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.

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)

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.

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.

Sermon Paraphrased - Gatesitter series

(click here for previous post in this 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.

(click here for 1st post in this series)