Archive | December 2013

Quote: How About A Little Sanity Over Grace?

A good read from Mark

Beyond the Map

With all the factional and aggressive knee-jerk reactions from both extremes of Grace, it gives new meaning to the secular pop song;‘Why Can’t We Be Friends?’  Or Roberta Flack’s,‘Where Is The Love’?   If we’re all in the same family makes you wonder, why all the fighting?  What happened to “love your enemies”… not to mention love your friends and family?  It’s crazy… as imperative and central as Grace is, even to our salvation, don’t you wish we could just enjoy and camp out on‘Main Street’ Grace without all the angst?  This title;The Quest for the Radical Middle’, (a book written about John Wimber’sVineyard movementsays it pretty clearly for me.  Let’s major on the powerful central tenets of Grace that are immutable and life changing… and let Grace  have it’s epic transformational work in us.  

For more on…

View original post 767 more words

Never forget who you are. ..

Don’t forget who you are or where you came from. Mankinds (and yours) identity was formed in Him pre-dirt. In Christ’ s death and resurrection we we co-died and were co-ressurected. The act of the finished work of the cross returned or brought our redeemed innocence and re-genesis. Our original identity was returned.

I wrote in a blog last week in regards to the 23rd Psalm. The good shepherd brings his sheep to the still waters (waters of reflection) where upon looking into it they see their image and are reminded of their original design (2 Corinthians 3:18)

23 The difference between a mere spectator and a participator is that both of them hear the same voice and perceive in its message the face of their own genesis reflected as in a mirror

24 they realize that they are looking at themselves, but for the one it seems just too good to be true, he departs (back to his old way of seeing himself) and immediately forgets what manner of person he is; never giving another thought to the one he saw there in the mirror.

25 The other one is mesmerized by what he sees; he is captivated by the effect of a law that frees man from the obligation to the old written code that restricted him to his own efforts and willpower. No distraction or contradiction can dim the impact of what he sees in that mirror concerning the law of perfect liberty (the law of faith) that now frees him to get on with the act of living the life (of his original design.) He finds a new spontaneous lifestyle; the poetry of practical living. (The law of perfect liberty is the image and likeness of God revealed in Christ, now redeemed in man as in a mirror. Look deep enough into that law of faith that you may see there in its perfection a portrait that so resembles the original that he becomes distinctly visible in the spirit of your mind and in the face of every man you behold. I translated the word, parakupto, with mesmerized from para, a preposition indicating close proximity, originating from, denoting the point from which an action originates, intimate connection, and kupto, to bend, stoop down to view at close scrutiny; parameno, to remain captivated under the influence of; meno, to continue to be present. The word often translated as freedom, eleutheria, means without obligation; spontaneous.)

27 The purest and most uncompromising form of religious expression is found at its source. God is the Father of mankind. He inspires one to take a genuine interest in helping the fatherless and the widows in their plight, and to make sure that one’s own life does not become blemished in the process. (The word para, is a preposition indicating close and immediate proximity, intimate connection.)

The Him in me completes me and realigns me with mans original design. 

by Mirror Bible – mobile app. http://www.mirrorbible.com/

Contradictions and vessels made of whatever…

Image

This is must watch I can’t wait for the new updates in the Mirror Word. This seriously changes or gives new light onto my old contradictions and angst to this. 

Earthen vessels made of clay and wood are not inferior vessels they are just different. their uses may be different but this does not mean inferior. Don’t strive to be something different then you are.

Paul never said, “If we deny God, he will also deny us!”
In the context of extreme contradiction, truth triumphs!
God cannot be untrue to himself!

 

 

 

Shirley oh surely the reflection reminder…

image image

I have always looked at Psalm 23 as the conforting verse or the Sunday School chapter. “Look,  we have a good shepherd” kind of a chapter. But it really speaks identity to me now.

Psalm 23

A psalm of David.

1 The Lord is my shepherd; I have all that I need.

In Him I am found, I am who he says I am and he really likes me!

2 He lets me rest in green meadows; he leads me beside peaceful streams.

A different wording-take Mirror word style:
Looking into the waters of reflection (still waters) we are suddenly reminded of who we are seeing by seeng our reflection (my original identity and redeemed innocence) (2 Cor 3:18 James 1:23-25)

3 He renews my strength. He guides me along right paths, bringing honor to his name.

He is my source and I am His glory!

4 Even when I walk through the darkest
valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me.Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me.

The revelation of He in me completes me.

5 You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies.You honor me by anointing my head with oil. My cup overflows with blessings.

Just WOW, you seriously dote over me!

6 Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me    all the days of my life,and I will live in the house of the Lord forever.

So you define me, complete me, and take care of me FOREVER!

YEAH I could really like this!

That’s all for now…

AWESOMENESS!

image

101 Lies taught in the church (Steve McVey)

Below is an intro for Steve’s YouTube channel. He has a book on the first 52 but has added more via YouTube.

It’s worth the time…

Addendum:

We were talking about his book where he deals with 52 of these lies. Someone made the comment “oh the chaprter a week for a year un-devotional”
loved it!

.

 

 

Steve’s McVey’s YouTube Channel

Lie 01 Salvation is giving your life to Jesus Christ

Lie 02 Christians are just sinners saved by grace

Lie 03 When you become a Christian God changed your life

Lie 04 Becoming a Christian means having your sins forgiven

Lie 05 0ur sins are under the blood of Jesus Christ

Lie 06 Your greatest need is to love God more

Lie 07 The answer to weak commitment is to rededicate

Lie 08 The Holy Spirit convicts unbelievers of their sin

Lie 09 The Christian life is all of Him and none of me

Lie 10 You can go to far with grace

The list goes on

Who do you see when you look into the mirror?

 

My identity can only be defined by what God says about me… He defines me and what he says of me is awesomeness!!

Image

 

What he sees in me is HIM! He created me pre-dirt with his DNA. I have His DNA!! I was made in His image!

 

What’s true of Him is true of me!!

 

2 Corinthians 3:18

 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 led from an inferior mind-set to the revealed endorsement of our authentic identity. Mankind is his glory!

John 1

12 Everyone who realizes their association is IN HIM, convinced that he is their original life and that His name defines them, in them he endorses the fact that they are indeed his offspring, begotten of him; he sanctions the legitimacy of their sonship.

13 These are they who discover their genesis in God beyond their natural conception! Man began in God. We are not the invention of our parents

14 Suddenly the invisible eternal Word takes on visible form! The Incarnation! In Him, and now confirmed in us! The most accurate tangible display of God’s thought finds expression in human life. The Word became a human being; we are His address; He resides in us! He captivates our gaze! The glory we see there is is not a religious replica; He is the authentic begotten son! The glory (that Adam lost) returns in fullness! Only grace can communicate truth in such a complete context!

 

 

 

Singing into existence, breathing into existence (Resonance)

Image

 

Here is a tribe in Africa where the birth date of a child is counted not from when they were born, nor from when they are conceived but from the day that the child was a thought in its mother’s mind. And when a woman decides that she will have a child, she goes off and sits under a tree, by herself, and she listens until she can hear the song of the child that wants to come. And after she’s heard the song of this child, she comes back to the man who will be the child’s father, and teaches it to him. And then, when they make love to physically conceive the child, some of that time they sing the song of the child, as a way to invite it.

And then, when the mother is pregnant, the mother teaches that child’s song to the midwives and the old women of the village, so that when the child is born, the old women and the people around her sing the child’s song to welcome it. And then, as the child grows up, the other villagers are taught the child’s song. If the child falls, or hurts its knee, someone picks it up and sings its song to it. Or perhaps the child does something wonderful, or goes through the rites of puberty, then as a way of honoring this person, the people of the village sing his or her song.

In the African tribe there is one other occasion upon which the villagers sing to the child. If at any time during his or her life, the person commits a crime or aberrant social act, the individual is called to the center of the village and the people in the community form a circle around them. Then they sing their song to them.

 

Image

The tribe recognizes that the correction for antisocial behavior is not punishment; it is love and the remembrance of identity. When you recognize your own song, you have no desire or need to do anything that would hurt another.

And it goes this way through their life. In marriage, the songs are sung, together. And finally, when this child is lying in bed, ready to die, all the villagers know his or her song, and they sing—for the last time—the song to that person.

You may not have grown up in an African tribe that sings your song to you at crucial life transitions, but life is always reminding you when you are in tune with yourself and when you are not. When you feel good, what you are doing matches your song, and when you feel awful, it doesn’t. In the end, we shall all recognize our song and sing it well. You may feel a little warbly at the moment, but so have all the great singers. Just keep singing and you’ll find your way home.

(Source)

Thegodmolecule (Nudity)

My outtake:

Ones original identity comes from the breath of God prior to the creation of the earth (Gen 1:26-27).

26 Then God said, “Let us make manh in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

27 So God created man in his own image,
     in the image of God he created him;
     male and female he created them.

 

Mankind was created in God’s image. He is our template our design. Our original identity is Him! We were formed with His identity as our basic foundation. The third word in verse 26 is “said”. He formed us first in His consciousness with his voice (His breath) in His image. in verse 27 man is then created in his own image

Francois du Toit writes in the “Mirror Word” a story of an eagle:

The Free Eagle

“During our honeymoon in January, 1979, in the Blydeiver Canyons in Mpumalanga, South Africa,  Lydia and I met a nature conservation officer who told us off of fascinating incident when they released a black eagle a week prior that had been in the Pretoria zoo for 10 years. This was the day for this eagle too deep fried and to return to the life of its design. But their excitement turned to frustration when, after opening the cage, the bird refused to fly! Ten years of cadged life seemed to have trapped its mind in an invisible enclosure! How could they get the Eagle to realize that it was indeed free? No amount of prompting and prodding seem to help. Then, after some hours the bird suddenly looked up, and in the distance they heard the call of another eagle, this was the moment of true freedom! Immediately the zoo Eagle took off in flight! No flying lessons are required when truth is realized!

The dramatic story left a deep impression on my mind. I knew that in the light of Paul’s revelation of the good news, we are left with one for urgent priority, which is to announce to the nations with bold confidence and mirror-reflect the integrity of there redeemed in a sense reflect the integrity of there redeemed innocence.

This gives such clarity and content to the fact that Jesus came to the planet not to upgrade the cage of Judaism or any other religion by starting a new one called Christianity, but to be the Incarnate voice of the likeness and image of God in human form! He came to reveal and redeem the image of God in us! His mission was to mirror the blueprint of our design, not as an example for us but of us! (Col 1:15, 2:9, 10)

In God’s faith in mankind is associated in Christ even before the foundation of the world. Jesus died humanities death and when the stone was rolled away, we were raised together with him! Every human life is fully represented in him (Hos 6:2)

If the gospel is not the voice of the free Eagle, it is not the gospel.”

 

The similarities between the above article and creation and the gospel are thought provoking.

(Add on)

I particularly like how they realign or reconcile their children by communally reminding them who they are via song.

 

This actually brings up some of my thoughts on quantum physics, sound waves, creation, and physical/spiritual realms.

 

(Check back I may add more later)

Are you looking for something you already have?

Disney does it again.

image

I posted the other day on the revelation found within the movie The Lion King. Basically it speaks to your identity and Christ in you.  Rafiki (the gibbon) has Simba (the young lion) look into the water and asks him to tell him what he sees.
Upon looking into the reflection he responds “no, that’s not my father.” Rafiki says “look harder. .. . You see, he lives in you.”

Mufasa “you have forgotten me, so you have forgotten who you are, look inside yourself Simba, you are more than what you have become…Remember who you are, you are my son.”

In a way that is the gospel,  Christ came to show us who we are. We are all God’s sons and daughters.  The finished work of the cross is the act that provides this as revelation.  It is that realignment of out thoughts and beliefs as to our identity.

In the Lion King post I stated I get things out of Disney movies. In the movie Mulan there is as good of an analogy of grace as I have ever seen.

Mulan comes home

If you will notice in the YouTube clip, Mulan wants to come to her father and be accepted and forgiven. She thinks that by bringing medals and the sword she can gain it. Next notice her father response. 

Fa Zhou: Mulan…
Mulan: [kneels] Father. I brought you the sword of Shan-Yu, and the crest of the Emperor. They’re gifts, to honor the Fa family.

[Fa Zhou drops the sword and crest on the ground and embraces Mulan]

Fa Zhou: The greatest gift and honor… is having you for a daughter.

I know personally I have always felt like I have had to work to attain some kind of spiritual ok-iness (my own word). I was taught to do this and do that and I would gain righteousness.  I was taught I had to work to gain access to God. When all along (pre-dirt, Gen 1:26) I was made in God’s image. I have had His DNA before the earth was created. All along I have been his son. All mankind is His sons and daughters. We have been deceived into believing we are less. We have been deceived into believing we could do some 7 step method to gain righteousness.

Grace, salvation,  and righteousness are all free gifts that we can fo nothing to gain on our own accord.

Are you looking for something that is already inside you?

“You have forgotten who you are!”

 

Image

 

Disney movies have spoken to me; “The Lion King“,” “Mulan,”Mulan 2A Bugs Life,” and so all have messages with in them.  Watch the section of the Lion King.

Now after watching it read the verses below:

2 Corinthians 3:18

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 led from an inferior mind-set to the revealed endorsement of our authentic identity. Mankind is his glory!

 

James 1:23-25

They realize that they are looking at themselves, but for the one it seems just too good to be true, he departs (back to his old way of seeing himself) and immediately forgets what manner of person he is; never giving another thought to the one he saw there in the mirror.

The other one is mesmerized by what he sees; he is captivated by the effect of a law that frees man from the obligation to the old written code that restricted him to his own efforts and willpower. No distraction or contradiction can dim the impact of what he sees in that mirror concerning the law of perfect liberty (the law of faith) that now frees him to get on with the act of living the life (of his original design.)

He finds a new spontaneous lifestyle; the poetry of practical living. (The law of perfect liberty is the image and likeness of God revealed in Christ, now redeemed in man as in a mirror. Look deep enough into that law of faith that you may see there in its perfection a portrait that so resembles the original that he becomes distinctly visible in the spirit of your mind and in the face of every man you behold. I translated the word, parakupto, with mesmerized from para, a preposition indicating close proximity, originating from, denoting the point from which an action originates, intimate connection, and kupto, to bend, stoop down to view at close scrutiny; parameno, to remain captivated under the influence of; meno, to continue to be present. The word often translated as freedom, eleutheria, means without obligation; spontaneous.)

We have forgotten who we are! We are all created in God’s image (Gen 1:26). We all have our start IN HIM. Our original DNA is HIS. Through the cross we have the ability to have our spiritual DNA restored. He is in us! He is the I am in me!!  He is not far from me/you!

%d bloggers like this: