Random Blog Clay Feet: 2006-03
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Thursday, March 30, 2006

Arm of the Lord

This Well-being keeps showing up in Isaiah, sometimes translated that way and sometimes as peace. Well-being is a call to focus more dominantly on Being rather than Doing. This of course makes obvious sense when acknowledging that we are human beings and not human doings, although that distinction is fast being lost sight of by the way we think many times.
There is an interesting study potential emerging about the ARM of the Lord. It is always associated with might and strength. But God's ways are not like ours and He does not use force so strength is used differently than what we normally would expect. The right arm is strong but also skilled and coordinated. Isa. 40:10,11 – His arm rules, tends His flock, gathers His lambs into His bosom. God's strength is not in His ability to force His own way against our free choice but to skillfully coordinate all events and choices to take full advantage of every opening to pour in His grace and redeeming power. His right arm will not triumph by violating-type force but by infinite love and passion drawing everyone through incomprehensible wisdom and skillful guidance of all circumstances born of free choices no matter how evil, to ultimately work together not only for His glory but for the good of every trusting child of His.

Monday, March 27, 2006

Significance of Dream Discovered

This is in response to the assignment given me in a dream 3/24. I was to be alert to the meaning of 2 things – Messenger and Well-being. This morning in my meditations through Isa. 51-53 I suddenly came across both of them quite unexpectedly. It might help to explain the context. I have been feeling somewhat despairing lately about my lack of progress in personal spiritual growth. My head is filling with wonderful truths but my heart (and its seems my household) seems to be quite unfruitful and unchanged. We are all suffering very strongly under the addiction to TV which consumes a great portion of our attention. This baffles me as to how to relate to the problem both myself and how to relate to the rest in my home also caught in this trap. It feels like a catch 22. If I talk about it a feeling of condemnation and strong resentment immediately rises up in our minds. If I keep my silence the damage continues to our spiritual sensibilities and probation time is squandered away. I feel damned if I do and damned if I don't. This has all the hallmarks of a trap designed by Satan himself. I do not want to react in legalism like as was done to me as a child. I now know this is one of the old problems God brought me back here to face and be repaired. But I have been baffled as to any other options since my mental solution database is empty of appropriate and God-like responses to this situation. That is the context. I cannot claim to have a complete grasp on an answer but something is emerging from the fog and taking shape from what I observe in Isaiah. I have been trying to perceive with my heart and mind and spirit all working together to perceive what God may be really trying to convey to us in these ancient revelations. Particularly in the light of recent reworking of the big picture of the Great Controversy I am alert to observe and pick up on passionate expressions of God's heart and desires. The book of Isaiah seems to be full and throbbing with these kind of communications and it is exciting to uncover and decode them with the guidance of His presence. I have been compelled to make notations in the margins to flush out the underlying emotions and messages from the heart of God to humanity. I see God's great frustration in trying to reorient our thinking and paradigms and try to overcome or undermine our religious bigotry and our angry assumptions about Him. Repeatedly He returns to two main things – the great and final resolution at the end of the millenium (but enacted in various degrees at different times before then), and His trump card to bring this about – Jesus. Isa. 50:1-3 The rift between you and Me was not my idea. Verses 4-8a Jesus – the One who clings to God while receiving abuse from us. Verses 8b-11 You can still come to Me even if you hate Me and have issues about Me. You have a choice and here are the consequences. 51:1-3 Focus on Me more than your ancestry. Verses 4-6 Focus on Me more than your physical surroundings. Verses 7,8 Focus on Me more than social intimidation. Verses 9-11 I am the God of mighty acts of power and deliverance. Verses 12-16 I am the Creator God who comforts you, not your oppressor. Verses 17-20 Our concept of God falsely views Him as angry, the source of our disasters, the one who afflicts us. Verses 21-23 God will cause us to realize He is for us, not against us. Then we will not be tormented by what we perceived as His anger but those who still believe the lies about Him will suffer in their perception of His “wrath”. 52:1 Wake up and realize who you are in Christ. Don't be self-actualized in lies about God but be Christ-actualized. Verse 2 Loose yourself from the chains of lies about God that bind your neck. Verses 3-5 My people were innocently made slaves without even being paid for. They were oppressed and deceived by the enemy without cause and the result is My reputation is continuously maligned and slandered. Verses 6-10 Here is what God wants – people who know the truth about God through intimate relationship with Him will be His Messengers to bring good news, peace, happiness, salvation, joy... (peace in the margin is Well-being) His messengers will shout joyfully together the truth about God. The revelation of God's ARM (51:9, 52:10, 53:1) is the truth about how God exercises power – not using force on our wills but using skill to coordinate everything to finally work together for our best and to vindicate His reputation before the whole universe – God's salvation. Verses 11,12 These messengers need to distance themselves from everything that confuses them about the truth about God. They are vessel-bearers for God. They will walk in very close synchronization with God's walk. God will walk both in front and back of them as they learn to walk in lockstep with Him. They learn not to walk too fast or too slow or in fear. 52:13 through chapter 53 Jesus is the model demonstration of walking in perfect lockstep with God. He is also the Saviour and Redeemer who is completely devoid of external beauty so we would focus on God's real beauty of character. Further than this, He took on all our oppression and all the consequences of our separation from God and our lies about God. The punishment that undeservingly fell on Him that was destined for us empowers us to have the Well-being, the peace of God. This enables us to be His messengers to expose the truth about God to others while enjoying the fruit of Jesus' righteousness because He ate the fruit of our rebellion. If God had not given me this assignment in my dream 3 nights ago I might never have seen much of this. I am amazed that He desires to talk about these things with me when I don't deserve the time of day from Him. God, Your gentleness is making me great – and opening my heart. Thank-you! The life of Christ was an ever-widening, shoreless influence, an influence that bound Him to God and to the whole human family. Through Christ, God has invested man with an influence that makes it impossible for him to live to himself. Individually we are connected with our fellow men, a part of God's great whole, and we stand under mutual obligations. No man can be independent of his fellow men; for the well-being of each affects others. It is God's purpose that each shall feel himself necessary to others' welfare, and seek to promote their happiness. Every soul is surrounded by an atmosphere of its own – an atmosphere, it may be, charged with the life-giving power of faith, courage, and hope, and sweet with the fragrance of love. Or it may be heavy and chill with the gloom of discontent and selfishness, or poisonous with the deadly taint of cherished sin. By the atmosphere surrounding us, every person with whom we come in contact is consciously or unconsciously affected. (COL 339)

Saturday, March 25, 2006

Hot springs of the mind

My heart is like a minefield with triggers hidden on the surface attached to pockets of gunpowder buried underneath – lies embedded in old memories. Anther analogy would be like hot geysers that unexpectedly explode and have the potential to scald those nearby. The hot springs and exploding geysers have the stench of rottenness along with the heat. They make for very colorful life sometimes but also can be just boiling mud pots.

The problem is not the water however. The water was meant to be life-giving. But there are deep crevasses of pain through which the life-giving springs are sabotaged by lies implanted by the devil of hell. This super-heats and corrupts the life-giving water on its way to the surface and by the time it reaches the realm of demonstration it has turned into dangerous outbursts of wrath, seething cauldrons of bitterness or mud pots of shame where boiling water keeps the filth of lower passions continuously stirred and stinking.

Jesus offers to make me a spring of living water, a cool, refreshing source of life to all around me. To accomplish this He has to identify the deep pockets of heat produced by the embedded lies about Him and myself buried under years of life as well as those passed down from my forebears. As He seals each fault line in my foundational crust with the cement of truth mixed with abounding grace, the outlets began to transform and cool and smell sweet again for the first time. One by one the healing progresses as the foundation is repaired and sealed.

Be transformed by the renewing of your mind – making new the old memories.

Friday, March 24, 2006

Assignment from Dream

2:30 AM. Had a dream that woke me up working on it. School assignment for music class – green LCD vertical signboard full height at side of classroom – changed colors and scenes for different classes. At end of music class when feeling stumped and baffled by no answers to music questions, assignment was to define Messenger. Then define Well-being and the difference between them – ask 12 pastors to define Well-being. After laying awake thinking about this for awhile I began thinking about feeling out of control about TV, then realized this is another issue residual from childhood in Mattoon that I have been sent back here to face. Is it a sin to overcome or a symptom of a gaping hole in my heart that's never been filled? Its probably an escape from the pain of legalism to some extent – maybe a false good news – a way to manipulate and create feelings when real life does not produce the feelings I desire. I feel this transition time is like coming under scrutiny – a magnifying glass to see if all the things I'm learning have actually begun to sprout and take root and thrive in my soul. There seems to be an over-abundance of weeds and stones yet that are wreaking havoc on my productivity. I feel very blessed with wonderful, liberating truths and insights but very tenuous and shallow in experience and depth of root. I am very weak and helpless and even hypocritical it seems. Of course, I asked God to show me myself so here it is. What happens when others find out? Of course, maybe I'm the last one to see it this clear. Condemnation is one of my fears – and punishment. Its nearly all I've known – and dished out to my kids and to the church. What's next? How is God going to treat me? My wife? My children? My friends? My church? Why do I want to know? My identity experientially is still largely rooted in and defined by fear bonds. How and when will that substantially change? My Utmost – friend of the bridegroom – I have called you friends, not servants, witnesses, not the bride.

Thursday, March 23, 2006

Sermon Paraphrased - Gatesitter series

In Peter's sermon (Acts 3:12-26) I see repeated contrasts between what God has done and what “you” have done, revealing the true character of both. Our part or role in this is witnesses, not causes. I see Peter and John in essence saying, Don't look at us as the cause or origin of this miracle or the cause or origin of your problems. There are choices and consequences and we are simply witnesses testifying to what really is – the great I AM vs. the little you are. God identified Himself with your ancestors and identified Himself even more with Jesus. You renounced the link with Him through your ancestors by disowning and betraying Jesus in the presence of Pilate, the representative of this world's system of governance. You separated yourself from the Zone who was the essence of God – Holy and Righteous – even though you verbally claim to be righteous yourself. You instead identified yourself publicly with a murderer. In identifying and asking for a murderer in exchange for the life of the very Author of life, you became murderers yourself and entered into struggle against the Almighty over the life of Jesus. God gave Him life when all you gave was death. God is the source of all life and holiness and righteousness. Therefore He is worthy of trust which enables faith in His reputation. He is fully identified with Jesus and has designated Jesus to be the focal point of all faith and the Source and channel of all power, righteousness and salvation. The foundation, the bottom line, the basis of life here is have faith in the name of Jesus who is the perfect demonstration of what God is really like. Believing confidently in Jesus' demonstration of life-giving disposition is the reason and the channel that brought strength of soul and perfect body healing to this man that you can identify with so well. He is one of you and this was done right in your presence to demonstrate what God deeply desires to do for each one of you if you will change your attitude toward God.

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Pentacostal Healing Sermon - Gatesitter series

Your focus of worship, what you depend on to bring you life and salvation has been your lineage from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. You have believed that because you are a Jew that you have the inside track to God and because you possess intellectual truth more than the others in the world that you can be saved by it. But it is not membership in a group or possession of piety or power that you need to be saved. It is an intimate, personal acquaintance with the author of life – Jesus the Messiah. He is the One that God has designated to be honored and worshiped. He is the One with a servant attitude, an attitude opposite yours, who spent time among you demonstrating the real truth about God. But in your religious blindness you disowned the very One who came to rescue you. You went so far as to force death onto the very Author of life. This should tell you something about what is inside of you. But God, the very essence of life, raised up the One you had killed and filled Him with even more glorious life. You are in a tug-o-war between life and death and you need to realize you are at the wrong end of the rope, the opposite end from where God is. Our part in this is not to condemn and judge you. Your own hearts will do that to you when you realize the truth. But that too will not save you. Our function is simply to testify to what we know and experience of the truth about God and His transformational work in our lives. It is the power that occurs by knowing and trusting Jesus that has been revealed in this man's heart as well as his body. When this man exercised faith in the revelation of the truth about God's attitude toward us as revealed in Jesus, he received healing, liberating, life-changing power right here in your presence. It all happened in the presence of you who still cling to death-producing attitudes. Why was this man healed? Because he opened his heart and mind to the real Source of life and God is glorifying His Son Jesus through this man. Now this man, like us, has become a true witness who can testify to you of first-hand experience of the truth about God. God, the true source of all life and blessing, has given this man perfect health in every way. That is what God delights to do and desires to do for everyone if they would only give Him permission by entering into a faith-producing submission to Him. Yes, This event has created great conflict and tension in your minds. You are feeling very guilty and convicted now that you see reality and your wicked attitude toward the real God. But even so, you have been ignorant of the truth about God. But you did not surprise Him when you killed His Son in ignorance and bigotry. He prophesied it all long ago. But now that you realize your true nature you need to act in the light of the true revelation of God and turn away from the lies, the prejudice, the false piety and self-centered religiosity. Turn to God, be transparent and honest with Him so that He can cleanse your hearts and minds of all this death-producing fear, guilt and condemnation. As you enter the presence of God you will experience wonderful times of refreshing renewal. He will fill you with life and joy and peace. This is not a new religion. This truth about what is real and God's relationship toward us is actually the true understanding of our own history. Moses himself, the one you revere as a champion of your legalism, actually believed and prophesied about this very thing. He believed in Jesus himself. In fact, the law itself that came through Moses warns you that if you do not heed this revelation to your heart you will be cut off from God's people. All of your prophets have uniformly looked forward to Jesus and the true means of salvation if you understand them from God's point of view. You yourselves are privileged to be descendants of these very prophets. You are already privileged to be in this covenant relationship with God through which God intends to bless all the families of the earth, not just Jews. You are right now in the very unique position of already being in this blood covenant and to be first in line to receive God's blessing directed to you through His Servant/Son Jesus. This blessing comes by Jesus turning each of you away from wickedness, fighting against life and God, toward the true source of life and health and real peace.

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Amazement or Unbelief - Gatesitter series

Amazement is often an external symptom of internal unbelief. If we believed the truth about God's real desires for us we would not be so much amazed as overjoyed when we see it enacted in our lives. Peter realized that the people needed to get past amazement to focusing on Jesus (in his response to healing the lame beggar). If they stayed in amazement they were resisting belief. The reason you are amazed is because you have always falsely believed that personal piety would produce power to work miracles. You believe in perfectionism and worth based on genealogy. This miracle doesn't fit your criteria of qualifications. It confronts many of your foundational religious assumptions. As humans just like you we do not possess power or piety that invokes power from heaven. It is not even our forefather's piety that empowered this miracle. The Source of all power and all piety is farther back than our ancestors – it is God Himself. And in your supposed piety and obsession with power you disowned Him by rejecting His Son. Your piety led you to choose a murderer over the Son of God. Your idea of power led you to kill the very Author of Life Himself. (Acts 3:12-16)

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Be ye holy...

Be ye holy... Be perfect even as your Father in heaven is perfect. I have always viewed these words as intimidating, through fear and guilt. They are most often used to promote perfectionism and accompanying fanaticism. Then we have lengthy studies to unpack what they really mean in lifestyle and/or attitude change. But God shared with me this morning what I believe may be His perspective on this command. Jesus was expressing the heart-cry of the Godhead in their everlasting passion to reunite the hearts and lives of all the beings of the universe. Without holiness it is impossible to see God. The only way He can fully reveal Himself to us is if we are in complete harmony with His character. Otherwise we will be consumed and destroyed by any dissonance inside us. Of course it is impossible for us to make ourselves holy. That is Satan's suggestion. But God still intensely desires all of us to become holy so He can fully share His intimacy with us. Therefore, it is imperative that He communicate to us the prerequisites for us to know so we will cooperate with His arrangements to make us holy in Jesus Christ.

Monday, March 06, 2006

Gatesitter Scene 6 - Power and Piety

“...as if by our own power or piety we had made him walk? (Acts 3:12) The paradigm of humanity is the craving for these elements to be the source of salvation. We want POWER – lots of power, overwhelming power to FORCE change. We want to be so powerful we can intimidate others into compliance with our beliefs or wishes. We believe power is the answer to sin and pain and dysfunction, but we don't understand the way God uses power. We want power to establish our plans. We use power in the context of fear. Even our promotion of God is usually based on fear, the wrong kind of fear induced by the lies about how He uses power. In the same vein many believe that piety is the answer and the means of salvation. This belief is far more subtle and dangerous because it appears so righteous and religious. It is picked right off the Good side of the Tree of Knowledge. It sometimes promotes itself as the more noble approach to successful religious life than power. It is viewed by some as stronger than forcing others into conformity. It is usually centered in forcing one's self into religious compliance with an endless list of expectations and achievements that must be performed to satisfy the demands of holiness. It is assumed that if enough piety is generated in the life then supernatural events will begin to occur as a result to validate their accomplishments of piety. These miracles, it is believed, will be given as acknowledgment of this person's growing proximity to the perfection of God. If a person can achieve a high enough, pure enough piety before God and men then God will begin to answer their prayers more often and will endow them with power to perform miracles so that others will recognize and acknowledge their achievement of successful piety. At this point it is believed that their piety and corresponding power will produce amazement, wonder and awe in other people that will be their witness as others focus on their accomplishments. People will appreciate and honor them for their righteousness and God will be more pleased and/or less angry with them. Because the lame – now healed man was probably very aware of this theology at least intuitively, he understandably found himself clinging to the ones who had apparently healed him. As the crowd quickly thickened and the amazement intensified he felt not only pressure from the publicity of his transformed identity but felt obligated to steer all the attention and glory away from himself to not only God but onto Peter and John. It appeared that, according to the evidence and based on religious assumptions, these men must have somehow figured out the right formula of piety to unlock the power of God. Thus the crowds were ready and eager to perform their role by heaping praise and glory on these men for their piety and accomplishments. They were also eager to find out the secret formula for themselves so they too could exercise this kind of power. Thus the situation was urgent and ripe for Peter and John to clarify what was reality and what was false assumptions about religion and God's ways. At this point they seized on the opportunity to launch into a most powerful expose´ of the truth and God's real plan for His children. It was time for people to hear the real good news.

Sunday, March 05, 2006

Gatesitter Scene 5 - Focus

He began to give them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. This is exactly what they requested of him. While it is true that he had never been presented with an opportunity to be healed before, it was equally true that he could miss this opportunity if he did not focus his attention on what was being offered him. Focus has multiple implications. Inherently focus means tuning out all other demands for attention, no matter how apparently important or urgent. Focus means actively discipling the thought and emotions to be directed at only one person or thing. Focus demands active participation and an exercise of choice, to use the “kingly” power of our will. Focus also implies an object of focus. He had probably focused many times on different things: his bitterness over being lame, his poverty, his helplessness, his parents, potential sources of income... He was likely under heavy influence of the spirit of Mammon. He was focused on doing whatever it took to try to get money so he could eek out a living. After years of fruitless attempts to better himself by focusing on different sources of help and hope for his life, he may have come to the place where he hardly cared to focus on anything anymore outside himself. Hope itself was slipping away, especially after Jesus the healer had been killed, and deep depression and hopelessness was settling into his soul like a thickening fog. Everything was now viewed through a deepening mist and there was very little reason left to even continue living. All his hopes and dreams had been swallowed up by the relentless approaching fog and he was settling into a mindless routine of just surviving to beg for one more day. So when Peter and John suddenly stopped in front of this man's lowered head and insisted that he look them straight in the eyes, it came to him like a shaft of sunlight bolting through a rift in the clouds. They asked for the one and only thing from this man that is the only thing any person genuinely owns that can be offered to another as a gift – the gift of his undivided attention. They were already giving him this gift themselves and they asked him to respond likewise. If he chose not to respond to their request because of choosing to remain in his self-pity and despondency, he would not have placed himself in the position to receive the far greater gifts they had to offer him. They did not offer him more of what he thought he needed. Instead they wanted to re-awaken the original dreams and hopes that he had now given up as unrealistic for his life. God had placed the hope for healing in his heart originally. God had inspired him to want to dance and twirl and leap for joy like some of the little children he used to observe. There had been a time in his life when he was a friend of many of the children who played around the temple area. He had listened to them and been a friend to them as they had shared their sympathy and their own hearts with him. But lately even the children didn't come around much because they found him too depressing. He was more alone than ever and wondered why God wouldn't just let him die.