as they said. But this wasn’t what God intended for his people, It was HIM, that He wanted them to seek and find, and not to be infatuated with the ‘place’ that He could be at.

It seems that Israel did not take the warning to heart, because it wasn’t for long in it’s history that Israel’s Temple was destroyed. Amos’s warning was a precursor to the ‘church’ of today I believe that the same thing is coming to the building of worship, of the so called believers. It is the realization that the church must face that we are using the building for the substitution of Jesus Christ, for the answer. It is the essence of Christ that we are missing, the ‘life’ of Christ we are missing, the Love of Christ is missing, the Care of the World by Christ is missing,We just don’t understand why the things we are doing aren’t working? A Duh!

As was when Israel was trying to ‘Seek’, They were not seeking ‘Christ’, they were seeking the meeting place. God is Spirit, and the Truth is that He is within ‘US, and We are within Him.

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February 8, 2015 · 10:39 am

Maybe the “foundation” does matter!

Let’s start with a conceptual note. We have for all intense and purposes understand the ‘historical’ aspect of the old testament. The stories of the great leaders of Israel, the miracles of these leaders, the leadership of these men, the faith of these people, and the ‘concept of they were the people of this God’, but what was the intent by God in all of these events and timelines throughout this ‘historical’ ages?

We have taken all these things as just stories of the annoited people of the time, and now we assume the same for us today. Is this all that it is? It has to be so much more than this!

Let me use as an example,albeit a shallow one, but maybe not if we think about it. If I as a parent have tried to show one of my children the way to follow me in my footsteps and they have failed, I then go about it in a different way to show them that in the way that they tried to live did not work was not to their avail, just maybe, in time they will see that my way was the best and only way to go!

Does this story resonate with you from another story that you might have heard before? The ‘Prodigal Son’! This ‘story’ is just a perfect example of how we as not an individual but as a ‘people’ have gone astray and gone on our own to prove our wisdom and knowledge and in the end have failed. WOW, does that bring things into the light. God’s desire was to have fellowship with us in the Garden of Eden as “His People” but with our free will we desired our wisdom and knowledge to keep us in that “Paradise”, but it didn’t, it took us out of the “Paradise” which was not with God, but was by ourselves, to do as we want and be.

Maybe the foundation that God laid out for us to “live” was designed for us as a “People” for that specific purpose. “God” knows it was best for us!!

It’s all about the “Story”!

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June 11, 2012 · 2:22 pm

Not of this world

There is tshirt company that is called ‘Not of this World “and is  sold in alot of christian bookstores also known in short as NOTW. I have this as one of my stickers on my car, it is a good conversation starter if someone asks me. 

I have really been amazed the last few years in watching and listening to christianity and to their leaders that their dialogue to the christians  are preaching the wrong message. We need to re-evaluate of understanding of what Jesus Christ(My use of particular uses of God’s names are significant in that I will use Jesus as when He was on earth for the 33 plus years and Jesus Christ after His Resurrection title, but all could be substituted at anytime as God or the Holy Spirit.) was trying to show us to see. 

He was not trying to write a book by the way he lived in his earthly living to be produced later,the bible. It was a story about people that had seen God. Many of the old testament leaders “seen” Christ and then was being led by Him in His being. One such instance was of Moses, He actually didn’t physically see Him but He did feel His presence and being. The one person that I believe that actually did see Christ was Peter, His mind and spirit knew who Christ was because His spirit was with him and in him.

I think that the movie “Avatar” brings up this very message in the scene where the main character is in the “other world” and is being lead in the ways of the “other world”by one of their people, she tells him that to really know her is to “see her”.

This topic has come up one other time since I have seen the movie and it was used in the same way, we need to really know God to really “see Him”. This is has really affected the way that I walk in my daily life.

The  underlining current of this message is that we taking instructions from so many areas of our life that is giving us “how to’s” do this life when in fact,Christ is wanting us to live in “His world”(kingdom),now! We cannot be listening to the usual sermons or conferences that tell us that they have the 12 step program to christianity and all they have to do is the steps accordingly and then share it with 10 other people. No,no,no. Do we realize that this is the same thing that Israel was doing and is still doing to try and “See Him”. He has shown us that to really be a part of this Kingdom,as Israel wanted to be in, That we had to be in Heavenly realm as the Kingdom of God.

This is shown in the passage of 1 Corinthians 3:16,then in 2 Corinthians 6:16 it expands the explanation of it. When Jesus was here on earth and was being beaten and abused by the Romans, His statement to King Herod was  that “yes, He was a King, but not of this World! 

If we are to be living in this kingdom, the Kingdom of God, we must be in Christ,to be apart of it. We must not kid ourselves into thinking that the things that we do in this physical world is the way to go, but to embrace Christ and to live thru Him,and with Him as our “not of this World” experience.
 

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