Tag Archive | Grace

This Weekends Highlights

So I have been at a conference this weekend with John Crowder. He has been very controversial in Christian circles. With topics like BBQ’ing Your Sacred Cows and Demons Under Every Rock…. yeah kind of expected it.

I wasn’t sure what to expect, maybe a cross between Toronto and I don’t even know. I was very happy to say the least. If you know anything about Christianity you will realize that the majority of Christians have their pet theologies. Many are sound and many are sketchy.  Also, its a given that 99% need a corn cob-ectemy (let the reader understand). If you  have been following my blog, you’ll know I’ve been on a journey and I have been letting God de-construct my foundations so that he can re-construct it right this time

I believe John is very in tune with what God is birthing, working, etc (use whatever terminology you want. ) In my opinion he is sound,  he backs up everything with a plethora of biblical verses. Also he’s not afraid to say “I just don’t know. ”

Q&A with John Crowder

The Question you all wonder about

Who dat?

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Colosians 2:9-11

It is in Christ God finds an accurate and complete expression of himself, in a human body (100% God in human form). Jesus mirrors our completeness and endorses our true identity. He is ” I am” in us. You were in Christ when he died which means that his death represents your true circumcision. Sin’s authority in the human body was stripped off you in dying your death. (GLORY) In the same parallel (your co-circumcision in his death) yiur co-burial and joint resurrection is now demonstrated in baptism; your co-inclusion in Christ is what God’s faith knew when he powerfully raised him from the dead.

I am identified in him by him and he is the I am in me.

My Sunday Song (7-14-2013)

Altar Boys
Life Begins at the Cross
G.L.M.

Almost forgot My Sunday Song and with my earlier post I thought I would put together my current train of thinking with my roots (The finished work of the cross and my roots).

Take a look at the world how the people run around
Time marches on and the world keeps running down
They’re living in a fantasy, Of what they think life should be
There’s a deadness in this world and I know why
People look for life from things that make them die
They just can’t understand, How my life is in God’s hands
And I won’t fade away

(Chorus)
Life begins at the cross
It’s not easy to take,
But it’s the price you pay
Life begins at the cross
No other way

And if you want to live eternally
God said pick up you cross and follow me
And then He was crucified
Put on a cross crucified
So I can live again

(Chorus)

Authors note:It’s not a piece of wood that hangs on your wall It’s not a piece of steel (that means nothing at all)
It’s right here in our hearts, can’t take it away Hang on to it ok?!

Death-dentity

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Philippians 1:21 has always been one of my favorite verses. I learned I like this….

“For me to live is Christ,  to die is gain. ”
In college I went through my punk stage,  seriously punk! Believe it or not I shaved the back of my head and my bangs were long (think revers mullet). I had the Doc Martin boots and dressed in thrift store clothes. If I wasn’t wearing boots I had Chuck Taylor’s that were totally graffiti’d up and that verse was very prominently scrawled on them. I saw this verse as the Christians answer to the anarchy symbol. Walking through life as a 19 year old Christian punk, I thought I had it all figured out. Little did I know, I didn’t. I was looking for my identity. I was looking to the punk scene,  I was looking to the people around me, I was trying to stand out and be noticed….  My identity was important to me but I was looking in all the wrong places.

I love this translation of Philipians 1:20 – 21 from the Mirror Bible;

My thoughts are not trapped in my head! They roam free in expectation that I will not be ashamed by any contradiction!  My immediately circumstances do not distract from my message! I am convinced that our conversation now and always will continue to give accurate account of the magnificence of Christ.  The message is incarnate in me; whether I live or die, it makes no difference.
Christ defines my life; death cannot threaten or diminish that.

Paul wrote this at what was probably one of the lowest possible points of his life. He was in chains in a prison, yet his image and his identity was not defined by his suroundings or circumstances. He took his definition from who he was in Christ. “Christ defines my life” Was what he wrote, was what he believed.

What do you believe?

I am defined by the words of his mouth.

Any lessor source leads to insecurity. If you seek out your identity from your job, spouse, friends, popularity, wealth, etc you will always end up empty. Believing the lie is living the lie.  Being found in Him leads to rest, leads wholeness,  and completeness.

The Answer is a Person

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Over the past months I have been reading and contemplating the New Testament like I never have before. I now understand that the answer is not about me or what I can do. I have previously been or had a mindset that it was about ministry,  about making a difference, and changing the world. It’s not about me or anything I can do. The answer is a man.  His name is Jesus. He was and is I AM. Prior to the creation of the world he knew me/you and he liked what he saw.

Growing up as a kid I had some pretty odd thoughts. I saw God as a creator and I saw us as guinea pigs.  Something he created for fun, but I now know that he created us to be sons and daughters.  We were created in his image. He spoke identity into me prior to the the world, prior to Genesis 1. Adam’s sin was not a mistake.  Adam was a part of a plan outside of time and space. Jesus was the ultimate prototype the template for us. We are his image. A mom and dad have kids not to have servants or someone to sing their praises.  They have kids to be their sons and daughters.  You know,  to have mini-me’s. I hope my kids are like me (well at least the good parts). I love looking at my kids and seeing their moms eyes or my smirk. I love my kids! No matter what the four of them do that is not important. I like them for them.

God is like that. He loves us, he likes us. I used to see religion as man running after God, but the truth is He is running after us, He is pursuing us and has been prior to creation.

Jesus was the redeeming character in the plan. He was and is the key. We were co crucified, co buried,  co resurrected,  co descended,  and co ascended with him. He died once for all mankind. He bore our sins atoning for all and broke the curse of sin. He did it to reconcile us to him. God wants his children to be his children. Jesus is the answer. This desire was poured out through extreme sacrifice and became the ultimate free gift. Salvation, hope, fullness, and grace are now yours for the taking. A FREE gift poured out that we can do nothing to attain/acquire on our own merit. All that God offers is free. My personal effort or any ministry I do mean nothing as far as receiving from my father.

He is the I AM, in me, calling to me. He is and will continue to pursue me/you.

The amazing news of announcing this life which is unveiled in Christ Jesus is what my ministry is all about! The promise is a person! I, Paul, am a man on a mission; God’s delightful desire sponsors me! 

2 Timothy1:1 The Mirror Word Translation

Now, the sum total of his conversation with man has finally culminated in a son. He is the official heir of all things. He is, after all, the author of the ages. Jesus has been on the tip of the Father’s tongue all along! We have our beginning and our being in him. He is the force of the universe, sustaining everything that exists by his eternal utterance! Jesus is the radiant and flawless expression of the person of God. He makes the glory of God visible and exemplifies the character and every attribute of God in human form.

Hebrews 1:2-3 The Mirror Word Translation

The total answer is a person, Jesus Christ! Its part of Gods plan to make us dissatisfied with temporal things, so that we seek life in Him

Working it out

Romans 5-8 speak pretty succinctly about the law being superceded by a new covenant, the curse of the law was gone. The law was in place to show us that we mankind could not on our own strength acquire or attain any standing before God on our own strength or merit. Jesus came as a man incarnate, went to the cross and we were all co crucified, co buried and co resurrected with him.

When did he die for my sins?

At the cross.

God operates outside of time and space. Adam was not a mistake and God had to clean it up. It was part of the plan of redemption. The work of the cross was mans re genesis our hard reset, a return to our redeemed innocence and original identity IN HIM.

To answer the question, did God die for all mankind. Yes, God died for all of mans sins and judged us and forgave all at the cross. But it is up to man to acknowledge and change paths.Romans 10:10 still is in tact.

License to sin, grace is not.
Titus 2:11-12
Heb 10:26
Romans 6:1-2
Ephesians 4:27
1 john 3:6-8

For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight— if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister. – Colossians 1:19-23 

so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation. – Hebrews 9:28

My Sunday Song

Keith Green

Oh Lord You’re Beautiful

Oh Lord, you’re beautiful,
Your face is all I seek,
For when your eyes are on this child
Your grace abounds to me.

Oh Lord, you’re beautiful,
Your face is all I seek,
For when your eyes are on this child
Your grace abounds to me.

I want to take your word and shine it all around.
But first help me just to live it Lord.
And when I’m doing well, help me to never seek a crown.
For my reward is giving glory to youOh Lord, please light the fire,
That once burned bright and clear
Replace the lamp of my first love,
That burns with Holy fear.
I want to take your word and shine it all around.
But first help me just to live it Lord.
And when I’m doing well, help me to never seek a crown.
For my reward is giving glory to you.

Oh Lord, you’re beautiful,
Your face is all I seek,
For when your eyes are on this child
Your grace abounds to me.

Oh Lord, you’re beautiful,
Your face is all I seek,
For when your eyes are on this child
Your grace abounds to me.

The One Father, Son and Spirit

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By Andre Rabe On June 25, 2013 · 

For us to attempt to define and identify this God, would simply be ridiculous.

For us to describe how God identified and defined Himself in Jesus Christ, is the declaration of the gospel.To define means to describe the nature, scope, or meaning of something.

For something or someone to be infinite, it means that there is no limit to the scope or extend of what we describe. To be infinite means that there is always something more, something beyond what is already known. For God to define himself, means that he places certain boundaries on who he is, on what can be said of him and therefore, by definition, he is no longer infinite in the absolute sense.

For instance: when God declares that he is only good, that only light dwells in him and that no darkness or evil has any place in him, it means that he has placed a certain boundary on how we can describe him; it means that he is not infinite in the sense that he is both good and evil. Such a self-definition means that he is finite in that he is only good and there is no evil in him beyond his goodness. However, he is infinitely good and will continue to surprise us with his goodness. He remains infinite in the attributes that are part of his nature, that means we can say that he is infinitely loving, infinitely good, infinitely wise. Yet he has defined himself very specifically …

God has done the unthinkable, he has defined himself in the most precise way, in an actual person and an actual event! The bravest of philosophers would not have imagined such a thing because it would place terrible limitations on how we speak of God. But God did what seems like foolishness to our wisdom. In Jesus, God does exactly what our imaginary gods cannot – he identifies himself in such a way that we may know him intimately.

The one God, who encompasses time and fills it, who is infinite except in the areas where he chose to define himself, has uniquely identified himself as Father, Son and Spirit. These are not generic terms to describe certain attributes. He is a very specific Father, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; He is a very specific Son, Jesus Christ, the uniquely born Son that is in the bosom of the Father and He is a very specific Spirit, the spirit of this Father and this Son.

This God is the creative source, the creative process and the end result of his own creative genius.

The Father, from before time began, intended the perfect union of man and God, intended the Son, Jesus Christ. The Father is the creative source who finds expression in the Son and through his spirit. It is through the Son and through the Spirit that the Father is freed to be all He intends to be.

The Son is the fulfillment of the Father’s intention and in the incarnation this fulfillment is made manifest in our time-space dimension. In Jesus the invisible becomes visible, the eternal enters time, the infinite willingly and purposely defines himself, the inner motivation, the word of God becomes flesh and ultimately the immortal God … dies! But Jesus’ death does not contaminate God, rather life fatally infects death … and death dies!

He is big enough to become a servant and not be reduced in who he is. He is strong enough to face evil even in his most vulnerable state, allowing evil to do its worst to him, even kill him and then simply rise again!

Is this the best you can do, evil?
Is this all you’ve got?
Where is your sting?
Where is your victory?

He is wise enough to partake of our humanity, to enter our temporality and instead of loosing himself, he finds us, raises us, glorifies us and makes us partakers of his divine nature.

Eternity has penetrated time without becoming subject to the temporal. God became a man without ceasing to be God. The prince of life died and in dying conquered death. Behold He is alive! Death was swallowed up in victory.

This Father who intended us throughout time and eternity; this Son who fulfilled his Father’s intention and removed every obstacle between man and God, this Father and this Son is present with us by their Spirit. It is the very Spirit breathed by the Father and the very Spirit breathed by the Son that is with us now, ever blowing us into the limitless future of the God who makes all things new.

By the Spirit the Father and Son have come and made their home with you, ready to create a future beyond our wildest dreams. What is there to fear? Nothing in the past, nothing present, nothing to come can separate you from the love embrace of this God.

God – Father, Son and Spirit – embraces our time, encircles it and also fills it with enduring value and meaning. He has always known you and loved you. You have always been his will and intention.

Source http://hearhim.net/

What what?!?!

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He is, the I AM, in me!

He came to reveal himself to mankind.  He came to reveal himself in each of us. He left heaven to show his self to us in each of us. He became flesh incarnate, he took on a body and was became just like us. He was not a super hero. He went through the same temptations we did. He was so average he had to be pointed out in a crowd for the pharasees. Nothing physically set him off.

The big difference was he knew his identity.  HE KNEW his relation to God. 

We were created in the  likeness of God. Adam was a prototype,  Jesus was the ultimate prototype. We were made in the same mold. We are joint heirs with Christ. Jesus knew his origin.  Everything he did on earth was done in relationship to his identity with his father (God).

I am copy and pasting the verses below from a past post.

John 5:30 
By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.

John 6:38 
For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.

John 8:28 
So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me.

John 12:49 
For I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken.Now with that being said,  we are sons and daughters of God.  We are not adopted sons and daughters or black sheep im the family.  Before the creation of the world it says he knew us.

Jesus moved and flowed out of identity. He did all out of a paradigm of following in his father’s ways.

Heb 2:11
New Living Translation

So now Jesus and the ones he makes holy have the same Father. That is why Jesus is not ashamed to call them his brothers and sisters.

We share the same origin, we have the same father. We are not adopted,  we are not the black sheep of the family. We are direct sons and daughters!  I have had to shed my bad notions my garbage thoughts on this. I have always heard and used the wording of adopted sons and daughters, but have found that the wording of adoption.

Ephesians 1:5

He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will,

The use of the word adoption here is not the typical western use. It is actually more along the lines of the Jewish barmitzva or coming of age.

Galations 4:5-7
His mandate was to rescue the human race from the regime of the law of performance and announce the revelation of the sonship in God.

To seal our sonship God has commissioned the spirit of sonship resonate the Abba echo in our hearts; and now in our innermost being we recognize him as our true and very dear Father.

Can you see how foolish it would be for a son to immediately participate in all the wealth of God’s inheritance which is yours because of Christ.

We were co-crucified, co-buried, and co-resurrected with Christ (in him). Jesus moved as a son not a servant or beggar, but as a son! We being sons and daughters need to walk in that same revelation. Your true identity,  your original blueprint,  your you, is based on the relation of sonship. He left heaven to reveal this for you!

That is all for now. …….

Speaking beyond words

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A man had been looking at the reflection of the moon on a lake,  it was reflected on the ripples,  he was trying to get a accurate view of the moon on the water but it was continually moving.

He was getting frustrated until he looked up and saw the moon, the original the source is the best place to look.

2 Corinthians 4:4

The survival and self-improvement programs of the religious systems of the world reveal the minds of the unbelievers; exploiting their ignorance about their true origins and their redeemed innocence.  The veil of unbelief obstructs a person’s view and keeps one from seeing what the light of the gospel so clearly reveals: the glory of God is the image and likeness of our Maker redeemed in human form; this is what the gospel of Christ is all about.

To find the truth look to the very source. God is not confused about you, we need not be confused about God. How does he see you? How do you see him?  Your beliefs about God determines your view. From age 6 to 6 months ago I had a view of God as judgemental and it kept me from seeing God rightly and in return seeing how he sees me. I love the Bible and have had a renewed hunger for digging into it. I have noticed in Paul’s writings in the NT he wrote the words “In Him.” Him/He is the source. Look to the source.  The word is like a manual. A lawn mower tells all bout the lawnmower but guess what? It won’t cut your grass. You need the mower. The Bible points and tells all about God but we need to look at and towards Him. We were made in his image. We are to be a son/daughter. His image his children! I was under the false idea that after the Adam fiasco we were cut off from sonship and it would be restored after our death.

John 3:16-17 states ” For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

God did not come to condemn us!  He really really likes us! He is not bi-polar or unsure of himself. God

The value of land is redefined upon the discovery of gold, silver, or oil within its boundaries.  We are like that land upon finding Christ in us we are redefined,  metamorphosed into our our original identity.  Our blueprint has been re- genesised!  He has been there all along! The treasure has to be revealed.

It is finished,  God was done he entered into rest. ..

Entering into rest, grace is a gift it can not ba attained on our own efforts,  its in dieing to self and availing to his  rest…

He did it it is finished.

Matthew 13:44

Faith is not something we do to overcome the reluctance of God

A little leaven law keeps you busy as to miss Christ

Pray from the throne room not to the throne room

Hampster wheel mentality,  our works are that vain. On a wheel bound for sedentary

He does not impute my sins against me, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ!  He died for my sins,  he forgave them once, he does not need to re-die or re-resurrect.

(Not gonna lie,  these were literally my unedited notes. They may seem a bit random towards the end…. plz deal with it)