Clay Lightfoot

Well, for having clay feet I have been traveling a lot lately. I traveled 760 mile yesterday just in time to sleep overnight and leave again today for another adventure. We are attending a training session to become facilitators for Ancient Paths ministries for the next day and a half and then join one of my nieces to celebrate her graduation from massage school. Last weekend we attended another niece's grad from high school and brought her home with us for much of the summer. We've had very little time with her for her whole life so this is a great opportunity to get to find out how very special she is. I've been doing a lot of remodeling lately and will continue, though for another person for the next month. Then I have to go back and finish the first job I started in VA. Meanwhile, in July we have friends coming to stay with us for 3 weeks to do ministry in our local church. They specialize in conflict resolution and peace-making not only in churches but in families and business settings as well. They travel around the country to whereever they are invited and do this full time. Quite an adventure. I have been learning a great deal by listening to teachings while I have been traveling. It has really opened my understanding to a lot of things that help fill in the emerging Big Picture.

Maturity Short-circuit

Gratitude and thankfulness is part of a process of receiving. Learning to receive is the first task of infant maturity. To learn to receive without resistance includes gratitude.

When gratitude is forced it short-circuits the development of the ability to receive freely. I am beginning to see that my life-long difficulty in expressing thanks is a symptom, not necessarily the problem itself as I was always scolded. I have a deep, inner resistance to receiving freely. Yes this may be linked to pride and independence, but is has much more to do with stunted maturity development. This very likely is tied to improper and rushed maturity training when I was very young that was premature for me at the time. When a skill of maturity is imposed on a growing mind before it is ripe for that skill, the outward compliance may or may not be achieved, but the inner wiring is scrambled and the person is setup for life-long problems until God brings healing by reconstructing the original mess-up.

The secret intimacy of the Lord is for those who fear Him,

And He will make them know His covenant.

My eyes are continually toward the Lord,

For He will pluck my feet out of the net. Ps. 25:14,15

Counterfeit Scales

One of the most subtle and cunning transpositions Satan has achieved is to cause us to believe in the wrong set of scales. The Tree of Knowledge is a false scales that we establish as a norm for most if not all of our decision-making. But we actually believe that these scales are reliable in weighing moral and salvific decisions.

We make choices daily as to the value or moral weight of the activities, discussions, reading, veiwing, relationships etc. that are the building materials of our life. These choices are also made about the quality of materials that become not only the foundation of our future thinking but are being laid down as fresh foundations for the children within our influence.

The problem with the scales, as with everything that Satan has set up for us, is that they so closely resemble the true in our thinking that we are willing to depend on them for our very life and soul. This scale is called Good and Evil, true and false. We believe that if we choose good and true over evil and false we create weight in our “account” to impress God. We even are led to believe from the operation of this counterfeit scale that there is a graduated scale of merit where at some point our goodness and suffering can outweigh our evil and pleasure indulgences to then spring open the doors of paradise for us. This scale theology is part of the foundation of every false religion and runs deep in every religious system.

But when our eyes begin to open to reality and we begin to see the true measure of value; when we understand the extreme requirements for acceptance and even survival in the close presence of God and His overwhelming holiness, we discover an altogether different scale in heavens economy. This is not a graduated scale that we can add to until we finally tip the indicator in our favor. Instead, to our dismay, we discover that our whole arrangement including our false scale itself shows up all on the same side of the heavenly scale to our discredit. Not only all our sin and indulgence and hatred and bitterness, our pride and selfishness, self-serving pleasure and self-satisfied religiosity, but also our noble words and deeds, our attempts at godliness, our striving for perfection and our religious performances – all are seen in the true light of glory to be resting solidly on the liability side of heavens scale with not one item contributing any weight to counterbalance our enormous debt. All of our righteousness is considered as valuable to God as the way we feel about filthy, disgusting used menstrual rags. (Isa. 64:6 literally)

“The religious services, the prayers, the praise, the penitent confession of sin ascend from true believers as incense to the heavenly sanctuary; but passing through the corrupt channels of humanity, they are so defiled that unless purified by blood, they can never be of value with God. They ascend not in spotless purity, and unless the Intercessor who is at God's right hand presents and purifies all by His righteousness, it is not acceptable to God. All incense from earthly tabernacles must be moist with the cleansing drops of the blood of Christ. He holds before the Father the censer of His own merits, in which there is no taint of earthly corruption. He gathers into this censer the prayers, the praise, and the confessions of His people, and with these He puts His own spotless righteousness. Then, perfumed with the merits of Christ's propitiation, the incense comes up before God wholly and entirely acceptable. Then gracious answers are returned.

“O, that all may see that everything in obedience, in penitence, in praise and thanksgiving must be placed upon the glowing fire of the righteousness of Christ. The fragrance of this righteousness ascends like a cloud around the mercy seat.” {6BC 1078}

Immature Saul II

Acts 9:1-31

When Saul was first converted he still carried many of his habits, techniques and assumptions from his past thinking and training. He believed that over-powering arguments were the means to bring truth to other minds. He had always had a religion based on logic, study, facts and irrefutable proofs. Now he simply applied his new insights about Jesus and prophecies to continue his campaign to win everyone over to his viewpoint. Yes, his heart had been awakened by a fresh revelation of God in his vision from Jesus and his initial interactions with disciples in Damascus, but the habits of reasoning and his dependence on force of logic, if not physical force, would take time to undo. This is demonstrated both in Damascus and in Jerusalem much to the intense embarrassment of his former supporters to the point of death threats.

Evidently, from the text, while Saul was busy heating up the frustration and anger of his former close friends and comrades in religion, the leaders of the Christian church were spending time planting a new company in Caesarea and may not have been fully aware of what discontent and opposition Saul was stirring up in Jerusalem with his argumentative style. Saul was in danger of stirring up so much animosity against himself and the church that he was actually creating new zealots to replace the position of persecutor he had just vacated. He did not realize that it was unnecessary to use the tactics of forceful arguing and intimidation to spread truth. He had switched his allegiance but he had much to learn about gentleness and humility to reflect the true Spirit of Jesus in his labors.

The apostles realized the damage that Saul was beginning to induce on the church when they started receiving disturbing reports in Caesarea from Jerusalem and they may have decided to intervene before Saul inadvertently returned the situation to the reign of terror that he himself had so recently presided over. It was simply a problem of maturity, not ill motives. Saul was indeed converted, but his methods and spirit of presentation was sometimes abrasive and unnecessarily blunt.

So acting as mature elders would act, the apostles moved to intervene and brought Saul to Caesarea to where they could counsel with him about his methods and quietly discuss the problem so they could come up with a plan to help him move forward in true maturity and learn more of the true ways of Jesus. After careful consideration and prayer and closer bonding through affirmation it was mutually agreed that it would be best for Saul's growth at this point to allow him to return to his roots, his hometown and allow the Holy Spirit to have time to take him through an experience that would retrain him through the earliest stages of maturity so he would have a solid foundation for his future ministry.

God in a Box

5-13-06

Why was there wind and sound and fire at Pentecost?

Wind to shatter the “box” that religion had kept God inside of for so long.

Wind to fill the sails of the “gospel ship”.

Sound to alert the listening, hungry souls that something new and refreshing was now available.

Fire to melt the frozen chosen – to free them to display the real truth about God.

Fire to burn away the baggage that had been unloaded from their hearts for the past ten days.

Fire of God's passion to burn white-hot with love in eyes newly opened by grace.

Some who criticize others for keeping God in a box simply want to impose their own box in place of other boxes.

Denominations are very obvious and well-defined boxes that most Christians force God into.

Most denominations have multiple subcultures that create even tighter, more restrictive boxes to define God.

What has happened is that we have come to view the box itself as God since it is the definition of God in our minds.

The only container that God has declared suitable for Him to dwell in is a human heart open to receive Him. It cannot contain Him but it can display Him.

Joy is at the heart of God's plan for His beings. God is the happiest being in the universe. - Ortberg