The Good Of The Father (A Price To Be Paid) # 2009

 "Go! Lo! I am dispatching you as lambs in the midst of wolves"

Lukes Account 10: 3, Concordant New Testament 

I woke up this morning to the news that authorities in Utah had finally apprehended the alleged suspect in the killing of conservative Christian icon Charlie Kirk.  His death a few days ago shocked even those who didn't necessarily agree with him.  Yet Charlie knew that price that was to be paid for speaking the word of the evangel of Christ.  This is the same price which has been paid by the apostles of Jesus for their speaking of the good news of Christ.  Indeed, the apostles of Jesus were put to death on account of the message which they spoke.  It is Jesus who has proclaimed that He sends us out as sheep amongst wolves {Lukes Account 10:3}.  There is the price to be paid for speaking the evangel of Christ Jesus.  In my times in the gym, where I have developed many a solid friendship with believers and non believers alike, I have come to know this price all too well.  There have been arguments and disagreements as well as those who continue to choose to speak with me due to my "Closed minded" adherence to the gospel of Christ.  I accept this as the cost of following Jesus.  Not everyone will hear my words and come to accept Him.  Yet, much like Charlie Kirk, I continue to put myself out into the world to speak to the truth of my life in Christ Jesus.  To his credit, I've never seen Charlie Kirk condemn someone who claimed not to believe in what he was speaking to.  No, he simply spoke the words of the truth of the evangel and left it at that.  He was simply planting a seed which the Father could later bring into fruition.  To be honest, this is exactly how I came into the knowing of my life in Christ.  For it is a dear friend of mine who spoke unto me the truth of the evangel, which God has now used to bring to fruition the revelation of my life in Him.  This is the beauty of those who speak the truth of Christ Jesus for all of the world to hear.  Charlie Kirk knew this as well.  The mainstream church may tell us that those who do not follow Jesus are guilty of condemnation, but this not why He sent His followers out to do.  It is Jesus who has dispatched those who have known Him to speak the truth of His gospel to the world around us {Lukes Account 9:60}.  

Now after some days, Felix, coming along with Drusilla (Being a Jewess), sends after Paul and hears him concerning the faith in Christ Jesus

Acts of the Apostles 24: 24, Concordant New Testament 

Many have spoken of a "Lost generation" of youth which we have in this country.  How our institutions for higher learning have indoctrinated those who are being taught there.  It is in these bastions of liberal thinking that Charlie Kirk chose to speak his message of the evangel of Christ.  As a lamb dispatched among wolves.  This was his battleground, for he knew that the youth of our nation desperately are in need of hearing the gospel.  After his death, there have been countless stories told by those who, through hearing the words of Charlie Kirk, have come to know the Lord.  I consider that he had no greater calling than that.  This is the same calling which has been placed on my own life not only in my interactions with my gym community but with others around me as well.  It is said that many will come to know the Lord through the words of those who follow Him.  I don't think that Charlie Kirk could have asked for anything better than to be remembered for speaking of the faith which he held so close to his heart.  Again, this is part of the cost of following Jesus.  How is it that we will be known?  Will we adhere to and follow the desires of the world?  Or will we choose to know what has been written upon our hearts from the creation of the world?  That our lives are not lived in the confines of this world, but in the Father {Johns Account 14:20}.  I choose Jesus. 

~Scott~ 

The Good Of The Father (They Knew Not God) # 2008

 

Phillip is saying to Him, "Lord, Show us the Father, and it is sufficing us."  Jesus is saying to him, "So much time am I with you, and you do  not know Me, Phillip!  He who has seen Me has seen the Father, and how are you saying, 'show us the Father'? 

Johns Account 14: 8-9, Concordant New Testament 

The question came up this week during a discussion on yesterdays post.  In "The heart of worship," I illustrated what Jesus described as true worship to God.  This is worship free of the styles and traditions of the mainstream church.  Too many times we're told that in order to be in "God's presence" that we need to be within the confines of the brick and mortar man-made church.  Sorry, this is not true worship to the Father.  For Jesus proclaims that the worship to God is to be "In spirit and truth" {Johns Account 4:23-24}.  This brought a question to mind for me, since the Jews of Jesus' day were so very involved in their  keeping of religious traditions, did they actually know God?  Jesus provides us with the answer to this question when His disciples ask Him to "Show us the Father" {Johns Account 14:8-9}.  Did the disciples feel that they didn't know God?  It's entirely possible.  Yet the response of Jesus to Phillips question speaks volumes.  "He who has seen Me has seen the Father" {Johns Account 14:9}.  Now, there were more than a few of the Jewish faith who condemned Jesus for seemingly comparing Himself to God.  Even more so as He again spoke the truth of the Father, claiming "I and the Father, We are one" {Johns Account 10:30}.  How well do we know God?  Do we know Him as the God spoken of by the traditions of the church, or do we know Him for who He is?  For much of my life, my own view of God revolved around what I heard in church on Sunday morning.  If the pastor proclaimed that God was watching everything I did with a wary eye, this is how I perceived Him to be.  More often than not, I was taught that because of my sin, that I was unable to be in the presence of God.  Since God was holy, and I was but a sinner, I could not have a personal relationship with the Father.  The closest I could ever hope to get was to emulate Christ, to be like Jesus.  This is the God that I knew.  Well, it turns out that, like the Jews of Jesus' time, I didn't know God.  

Religion has actually convinced people that there is a invisible man living in the sky watching everything you do, every minute of every day.  And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he doesn't want you to do.  And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever until the end of time!  But he loves you.  He loves you, and he needs money.  He always needs money.  He's all-powerful, all-perfect, all-knowing and all-wise, somehow he just can't handle money

~George Carlin~ 

I think that it is remarkable that I did not began to realize who God truly is until I removed myself from the traditions of the mainstream church.  Wasn't church where I was supposed to go to learn who God is?  Sadly, this isn't the case more often than not.  For as much as the Jews of Jesus' day were immersed in the traditions of their religion, so it is that those in the mainstream church of today are of the same cloth.  I would venture to say that they themselves know not the true of the Father.  They might, as I once did, know OF Him, but they do not know Him as I do.  The God that I now know is radically different from the Lord I was taught in the church.  Far from being separated from God by my sin nature, the truth of the evangel is that my life in now IN Him as Christ has proclaimed {Johns Account 14:20}.  But what about that sin which those in the church are so fond of pointing out?  Well, the apostle Paul has spoken to the truth that Christ has died to sin "once for all time" {Paul to the Romans 6:10}.  It is Jesus, the innocent One, who has given Himself willingly for us {Paul to the Corinthians (2) 5:21}.  The question remains, if Jesus has been crucified as the penalty for us, why is it that those in the church continue to preach that sin is an issue to us?  Simple, they do not know the truth of the Father.  If they do know Him, they willingly have chosen to ignore the truth.  This is the reality of the separation theology spoken by the mainstream church.  Ironically, this was also the theology spoken by those in the synagogues of Jesus' day by those who knew not God.  

~Scott~ 

The Good Of The Father (The Heart Of Worship) # 2007

 "But coming is the hour, and now is, when the true worshippers will be worshipping the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is also seeking such to be worshipping Him.  God is spirit, and those who are worshipping Him must be worshipping Him in spirit and truth"

Johns Account 4: 23-24, Concordant New Testament 

One of my favorite scenes from the Chosen series takes place when Jesus ventures to visit a Samaritan woman drawing water at a well.  Now, to know the importance of this meeting one must understand the religious dynamics of the day.  For this Samaritan woman was considered to be ritually unclean by the Jewish worshippers of Jesus' day.  The Samaritans chose to worship at their own separate location, forsaking the traditional Jewish worship center of Jerusalem.  It is against this backdrop of Jewish traditions that Jesus found Himself that day.  But Jesus had not come to condemn this Samaritan woman over her practices of worship, nor for her numerous husbands which we see revealed in this passage.  No, what Jesus ventured into this land to do was not only to reveal Himself to her, but also to speak to her that worshipping God is not based upon Jewish traditions.  True worship, as Jesus proclaims, is not about tradition, but about the heart of the worshipper.  One of the reasons that I liked this particular scene is that I have been among those who have been told that we must be in "God's house" on Sunday.  Growing up, I was all too often dragged into church by my mother who wanted her children to know God as she had.  Of course, her own parents had raised her in the same way.  Never once did it occur to us that we did not need to be in church in order to know the presence of the Lord.  That we didn't need the praise music and the often boring sermons.  Even today, I'm often approached by friends who wonder which church I am attending for my worship.  When I remind them that I live in the presence of God I often get a blank stare.  They don't get it.  Like the woman at the well, they hold to the traditional notion of worship that worship must take place in within the church.  What Jesus traveled to Samaria to do that day was to lay to rest the notion that God is only accessible in mans approved temples.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  For it is Jesus Who has spoken to the truth of a life lived in He and the Father {Johns Account 14:20}.  How is it that this truth fits into the narrative that our worship is to be done in a church setting?  The truth is that true worship from the heart can be accomplished anywhere.  

To put off from you, as regards your former behavior, the old humanity which is corrupted in accord with its seductive desires, yet be rejuvenated in the spirit of your mind, and to put on the new humanity which, in accord with God, is being created in righteousness and benignity of the truth

Pual to the Ephesians 4: 22-24, Concordant New Testament 

To be clear, I am not against those who attend church simply for the aspect of fellowship with fellow believers.  What I will never be on board with is the notion that God is only worshipped in the confines of the church.  It is this tradition which Jesus sought to dismantle.  I believe that to understand the truth of worshipping the Father wherever we might find ourselves in life we must first come to know Him for Who He truly is.  God has never been simply that overseer in heaven looking down upon us, judging our every move.  This is what religion will often speak to us.  No, the truth of the Father is that He has always been an intimate part of who we are.  He is in our DNA if you will.  We can proclaim this because we have been created in the spirit likeness of God {Genesis 1:27}.  It has never been possible for that which has been created to not have the fingerprints of its creator.  That is the truth we find in the Father.  Knowing this, we can readily assume that God is with us no matter where we find ourselves.  At work, at the gym or on a long road trip.  We always live our life within Him.  So it is that our spirit likeness of God is always able to worship Him no matter where we are.  There is no church or praise band required for "Propper" worship of God.  I have often found myself in a quiet moment where I found myself praising the Father for His presence in my life.  This is the type of worship Jesus was speaking to.  For God is spirit, and we are His spirit image. 

~Scott~ 

The Good Of The Father (Who Is God?) # 2006

 

Now the soulish man is not receiving those things which are of the spirit of God, for they are stupidity to him, and he is not able to know them, seeing that they are spiritually examined

Paul to the Corinthians (1) 2: 14, Concordant New Testament 

I recently had a discussion with a fellow gym rat who is pretty big into science.  He has done his share of research on the science of natural medicine as well as various other studies.  Yet we locked horns this past week when he attempted to bring science into the realm of God.  By his own admission, science is constantly evolving.  Yet we know from the scriptures that Christ Jesus never changes {To the Hebrews 13:8}.  So, who is God?  Is God within science?  Is God THE science?  The simple fact is that God is all in all.  That is, He is ever present is all which we will ever know and see, including science.  At its root, science is simply the study of something.  Archeology, meteorology and psychology are all realms of science that study something.  But here's the kicker, so is theology.  For theology is nothing but the study of God.  Mankind has upheld science as the knowledge of the universe.  The trouble is, they've forgotten the creator of all which we see.  We know that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth {Genesis 1:1}.  These are the very first words written in scripture.  For their part, science has continually attempted to downplay the truth of the Lord.  They try to divert our attention from the truth by claiming that the universe was created by some cosmic event long ago.  This is based upon the knowledge of man and not the truth we find in the Father.  The apostle Paul speaks to the worldly man not accepting the truth of the Lord, that "They are stupidity to him" {Paul to the Corinthians (1) 2:14}.  Nowhere is this more prevalent than in theology, the study of God.  I have written many times of the separation theology of the mainstream church.  It is this belief system which proclaims that it is our sin which has separated us from God.  Even today, our seminaries are filled with students of theology who are fed this false doctrine of God.  Paul speaks to the truth found in the evangel that Christ Jesus has died to sin "Once for all time" {Paul to the Romans 6:10}.  Knowing this, how is it that our sin has separated us from God?  Yet this is what our modern theology teaches us.  

In this you know the spirit of God: every spirit which is avowing Jesus Christ, having come in the flesh, is of God, and every spirit which is not avowing Jesus the Lord having come in the flesh is not of God.  And this is that of the antichrist, of which you have heard that is coming, and is now already in the world

First Epistle of John 4: 2 - 3, Concordant New Testament  

I believe that there is a very good reason that the apostle John spoke of our "Testing the spirits to see if they are of God" {First Epistle of John 4:1}.  I also believe that in doing so that we can discern the ways of the accuser.  John speaks the truth of the antichrist already being in the world among us {First Epistle of John 4:3}.  This is evident within the various studies of science.  Satan has often attempted to flip the narrative of the truth of the evangel through science.  The "Big bang" theory of creation.  The false narrative of man-made climate change (Formerly global warming) which continues to spew falsehoods even today.  The advice that I give to believers who question me on these studies of science is to test the spirits as the apostle suggests.  Have we evolved from some microscopic material?  Test the spirits of Genesis 1:1.  The larger question is, are our minds centered upon science or God?  In my opinion, you can't have it both ways.  One notable exception may be the science archeology.  For it is through archeology that man has proven the history of the scriptures.  From the discovery of the lost ark of Noah to that of the ruins of ancient Egypt, archeology has continued to shine a light on the events of our past.  So, where is God?  As the creator of all which we see, God is indeed all in all.  Not only is our own life in Him {Johns Account 14:20} but there is nothing in His creation that He has is not a intimate part of.  Although science will continue in its attempt to refute that truth.  

~Scott~ 

The Good Of The Father (The Twelve Steps To Nowhere) # 2005

 For everything that is in the world, the desire of the flesh, and the desire of the eyes, and the ostentation of living, is not of the Father, but is of the world

First Epistle of John 2: 16, Concordant New Testament 

It's the mainstream church solution to almost every addiction of problem that we might face.  It starts with the admission of the problem, and then moves into the twelve-step phase.  While in the midst of my own addiction to pornography, I was encouraged quite strongly by a pastor to enroll myself in one of these twelve-step programs.  Only there under the church guidance, I was told, would I find freedom from my addiction.  Well, not surprisingly, I was lied to.  For even as I labored in the twelve-steps of mainstream church doctrine, my affliction continued.  In the confines of the church, I felt like a condemned sinner.  The separation theology of the church was never more prevalent than in the twelve-step process.  Despite the efforts of my accountability partner, I could never get over the feeling that God was disappointed with me.  The truth of the love that He had for me was rarely mentioned.  I was a sinner, and I needed to recognize that reality.  At the end of my twelve-steps, I was none the more released from my addiction than I had been when I began.  Why was God keeping me in this state?  Wasn't He happy with me?  Over time, I've found discovered that the whole idea behind the twelve-step process was wrong.  That guilt and condemnation were never intended to produce a change in someone.  My own release from my addiction did not come until I had come to the realization of who I was as a person.  I'm not speaking of the man everyone sees every day, but who I am inside.  For this is my true identity.  The words spoken by the apostle Paul were what introduced me to this realization.  It is Paul who speaks to his own knowing of Christ Jesus in within him {Paul to the Galatians 2:20}.  Wait, Christ within a sinner like me?  Those mainstream church theologies continued to haunt me as I struggled with my new-found revelation.  How could God be within a sinner?  I had been brought up to believe that God was holy, and that sinful man could never reach His level of closeness.  The best I could hope for is to somehow "Be like" Jesus.  But Paul never speaks of being like Jesus.  What his evangel does proclaim is that our life is in Him {Paul to the Romans 6:8}.  It is this evangel which eventually accomplished what those twelve-steps could never do.  

Now the God of all grace, Who calls you into His eonian glory in Christ, while briefly suffering, He will be adjusting, establishing, firming, founding you

Peter to the Dispersion (1) 5: 10, Concordant New Testament 

The story has been told more than a few times.  About the night that I found myself about to enter once again into one of the numerous strip clubs to be found in Portland.  Of how at that moment I was suddenly introduced as who I really was, and it wasn't the guy who had been frequenting these places.  No, the man I really am is one who is indwelled with the spirit of Christ.  My life is in Him {Johns Account 14:20}.  This is a knowing that I was never taught in the twelve-step process.  For the church based addiction recovery focuses on the external presumption of who we are (The sinner).  The truth of the evangel spoken by Paul assures us that this is NOT who we are.  This is not our true identity.  If I had known this revelation sooner in life, I would have had zero need for those twelve-steps to nowhere.  I think of the apostle Paul and his own conversion on that road to Damascus.  Paul speaks to that day in his life as "When it delights God" to unveil Christ Jesus in him {Paul to the Galatians 1:15-16}.  Indeed, when my own time came, the Father revealed His Son in me.  Of course, all of those years of mainstream church preaching made it difficult to unpack what the Lord was revealing in me.  We do well to remember that upon his come to Jesus moment, Paul did not immediately begin his ministry.  After his revelation, Paul went away to spend at least two years in Arabia {Paul to the Galatians 1:17}.  We can only assume that he has his own unpacking to do.  The truth that I have come to know is that I am not the sinner which the church has proclaimed.  Nor is my life separated from God.  Who I am is His son {First Epistle of John 3:1}.  

~Scott~