Choose "Life"!

When pondering the year and the things which grieve the Holy Spirit, I think we (distress) the Spirit by trying to force standards of performance on ourselves or anyone else. You see, I believe Jesus Christ is the Standard................... not the law, not confessing sins over and over, or any other ritualistic performance/work on our part. Jesus Christ has already met every requirement to keep us in constant fellowship with Himself. That is why He is constantly renewing our minds towards His much Higher Ways, which is, the Much More of Jesus Christ. The battleground is the mind. We need a "New Mind" orientation toward the things of the Spirit, and being dead to sin and alive to Jesus Christ. We need the mind of Christ!

When wedo things that seem to be contrary to who we think that we are (our reality) let us ask God to orient us toward who He says that we are, In Him (His reality). I choose His reality, hopefully in ever-increasing revelation.

To grieve or not to grieve, that is the question?........not to grieve . . . Choose "Life"!

Our Horn of Plenty

Jesus.................Our Horn of Plenty!

No More Condemnation!

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.

You Are!!!

How many times have I said, "I'd like to be. I wish I were. Maybe someday." And God was on His throne saying, "You are! You are!" When you truly see that Christ is your life, time ceases to be a decisive factor in your life. Everything is just now. You live in the present tense of God. He is not becoming. He is. You are not becoming. You are. You operate from "I am," not "I will become."

From: Stone, Dan, The Rest of the Gospel: When the partial Gospel has worn you out. Dallas: One Press. 2000. pgs. 126-129.

Heretic's Guide to Eternity

I just began reading the above.....stay tuned for further comments....................................

"Hide-Bound" Mentality!

A quote from Ms. Shovel over at The Shack:


One of my biggest frustrations with religious institutions and religious mindedness is the whole 'hide-bound' mentality (to borrow a Shovel-phrase). You know, the 'hide-bound' mentality that the 'Word of GOD' is actually limited and totally defined as the written words on the page/pages, and not actually a Person!! (thank you Shovel for always pointing that out to me) It seems totally missed that the Word of GOD is actually GOD Himself revealed in Christ Jesus, and now in us as well. It is 'missed' ... the very Living Person the words are actually written about!

(Click on title to follow link to discussion..............)

Entering into this fullness

Entering into this fullness is not something you figure out or achieve. It's not a matter of being circumcised or keeping a long list of laws. No, you're already in--insiders--not through some secretive initiation rite but rather through what Christ has already gone through for you, destroying the power of sin.

Col 2:11

Savior of all men?

For it is for this we labor and strive, because we have fixed our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of believers.

(1 Timothy 4:10)

How could you ever merit, unmerited favor?

"Then he believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness."


Isn't it amazing how difficult we have made the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Do you realize that a Covenant/Promise was made with Abraham some 4000 years ago that still remains to this day. Are you aware that the law, which was added some 430 years later, did/does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. What then was the purpose of the law? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed..."Jesus" to whom the promise referred, had come. (Gal. 3:17-19)

Notice that the law was added because of transgression, not lack of obedience,.... what is meant by transgression..... Not trusting God, rebellion, and/or our unbelief. This was the failure of the Israelites and continues to plague most modern day Christians today. You see, Jesus dealt with all your failure to measure up to the Mosaic Law, He took all judgment upon Himself, "For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son" (John5:22)

My Point! How could you ever merit, unmerited favor, which is the Grace of God? Stop trying to please God by doing stuff to seemingly keep God happy. Your perceived "disobedience" does not change how God relates to you and/or thinks about you. In fact, God never intended to ultimately relate to you by law. He desires that you believe.....that's IT! The sin that will kill you is not adultery but unbelief. Trust Him! What did God say in Luke 18:8 concerning when the Son of man comes...was He looking for obedience... or "will He find Faith on the earth?" Do you hear me? Many fear God is mad at them because of their present unfortunate circumstance. The question might be, "what did I do to cause this to happen to me?" Performance and Perfectionism still demand a standard, which can be measured, other than the standard of Jesus Christ. Do you know that your "Life" is hidden with Christ in God. "For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God." (Col 3:3). How is it that we still believe that our actions/inactions cause a Covenant/Promise to be null and void? God keeps no record of sin for Dead people. There is no judgment in Grace!

Do you remember what Paul shared with the Romans....."For if those who are of the Law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise is nullified; (Rom 4:14) Now read the next two verses, "...for the Law brings about wrath, but where there is no law, there also is no violation. For this reason it is by faith/belief, in order that it may be in accordance with grace (unmerited favor), so that the promise will be guaranteed to all the descendants, not only to those who are of the Law, but also to those who are of the faith/belief of Abraham, who is the father of us all."

Child of God, stand in the freedom appropriated by the cross. Do not let the devil intimidate you into thinking that God is judging you by the law/standards of performance. For you are dead to sin and alive to Jesus Christ. A covenant can only be broken by death. Believer, He died so you died.....the law can not go beyond the grave.

"So, my friends, this is something like what has taken place with you. When Christ died he took that entire rule-dominated way of life down with him and left it in the tomb, leaving you free to "marry" a resurrection life and bear "offspring" of faith for God. For as long as we lived that old way of life, doing whatever we felt we could get away with, sin was calling most of the shots as the old law code hemmed us in. And this made us all the more rebellious. In the end, all we had to show for it was miscarriages and stillbirths. But now that we're no longer shackled to that domineering mate of sin, and out from under all those oppressive regulations and fine print, we're free to live a new life in the freedom of God." (Romans 7:4-6) msg

Be Free!!!

Tripp

Diet coke and Mentos Experiment

Turn your sound up and have a little Fun!

Live "Life"

Shovel Shack....ongoing discussion

I just came from the Shovel Shack....ongoing discussion regarding the law....

Hello Real,

Hear what was revealed to our brother, Paul:

Why then was the law given? It was added because of transgressions, until the arrival of the descendant to whom the promise had been made. It was administered through angels by an intermediary. Now an intermediary is not for one party alone, but God is one. Is the law therefore opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that was able to give life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. But the scripture imprisoned everything and everyone under sin so that the promise could be given-because of the faithfulness of Jesus Christ-to those who believe. Now before faith came we were held in custody under the law, being kept as prisoners until the coming faith would be revealed. Thus the law had become our guardian until Christ, so that we could be declared righteous by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female-for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's descendants, heirs according to the promise.
(Galatians 3:19-29 NET)

Jim :)

dave wrote:

Can you clarify the last little bit of your response to me. How does the the law acting as a guardian relate to us today? Are you saying that those who parade their spirituality and act as if we are missing something are to be considered as children who need a hand? How so?

First of all, by understanding how self-righteousness relates to a standards-compliance group mentality we can recognize our own delusions of superiority, past or present. We know because we've been there ... and may even find ourselves running back to it from time to time. In Christ we have eyes to see past that old delusion. The thing is that in having considered ourselves superior by whichever aspect we adhered to only testified to the simple fact that our superiority was tied to an external source to keep us in line. That attitude is the exact same as in children who finally, despite all resistance and unwillingness, bow down to certain demands of a guardian (mom, dad, police, teachers, etc) only to turn around and hold their own compliance forth in judgment against others.

How do we who have seen past this delusion ever get sucked back up into it when confronted with the demands and/or intimidation of yet another group force? Why do we even give in to the delusion that a group actually has any real, lasting substance? It's all a facade! And it's only part of the temporal world, whose divisions, demands, standards, superiority and morality decay just as it does. How do we ever re-adopt the attitude that we know has no real substance?

To see past that parade of spirituality and recognize those who boast in it as being children who would stray unless their hand was held is merely to recognize that such spirituality/superiority is mere empty delusion. If we hold the delusion as having substance our judgments (no matter how Biblical or doctrinal) will be based upon the delusion; if seen for what it truly is (a delusion) we can see past it. And in seeing past the delusion we can regard a person according to reality ... even when dealing with or discussing the false premises of the delusion. For we hope upon the miraculous! :)

For if we are out of our minds, it is for God; if we are of sound mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ controls us, since we have concluded this, that Christ died for all; therefore all have died. And he died for all so that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised. So then from now on we acknowledge no one from an outward human point of view. Even though we have known Christ from such a human point of view, now we do not know him in that way any longer. So then, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; what is old has passed away-look, what is new has come! And all these things are from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and who has given us the ministry of reconciliation. In other words, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting people's trespasses against them, and he has given us the message of reconciliation. Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making His plea through us. We plead with you on Christ's behalf, "Be reconciled to God!" God made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we would become the righteousness of God.
(2 Corinthians 5:13-21 NET)

Jim

DIGGIN'THE LIFE!

the living Stone

I just finished watching the movie, "THEFAMILYSTONE".......I sometimes find it interesting how hollywood can capture/understand relationships, with a depth of "Life" far better than the so-called religious.

The story surrounding this movie is simple and complex, much like real-life but communicated with an interconnectedness that only the Lord could design, which is the "Miraculous Life" within.

The scripture conveys that in our trusting, we will have no regret......it is only in our lack of trusting/delusion, that we begin to trip over the very "Life/Sone" which has aready been given.

Live "Life"!!!

"Welcome to the living Stone, the source of life.... Present yourselves as building stones for the construction of a sanctuary vibrant with life...." (msg)

Resurrection Unto Newness Of Life

If we have become united with him by the likeness of his death, we shall be also by the likeness of his resurrection (Rom. 6:5).

Now with resurrection the figure is different because something new is introduced. I am "baptized into his death", but I do not enter in quite the same way into His resurrection, for, Praise the Lord! His resurrection enters into me, imparting to me a new life. In the death of the Lord the emphasis is solely upon 'I in Christ'. With the resurrection, while the same thing is true, there is now a new emphasis upon 'Christ in me'. How is it possible for Christ to communicate His resurrection life to me? How do I receive this new life? Paul suggests, I think, a very good illustration with these very same words: "united with him". For the word 'united' (A.V. 'planted together') may carry in the Greek the sense of 'grafted'[6] and it gives us a very beautiful picture of the life of Christ which is imparted to us through resurrection.

In Fukien I once visited a man who owned an orchard of long-ien[7] trees. He had three or four acres of land and about three hundred fruit trees. I inquired if his trees had been grafted or if they were of the original native stock. 'Do you think', he replied, 'that I would waste my land growing ungrafted trees? What value could I ever expect from the old stock?

So I asked him to explain the process of grafting, which he gladly did. 'When a tree has grown to a certain height', he said, 'I lop off the top and graft on to it.' Pointing to a special tree he asked, 'Do you see that tree? I call it the father tree, because all the grafts for the other trees are taken from that one. If the other trees were just left to follow the course of nature, their fruit would be only about the size of a raspberry, and would consist mainly of thick skin and seeds. This tree, from which the grafts for all the others are taken, bears a luscious fruit the size of a plum, with very thin skin and a tiny seed; and of course all the grafted trees bear fruit like it.' 'How does it happen?' I asked. 'I simply take a little of the nature of the one tree and transfer it to the other', he explained. 'I make a cleavage in the poor tree and insert a slip from the good one. Then I bind it up and leave it to grow.' 'But how can it grow?' I asked. 'I don't know', he said, 'but it does grow.'

Then he showed me a tree bearing miserably poor fruit from the old stock below the graft, and rich juicy fruit from the new stock above the graft. 'I have left the old shoots with their useless fruit on them to show the difference', he said. 'From it you can understand the value of grafting. You can appreciate, can you not, why I grow only grafted trees?'

How can one tree bear the fruit of another? How can a poor tree bear good fruit? Only by grafting. Only by our implanting into it the life of a good tree. But if a man can graft a branch of one tree into another, cannot God take of the life of His Son and, so to speak, graft it into us?

God has done everything. There is only one fruitful life in the world and that has been grafted into millions of other lives. We call this the 'new birth'. New birth is the reception of a life which I did not possess before. It is not that my natural life has been changed at all; it is that another life, a life altogether new, altogether Divine, has become my life.............

God has cut off the old creation by the Cross of His Son in order to bring in a new creation in Christ by resurrection. He has shut the door to that old kingdom of darkness and translated me into the kingdom of His dear Son. My glorying is in the fact that it has been done -- that, through the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ , that old world has " been crucified unto me, and I unto the world"

(Excerpted from "The Normal Christian Life", Watchman Nee, pages 71-74)

First called "Christians" in Antioch!

By: Tripp Campbell

(repost)

Since the Church was birthed on Pentecost, many have only embraced a Historical Jesus versus The Indwelling presence of the "Anointed One." In-"Christ" (Christos-Anointed One)

Interestingly enough, The Disciples were first called "Christians" in Antioch............................Why?

It is well known that Saul, who was later to be called Paul, spent (14) fourteen years in Tarsus developing his trade as a (tentmaker). Moreover, as Saul was growing in a practical sense, he also was being given/ministered to, by the Holy Spirit a far deeper Revelation, which would ultimately change the World.

You may ask, well, what was this great "Revelation"? Listen to Paul's own words inspired by God in His Epistle to the Church of Ephesus.

For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles-- if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace which was given to me for you; that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief. By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel, of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God's grace which was given to me according to the working of His power. To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things; so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him. (Eph. 3:1-12) nasb

Again, what is this mystery?

I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God, that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in me/you, the hope of glory. (Col.1:25-27)nasb

Now, Saul/Paul, after (14) fourteen years, was hunted by Barnabas and brought from Tarsus to Antioch. And it was here, that a large number of people assembled over the course of a year, and Paul ministered this New found Mystery, which had now been revealed which is Christ In Me,the hope of Glory..............................and in Antioch the Disciples were first called "Christians" (Christ- In- Ones).

(It is my prayer, that "all" will begin to embrace,the Reality of Christ-In me, versus the Historical Jesus of the past, and the word "Christians" will be known,as it was known in Antioch... Amen)

Born From Above!

(Repost)

By Tripp Campbell

"We know that no one who is born of God sins; but He who was born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him."
1Jo 5:18

Lately, I have been in many discussions with those who are still eclipsed within the confines of "sin/death." What they have failed to realize is that those who are born from above sinneth not. Somehow, many have bought into a mentality that they can please/displease God by their actions/inaction. Generally,what so many have missed, is that by their beliefs/understanding, they have now raised an illusionary Standard, something that can be measured, in order to relate to God.

I have found that in my personal walk every time I begin to relate to God by "Doing", within a short period of time my energy and ability begin to wane and I find myself devoid of Hope/Life. You see, "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, But desire fulfilled is a tree of life........" Moreover, as I have begun to rest in the Finished work of the Cross, everything begins to abound. It is not that my "life" is without challenges, it has many, but now it is centered in the only "Life" available to a believer, Jesus Christ. No longer do I live in the illusion of Doing for God, by the works of the Law which ultimately leads to death, but I continue to embrace "fullness" which already has been so gloriously provided for, In-Christ Jesus!

Rom 5:17-21 "If death got the upper hand through one man's wrongdoing, can you imagine the breathtaking recovery life makes, sovereign life, in those who grasp with both hands this wildly extravagant life-gift, this grandsetting-everything-right, that the one man Jesus Christ provides? Here it is in a nutshell: Just as one person did it wrong and got us in all this trouble with sin and death, another person did it right and got us out of it. But more than just getting us out of trouble, he got us into life! One man said no to God and put many people in the wrong; one man said yes to God and put many in the right. All that passing laws against sin did was produce more lawbreakers. But sin didn't, and doesn't, have a chance in competition with the aggressive forgiveness we call grace. When it's sin versus grace, grace wins hands down. All sin can do is threaten us with death, and that's the end of it. Grace, because God is putting everything together again through the Messiah, invites us into life--a life that goes on and on and on, world without end." (msg)

a word you can take to heart

Here's a word you can take to heart and depend on: Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. I'm proof--Public Sinner Number One--

What do you think Paul was declaring?

He is your life.

"Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life--even though invisible to spectators--is with Christ in God. He is your life."
(msg)

Sometimes it aids our understanding, to re-focus from that which is seen, to that which is unseen.