Archive | March 2013

Let the word speak for itself

image

I’m going to let the word speak for itself today…

1 Cor 15:13 If our co-resurrection is not proclaimed then the resurrection of Jesus from the dead is no longer relevant.
15:14 If Christ is not raised from the dead there is nothing left for us to preach and nothing left for you to believe.
15:18 No resurrection implies no hope for anyone beyond the grave; it makes no difference whether you believed that you were included in Christ’s death or not.
15:19 If our hope in Christ was restricted to only benefit us in this life then imagine the severity of our disappointment if it all had to come to an abrupt end when we died. 
15:20 However this very moment the risen Christ represents everyone who has ever died; exactly like how the first fruit would represent the complete harvest.
15:21 The same humanity who died in a man was raised again in a man. 
15:22 In Adam all died; in Christ all are made alive.

Mirror Bible

Is it a list of do’s and don’ts?

image

Christianity to me, is not a list of do’s and don’ts. Christianity is a relationship based out of the grace and hope that Jesus gave us through the cross.This act of going to the cross on our behalf set into motion a spiritual revolution. Due to Adams sin we (man) was now bound by the law of sin and death. In his death we co-died and were co-resurrected now no longer being bound to the law. It was a re-genesis. Jesus gave man (already living to those not yet conceived) the ability to walk in spiritual fullness here on earth (now). Grace flows freely not to allow man to do as he pleases but to grow in relationship with God here on earth as Adam did pre-fall. That grace draws us to our father.The actions or things that constrain and hold us to earthly desires but that relationship, that grace, that hope, that unconditional love draws us away from thelusts snd temptations.

One of the biggest problems withe the church these days is that it as seen as judgemental. Many still operate as if they were under the law. We can not operate under the law and the new covenant together. Make your choice to either follow every commandment and 600+ minor laws or accept th gift of salvation and walk in the fullness of all Jesus gave us at that moment we died and resurrected with him 2000+ years ago.

If following the law would have worked Jesus wouldn’t have had to be our sacrifice.Before the cross if you sinned you needed to get yourself some animal go to the priest and have him sacrifice it for you. Jesus became our sheep, our priest, and our sacrifice. The one stop shop. He made righteous the un-righteous. He did it to bring us into a relationship with him. That relationship can be found here today. That grace, that love, that relationship brings my Christianity to not a list of what I can and can’t do but a desire and deep longing to be satisfied and complete in him not the things of this world.

On a side note it makes Christianity a desirable thing to the world

Who could punch a puppy?

image

I currently have four puppies who are 5 weeks old.  We are potty training them on puppy pads. About 75% of the time they piddle where they are supposed to and 25% their poo goes in the right spot. As the owner/trainer I do not get mad when they miss, the opposite is more prevalent. I praise their accomplishments.  I think that many Christians look at God as a vengeful father who is looking to throw lightning bolts. 
We are his creation his children and he is a good father. He is not vengeful but he is loving. When reading through the gospels and how Jesus relates to people he is not mean. Take the woman at the well for example. He knew all about her past yet he did not judge her. He showed her kindness and did not treat with anything but respect. When dealing with Zecheus (sp?), he actually requested to go to his house. Tax collectors were not looked at favorably. When Z repented, it wasn’t after a tongue lashing it was after being in Jesus’s presence.

I think people need to spend time in his presence and get to know him. It is life changing.

Who could punch a puppy?

James 1:18 NLT

He chose to give birth to us by giving us his true word. And we, out of all creation, became his prized possession

image

“To know as you have always been known.” By Andre Rabe

image

This speaks to so many of the ideas and topics that I have been contemplating. I highly recommend following both Andre Rabe and Francois du Toit.

My 2:00 am wake up

image

So I woke up around 2am, I
got up went to the kitchen and had a, drink. I came back to bed.  I often put worship music or play the Bible audio (streaming) while I sleep. As I was crawling back into bed I picked up my phone to change the track. I noticed a blinking blue light reminding me I missed something and my phone wants to remind me to look. I looked at the status  bar and opened Facebook.  I saw a post by Francois du Toit and read it. My spirit was provoked by it. About seven hours I was with a small group discussing the resurrection in light of Romans, Ephesians, and 2 Corinthians. God you can wake me up like this as much as you want.

Francois quote is below.

“A meaningful relationship with the Creator and our fellow humans of tangible content and feedback was substituted for an airy-fairy philosophy of religious ritual, sentiment and dreams. Trapped in a spiritual vacuum of ignorance, we’ve latched on to worn-out and fading traditions of the past and vague future hopes.”

Francois du Toit

Once the veil of religion (law) is lifted and the epiphany of the realization what happened at the cross truly or even partially gets through a mans mind and springs forth into his spirit the freedom it brings is wow

Ephesians 2:13 TMT “But now wow! Everything has changed; vhou have discovered yourselves to be located in Christ.  What once seemed so distant is now so near; his blood reveals your redeemed innocence and authentic genesis. ”

The WOW factor,  the cross a the impact of mans co-death and co-resurrection. We are one with Christ at that time,  pre-coneption.

Francois will be coming to Kansas City the end of May beginning of June,  I look forward to it expectantly.

My Garage, thorn in my…..

image

I have an issue that has become almost a running joke around the house. Here is my problem. We are a family with 3 drivers (about to be 4), we have 3 cars (about to be 4), we have a two car garage, and last the automatic garage door opener only came with two remotes. Winter in Kansas City does bring snow and cold weather. When there were only two cars it was not a problem. We added the third and the remote became a limited commodity worth more than…well not gold but we have had a couple of “hey who took my remote?!” moments. Initially the parents were the holders of these little gizmos. A certain daughter found that not having one cramped her style (side note she also found parking out in the winter weather was not suited to her). What this meant was I now had access issues. I was noticing my remote was missing often. I would find it in my daughters car, I would retrieve it and shortly there after I would have to look for it again and again. I reluctantly realized that my plight was un-winnable (so be it). I was fine when I left the garage but was reliant on closing and opening the garage with the keypad outside for closing and re-entry. Since I often have full hands upon entry it made it very awkward. I went on like this for most of this winter. My brother in law was over the other day and we were running an errand. We hopped into the 07 Toyota Sienna and took off. He noticed I used the keypad to close the door and then asked me a question. “Where’s your remote? I told him why. He looked at me puzzled and asked “Why don’t you use your vans programmable buttons?” DOH! I knew they were there when we bought the van 5+ years ago. Why hadn’t I thought of that?

image

This realization changed my life for the better. I was really thankful and its has made my life easier. Most Christians walk their life this way. We have each been given the free gifts of grace, healing, identity, faith, etc. when Jesus died and rose again. Are you walk in his fullness? The simplicity of it is that Christ’s fullness is our fullness. It has nothing to do with our striving, we could never do it on our own merit. We have a God who has only one requirement, an open heart to him.

2 Chronicles 16:9 NIV

For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him…”

Blueprint Man

image

Romans 8:29 NIV

For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.

Romans 8:29 TMT

He pre-designed and engineered us from the start to be jointly fashioned in the same mold and image of his son according to the exact blueprint of his thought.  We see the original and intended pattern of our lives preserved in his Son. He is the firstborn from the same womb that reveals our genesis. He confirms that we are the inv we ntion of God.

Each of us were born new when Jesus resurrected.  His re-birth was our re-birth. This is man’s re-genesis, man’s redeemed innocence! I seem to be going back to 2 Corinthians 3:18 a lot but it’s a common and rudimentary concept that Pauls message throughout the Gospel expounds.

It states “The days of window-shopping are over!  In him every face is unveiled.  In gazing with wonder at the blueprint likeness of God displayed in human form we suddenly realize that we are looking at ourselves!  Every feature of his image is mirrored in us! This is the most radical transformation engineered by the Spirit of the Lord; we are lead from an inferior mind-set to the revealed endorsement of our authentic identity. Mankind is his glory! ” The word gazing is katoptrizomenoi, it is the present tense meaning to gaze into a reflection, to mirror one self. Transformation is metamorphumeta is present passive indicative from metamorpho; meta, together with meros,  form. Image is eikon, it translates exact resemblance,  image and likeness; eikon also assumes a prototype,  that which it not merely resembles,  but from which it is drawn (think sourse).

For such a time as this! God knew you before the land and seas were formed.  He knew you!  He knows you!  He desires to walk with you as he walked with Adam (pre his oops).

Jeremiah 1:5 NIV

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

We were cast in his image,  we were redeemed at his resurrection whether we chose to walk in his grace and hope. What is his blueprint for each of us? My identity who I am is not my vocation or what I achieve or don’t achieve.  It is not a label put on me by parents, peers, doctor, government,  physique, etc. We are bot ugly ducks who will one day transform into that swan. I/we look into that mirror today and we see God’s image and at the same time God looks back and sees us and guess what it is the same image. He sees us transformed metamorphosed NOW. He is not looking at some future us.  He sees with his perfect present vision. His son died and and rose again taking back the right the car keys if you will. Satan is a thief, he never had ownership of us or the earth.  He usurped authority.  Jesus took the authority back. Our original identity was restored at the cross!

We were pre-destined to be his image, the image of his Son! We are that eikon, that exact image/likeness, that prototype.

I choose to walk in his identity, I refuse to be a label put on me by someone or something other than God.

2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

Jesus, Lover Of My Soul (It’s All About You)

image

I walked into the Prayer Room and sat down, normally I pull out my Bible and note pad and start to study. Today I was slow on the draw and was drawn into the worship.  Second song in was an old Passion sing I first heard probably 15 years ago on a trip to Toronto Vineyard for a youth conference where we drug 20 or so teens from Wisconsin and Minnesota.  To this day it still rocks me. When ever I get all heady it breaks it down to the basics,  it’s not about me…

It’s all about You, Jesus
And all this is for YouFor Your glory and your fame
It’s not about me
As if You should do things my way
You alone are God And I surrender to your ways

Jesus, lover of my soul
All consuming fire is in Your gaze
Jesus, I want you to know
I will follow you all my days
For no one else in history is like you
And history itself belongs to you
Alpha and Omega, You have loved me
And I will share eternity with You

@MistyEdwards “Only a Shadow” Full Concert

image

Just found this on YouTube. Misty Edwards Only a Shadow live concert recorded at  The International House of Prayer One Thing Conference 2012.

The album came out this week. 
(Pseudo Commercial Plug)

Sonship Dude!

image

I was reading in Romans 8:19-24 still contemplating sonship (following yesterday’s blog) it states;

Our lives now represent the one event every creature anticipates withheld breath, standing on tip-toe as it were the unveiling of the sons of God. Can you hear the drum roll?

Every creature suffered abuse through Adam’s fall; they were discarded like a squeezed out orange. Creation did not volunteer to fall prey to the effect of the fall. Yet within this stark setting hope prevails.

All creation knows the glorious liberty of the SONS of God sets the stage for their own release from decay.

We sense the universal agony and pain recorded in history until this very moment.

We ourselves feel the grief echo of their groaning within us while we are ready too EMBRACE the ORIGINAL BLUEPRINT also of our physical stature to the full consequence of SONSHIP.  What we ALREADY NOW PARTICIPATE in as first fruits of the spirit will bloom into a full gathering of the harvest.

For what we already experience of salvation confirms our hope and continues to fuel our expectation for what we still cannot see. In the final visible completeness of the harvest,  hope has fulfilled its function.

Through the cross we co-died and became co-heirs with Christ.  This act brought mankind into sonship. Sonship! Do you get the ramifications?  We have a new lease, Adam’s fall has been wiped clean.

You hear stories of prisoners who have been behind bars for decades and have been released and still act like prisoners.

image

James Whitmore in The Shawshank Redemption

Jame Whitmore’s character in the Shawshank Redemption had been in prison since his late teens and was released an old man. He was free but he didn’t know how to cope with his freedom. He still acted like he was in chains asking permission to use the bathroom among others. He didn’t understand traffic or how to cross the street. He knew about street and cars. He had knowledge of what they were but it was merely cognition not understanding of the practical. We are like that, I’ve often used the terminology “we are sons and daughters of God” but I never walked in it or even remotely understood what it means.

I am a joint heir with Christ! What he gets, I get. He has access to daddy, I have access to daddy.

I’m a parent of four kids; Savannah, Shakanah, Benaiah, and Moriah in that order. I cannot honestly say I have a favorite. In fact I have told them when we are alone (one on one) that they (which ever one is with me) that they are my favorite. Each one can come and ask me a question at any time and I will see what can be done to answer there question or make a request possible. No good father/mother will give their child a spider if they ask for a _______________. I am God’s son his child. I am not a servant or a guest. I am his favorite.

Jesus’s act of sacrifice on the cross redeemed our innocence, it brought us back to that pre-fall relationship that Adam and God had in Eden.

God has invited each of us to walk in that sonship. A good parent loves unconditionally and God is definitely a good parent. Remember the prodigal sons brother who at the end of the story is jealous of his brother and when confronted by his father about his issues the father says;

Luke 15:31-32 

“My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.”

Your original identity is that of a fully functional son/daughter of God!

Grasp your original blueprint Dude!

Give the word your undivided attention; do not underestimate yourself.  Make the calculation. There can only be one conclusion: your authentic origin is mirrored in the word. You are God’s poem; let his voice make poetry of your life.

James1:22 The Mirror Translation

%d bloggers like this: