It is said of Nebuchadnezzar that he was a wicked man and yet he was also a tool in the hand of God. David reiterates this truth in Psalms 17. If this is a spiritual fact and truth how is it that you who find me wicked are justified in your complaint? Has God changed? Is He not free to change tools from generation to generation? If I am a tool in the hand of God who with all my beguiling charm seduced you to your own harm can God not make it to your benefit? If you are His beloved child will this not be His way?
On the other hand what if wicked men like Alsup are God’s tools and I am on your side. Is your complaint anymore justified. What comes across in your complaint is unbelief. Funny how in the same breath of your unbelief you accuse me of unbelief. Who is it that commits his way to the providence of Christ? He who suffers without complaint or He who does not trust God with His tools? If you find unbelief in your heart, repent. In this you show God that you love Him. I am not your enemy it is unbelief. If I am as you suspect and God used my wickedness to touch His beloved what punishment awaits me. You have your vindication at inception. If I am not maybe we should trust the Lord as brothers. You make the call. One final thought: wicked men have never encouraged others to trust in the Lord.
Thursday, July 09, 2009
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
The Fat Heart (4-25-09)
The fat heart is a fatal disease. David ran into it and spoke of it in. Psalms 17. It is a heart content and satisfied by this world. It lives in luxury. It has no lord it governs itself. From the mighty tower of its perceived safety they sit in judgment of those of lean heart. A fat heart lives with no fear of God. The parable of the rich fool spoke of the fat heart symptoms. (Lk. 12:13-21) You don’t have to be abundantly wealthy to suffer from this disease. You only have to align your heart to the wealth of this world. It can be the wealth of time, life, prestige, pleasure, or any of their variants. In David’s case it was men aligned with king Saul to crush David. Out of their fat hearts came every foul accusation against God’s anointed. The fat heart is not wise because the beginning of wisdom is the fear of God. Alignment with power of the day though it be a king, judge, or army that denies God has any authority over them is the cowardice of a fat heart. The lean heart may have the same wealth or poverty of the fat heart but even what it possesses it gives in subjugation to God in fear. The lean heart is reverent while the fat heart is proud and boastful. The lean heart is healthy and a gift from God.
My question to you is what state have you kept your heart during this bifurcated battle of ideology? Have you chosen wisely the truth of God or aligned yourself to the comforts of a fat heart? In David’s case he ultimately was vindicated and judged by God. Saul was likewise judged by God and died of his fat heart. Suddenly it was no longer the joy of fatness for the fool when truth destroyed all their hope. Common sense is not wisdom and rarely on its own will it find the way of God. It will put you quickly on the path of flattery from those in power. It will probably keep you in the way of comfort and ease for a season. But what is the cost personally if you allow your heart to grow fat? Saul, his cadre, and the object of the parable have already answered this question with certainty.
On the surface it may seem like the just and the criminal are easily identified. On the surface a diseased heart appears to beat as the healthy one but in time surface illusions will give way to truth as fact. The truth can be known and wants to be known but it will only meet you at the heart.
My question to you is what state have you kept your heart during this bifurcated battle of ideology? Have you chosen wisely the truth of God or aligned yourself to the comforts of a fat heart? In David’s case he ultimately was vindicated and judged by God. Saul was likewise judged by God and died of his fat heart. Suddenly it was no longer the joy of fatness for the fool when truth destroyed all their hope. Common sense is not wisdom and rarely on its own will it find the way of God. It will put you quickly on the path of flattery from those in power. It will probably keep you in the way of comfort and ease for a season. But what is the cost personally if you allow your heart to grow fat? Saul, his cadre, and the object of the parable have already answered this question with certainty.
On the surface it may seem like the just and the criminal are easily identified. On the surface a diseased heart appears to beat as the healthy one but in time surface illusions will give way to truth as fact. The truth can be known and wants to be known but it will only meet you at the heart.
Friday, July 03, 2009
Magnify VIII (4-8-09)
One cannot take an adequate view of God unless they look in the fullness of time. Throughout history God has done wonders. The greatest of all these wonders is Him condescending down to relate to His creation. He told of Cyrus conquering Babylon 400 years in advance; Alexander the Great’s death and 4 general replacements 150 years advance; The exodus 400 years advance, and countless others. With these examples it is easy to imagine a God of omnipotence. Can you understand a God who would condescend to address creations corruption without compromising His attributes? Can you fathom what deliverance truly came by this benevolent act? I have been a Christian in a growing relationship for over 3 decades now and still this knowledge whelms my capacities. All your suffering and mine, all the corruption of institutions and hearts to make it this way, all the lies and deception have weighed heavy on the people. Most of us are in self-preservation made without compassion for others yet God sees us all. Individually He wishes to relate and reveal His remedies.
This is what stung me recently. As I sought to magnify the Lord the light of His countenance shown brighter. That is wonderful but that which brings joy also exposes the darkness within the heart. As confident I am in my faith I still lack a faith remotely close to obtaining the capacity of grace already provided. I wonder how much of this delay really came down to my obtuse nature and slow maturing. For your sakes I hope I have not been a liability. When I said I have a difficulty using the prophetic gift upon myself because of the cloud of self interest this is true. God has caused me to examine this cloud and I do believe now there is grace to overcome it. I did though receive a prophetic word for another which shed some revelation upon my situation. According to that prophecy I must remain as I am another 3 months but no longer than 15. I know this still sounds like delay but it is my first certain “thus sayeth the Lord” that has dealt with timing. I’m also suspecting as I walk into what I’ve been shown that more details will be revealed. There are many other things I can tell you but it is time for you to hear God’s voice individually. You have as much access to our Creator as I. Tell me what you hear and see. Write it down so when I post new revelation you have a confirmation witness. My hopes for all of you are not vanity. Many have opposed and tried to crush me for this hope but I have seen the hand of God under the pit they have dug. I have measured His provisions and found no lack. No longer pray as though there is a need, we are passed that. Pray we are able to rise to God’s desires. If you have magnified the Lord with me I’m certain the portent of your relationship with Him alone is enough to cause your spirit to burst forth with praise and your fears to dissipate. I’m excited people, wait til the testimony of the wonders of Christ make their report. What a mighty God we serve.
This is what stung me recently. As I sought to magnify the Lord the light of His countenance shown brighter. That is wonderful but that which brings joy also exposes the darkness within the heart. As confident I am in my faith I still lack a faith remotely close to obtaining the capacity of grace already provided. I wonder how much of this delay really came down to my obtuse nature and slow maturing. For your sakes I hope I have not been a liability. When I said I have a difficulty using the prophetic gift upon myself because of the cloud of self interest this is true. God has caused me to examine this cloud and I do believe now there is grace to overcome it. I did though receive a prophetic word for another which shed some revelation upon my situation. According to that prophecy I must remain as I am another 3 months but no longer than 15. I know this still sounds like delay but it is my first certain “thus sayeth the Lord” that has dealt with timing. I’m also suspecting as I walk into what I’ve been shown that more details will be revealed. There are many other things I can tell you but it is time for you to hear God’s voice individually. You have as much access to our Creator as I. Tell me what you hear and see. Write it down so when I post new revelation you have a confirmation witness. My hopes for all of you are not vanity. Many have opposed and tried to crush me for this hope but I have seen the hand of God under the pit they have dug. I have measured His provisions and found no lack. No longer pray as though there is a need, we are passed that. Pray we are able to rise to God’s desires. If you have magnified the Lord with me I’m certain the portent of your relationship with Him alone is enough to cause your spirit to burst forth with praise and your fears to dissipate. I’m excited people, wait til the testimony of the wonders of Christ make their report. What a mighty God we serve.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Magnify VII (4-3-09)
Do we really believe in the work of Christ? If so I ask myself “should a man like me run away?” (Num. 6:11) I hear all my critics (some using the misnomer “friend”) rail upon my choices and encourage me with all the daggers. It is easy for coach potato Christians to comment on the woes of battle while they sit on the sidelines with their intellectual comfort of mental ascent acquired from their readings. Faith is an action verb that is far more than mental ascent.
Last night as I left the chapel with a man I never met before. He was obviously in deep distress. His 14 year old daughter Tomica died this day. How can you comfort a man in this distress? What empathy can rise to the tragedy. I ask myself “Can a man like me run away?” from a situation like this. I had no social obligations to this man, Michael, I could have easily gone about my business and walked right past his tears.
When I ask myself like Nehemiah “can a man like me run away?” What am I asking? I search myself and ask do I really believe in the redemptive work of Christ? Do I more than comprehend but have a gnosis which incorporates the action of faith into experience? Am I truly a new creation in Christ Jesus? Not at the expense of my personality but in the complete fullness or capacity of my personality. The old man which was Kurt is to selfish for Michael’s need, but the new man which is Kurt is living in a different capacity. My father told me Scotty led his new celly to the Lord. A high ranking member of Hells Angels. Can a man like Scott run away? What of you, can you run away?
Fears and phobias and their agents would have us never commit to a battle unless the outcome was certain and the trek was painless. These are the methods of the devil. God will bring you a faith challenge with no further insight except this is my path walk ye in it. Nehemiah knew God to be faithful and that God was his all in all. He knew this before the revelation of Christ. Shame on us if we shrink back. Have you ever pondered this truth He who does not gather with me scatters? Notice there is no neutral.
Who exactly should God send into the frey of battle in this fraudulent mortgage industry. One who thinks he knows God or one who does. Imagine the strange scenario that arrives in battle. Bow down to me or go into my furnace. You think Alsup’s offer to me was any less? He made it abundantly clear I offended him with my contempt of his authority. TO gather with Alsup was to scatter with Christ. Now making a stand the furnace gets fired up 7 times hotter as though the original heat was not enough. This is precisely where those who do not know the Lord who called them to battle can never meet the Lord who shows up in the furnace. No matter how hot the battle gets the Lord is present. Even the evil men cannot take the effects of their own weapons. Should the furnace make me run? Should the tyrant make me run? Should the delays and disappointments make me run? Answer the questions yourself. If God be for you and present in any danger, supplying you to the full capacity of the work of Christ you were called to walk in, for the eternal glory and testimony of His Son, can a man like you run?
I cannot! I know I will see victories never imagined by the scatterers because I am gathering.
There was the man born blind whom Jesus healed and there was Elisha (2 Kg. 6:16-17) having God open the eyes of his servant. I like all of you have been born blind to God and His kingdom yet if we pray and magnify the name of the Lord perhaps like these men our eyes will be opened and we will see how silly it would be not to enter a battle or to fear the hordes of the enemy and run.
Hebrews 11 talks of those who subdued kingdoms, received their dead and other wonders of God they were called to walk in. Not one name is a coach potato. The mortgage fraud industry is a front for a spiritual sickness and battle. The wall street guys can be champions of the world if it can afford their price but who will bring down the strongholds of the enemy that fortified the hearts of wicked men? Isaiah said Lord send me. I, among all the mocking laughter and shameless ridicule, am glad of my calling and hopeful in the purposes of the Lord who calls and equips. I magnify His name as the name above all names and glory in His work. I shall not run. If I perish I perish, but I think it will take more than this hot box blow hard furnace of Alsup and his minions.
Last night as I left the chapel with a man I never met before. He was obviously in deep distress. His 14 year old daughter Tomica died this day. How can you comfort a man in this distress? What empathy can rise to the tragedy. I ask myself “Can a man like me run away?” from a situation like this. I had no social obligations to this man, Michael, I could have easily gone about my business and walked right past his tears.
When I ask myself like Nehemiah “can a man like me run away?” What am I asking? I search myself and ask do I really believe in the redemptive work of Christ? Do I more than comprehend but have a gnosis which incorporates the action of faith into experience? Am I truly a new creation in Christ Jesus? Not at the expense of my personality but in the complete fullness or capacity of my personality. The old man which was Kurt is to selfish for Michael’s need, but the new man which is Kurt is living in a different capacity. My father told me Scotty led his new celly to the Lord. A high ranking member of Hells Angels. Can a man like Scott run away? What of you, can you run away?
Fears and phobias and their agents would have us never commit to a battle unless the outcome was certain and the trek was painless. These are the methods of the devil. God will bring you a faith challenge with no further insight except this is my path walk ye in it. Nehemiah knew God to be faithful and that God was his all in all. He knew this before the revelation of Christ. Shame on us if we shrink back. Have you ever pondered this truth He who does not gather with me scatters? Notice there is no neutral.
Who exactly should God send into the frey of battle in this fraudulent mortgage industry. One who thinks he knows God or one who does. Imagine the strange scenario that arrives in battle. Bow down to me or go into my furnace. You think Alsup’s offer to me was any less? He made it abundantly clear I offended him with my contempt of his authority. TO gather with Alsup was to scatter with Christ. Now making a stand the furnace gets fired up 7 times hotter as though the original heat was not enough. This is precisely where those who do not know the Lord who called them to battle can never meet the Lord who shows up in the furnace. No matter how hot the battle gets the Lord is present. Even the evil men cannot take the effects of their own weapons. Should the furnace make me run? Should the tyrant make me run? Should the delays and disappointments make me run? Answer the questions yourself. If God be for you and present in any danger, supplying you to the full capacity of the work of Christ you were called to walk in, for the eternal glory and testimony of His Son, can a man like you run?
I cannot! I know I will see victories never imagined by the scatterers because I am gathering.
There was the man born blind whom Jesus healed and there was Elisha (2 Kg. 6:16-17) having God open the eyes of his servant. I like all of you have been born blind to God and His kingdom yet if we pray and magnify the name of the Lord perhaps like these men our eyes will be opened and we will see how silly it would be not to enter a battle or to fear the hordes of the enemy and run.
Hebrews 11 talks of those who subdued kingdoms, received their dead and other wonders of God they were called to walk in. Not one name is a coach potato. The mortgage fraud industry is a front for a spiritual sickness and battle. The wall street guys can be champions of the world if it can afford their price but who will bring down the strongholds of the enemy that fortified the hearts of wicked men? Isaiah said Lord send me. I, among all the mocking laughter and shameless ridicule, am glad of my calling and hopeful in the purposes of the Lord who calls and equips. I magnify His name as the name above all names and glory in His work. I shall not run. If I perish I perish, but I think it will take more than this hot box blow hard furnace of Alsup and his minions.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Magnify VI (4-1-09)
I know that it is my desire to evict some of you from Smallville. To have your hopes fixed upon the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ. I do not use Christ as a typical religious figure head or Christianity as a comparative religion, Christ or Christianity in truth do not provide this to the reason of man. Christ is either who He claimed to be or was a worthless fraud. He is the only way to regeneration of our being and resolution with God. If He is not the way Christian thought is the most foolish, vanity in its highest. I cannot evict you from Smallville only God reaching towards you to implant revelation in your soul can quicken you to life. That is why my words will always find a critic. Why the FBI will always be populated with agents. Why innocence will continue to be prosecuted. Few is the number that are led into Christ and many the number who dwell in Smallville awaiting their damnation. I speak to you few at the insult of the many.
You few I ask to shake off the stupor of this world. You are not chosen to be a vessel in God’s house just so He can cater to your whims and fancies for comfort in this world. Adam was personally entrusted with a spirit alive toward God. In pride he gambled that away in disobedience for the wage of death. All of us have inherited this wage, this condition. Christ the last Adam came to give this life back but not in the same measure He now possesses that life giving Spirit in trust on our behalf. In essence our nature has made us incompetents to be trusted again with the gift of relationship to God. That does not leave us hopeless but utterly dependent. This is why Christ being a fraud destroys any hope. We have to be in Him who possesses the life giving spirit to be alive. He is the trustee competent to administer the gifts of God without destroying the beneficiary. Though we have been quickened we are naive to think regeneration is not a life long process. Constantly Christ is an active trustee with the care of the beneficiary as His constant concern. Quite frankly I am forced in the Dorean model to follow His example. Sure I have my material temptation, my spiritual temptation, and my compromise temptation, but if I resist the devil and rebuke him through Christ I can have a hope of victory which is in Christ. Being entombed by circumstance is not our defeat. It is where we discover the truth of the power of Christ. How many times have we become forgetful of His power. I think most of you are falling prey to this bad habit during this long delay within the Dorean process. I don’t think you truly understand your salvation.
Using the Hebrews as an example from scripture let us try and gain a clue. Shortly after Joseph a Pharaoh arose who remembered him not and put the Hebrews into slavery. The 2nd, 3rd, and 4th generations knew nothing of freedom. Along comes a deliverer (Moses a type of Christ) empowered by God to restore the truth to their nature. Still they couldn’t shake the shackles of Smallville. Only two out of the whole lot saw the freedom promised and could not look back to slavery with comfort. The rest died in the desert outside of Smallville but still in bondage. You were born into Adam (the founder and Patriarch of Smallville) and this means you were in bondage to sin and death. Not just the physical death but also the second death which is eternal. Scott and I as your trustees are in a very dark bottomless pit with victory unrealistic from any human means yet our circumstance is no where near as desperately hopeless as our Smallville citizenship. It is easy for Scott and I to have a hope of victory, to sense the everlasting arms of God below our bottomless to lift us up, because we can remember the power displayed to evict us out of Smallville. Do you truly comprehend what put Christ on a cross and in a tomb and what loving power it took to blast through that rock alive forevermore? Perhaps you need to revisit this thought when your circumstance is large and crushing. In Smallville everything appears large and looming. Seated with Christ in heavenly places gives a completely different perspective.
Let me be honest with you a minute. I write this magnify series and these blogs more from my need to encourage my faith than benevolence for you. I am as frail as any of you. I am as carnal minded and prone to make God my servant. What I have learned from my trials before Dorean is that God is faithfully reliable. His ways may be painful but boy are they delightful. I have cried all the tears, been perplexed, cast down, and fatigued but my trustee has gifts for them all and I can go to Him in prayer and He always answers. Trust our trustee and indentures of the trust will be revealed to you in good time. Then like Scott and I you will say to serve the Lord is good. Slavery creeps into your psyche but a right spirit placed into your changes that psyche. Can any deliverance needed be greater than how we began this race? I think not and looking back I see the smoldering of Smallville condemned by the Lord and with thanks look forward to a life time of deliverance.
You few I ask to shake off the stupor of this world. You are not chosen to be a vessel in God’s house just so He can cater to your whims and fancies for comfort in this world. Adam was personally entrusted with a spirit alive toward God. In pride he gambled that away in disobedience for the wage of death. All of us have inherited this wage, this condition. Christ the last Adam came to give this life back but not in the same measure He now possesses that life giving Spirit in trust on our behalf. In essence our nature has made us incompetents to be trusted again with the gift of relationship to God. That does not leave us hopeless but utterly dependent. This is why Christ being a fraud destroys any hope. We have to be in Him who possesses the life giving spirit to be alive. He is the trustee competent to administer the gifts of God without destroying the beneficiary. Though we have been quickened we are naive to think regeneration is not a life long process. Constantly Christ is an active trustee with the care of the beneficiary as His constant concern. Quite frankly I am forced in the Dorean model to follow His example. Sure I have my material temptation, my spiritual temptation, and my compromise temptation, but if I resist the devil and rebuke him through Christ I can have a hope of victory which is in Christ. Being entombed by circumstance is not our defeat. It is where we discover the truth of the power of Christ. How many times have we become forgetful of His power. I think most of you are falling prey to this bad habit during this long delay within the Dorean process. I don’t think you truly understand your salvation.
Using the Hebrews as an example from scripture let us try and gain a clue. Shortly after Joseph a Pharaoh arose who remembered him not and put the Hebrews into slavery. The 2nd, 3rd, and 4th generations knew nothing of freedom. Along comes a deliverer (Moses a type of Christ) empowered by God to restore the truth to their nature. Still they couldn’t shake the shackles of Smallville. Only two out of the whole lot saw the freedom promised and could not look back to slavery with comfort. The rest died in the desert outside of Smallville but still in bondage. You were born into Adam (the founder and Patriarch of Smallville) and this means you were in bondage to sin and death. Not just the physical death but also the second death which is eternal. Scott and I as your trustees are in a very dark bottomless pit with victory unrealistic from any human means yet our circumstance is no where near as desperately hopeless as our Smallville citizenship. It is easy for Scott and I to have a hope of victory, to sense the everlasting arms of God below our bottomless to lift us up, because we can remember the power displayed to evict us out of Smallville. Do you truly comprehend what put Christ on a cross and in a tomb and what loving power it took to blast through that rock alive forevermore? Perhaps you need to revisit this thought when your circumstance is large and crushing. In Smallville everything appears large and looming. Seated with Christ in heavenly places gives a completely different perspective.
Let me be honest with you a minute. I write this magnify series and these blogs more from my need to encourage my faith than benevolence for you. I am as frail as any of you. I am as carnal minded and prone to make God my servant. What I have learned from my trials before Dorean is that God is faithfully reliable. His ways may be painful but boy are they delightful. I have cried all the tears, been perplexed, cast down, and fatigued but my trustee has gifts for them all and I can go to Him in prayer and He always answers. Trust our trustee and indentures of the trust will be revealed to you in good time. Then like Scott and I you will say to serve the Lord is good. Slavery creeps into your psyche but a right spirit placed into your changes that psyche. Can any deliverance needed be greater than how we began this race? I think not and looking back I see the smoldering of Smallville condemned by the Lord and with thanks look forward to a life time of deliverance.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Magnify V (3-31-09)
About a month ago as I was seeking the Lord for a definite word I was met with silence. Most would be disheartened by this silence as indeed I used to be. But now I have come to cherish these moments not for themselves but what they hold in promise. As I sought an answer I was gently nudged not to seek an answer but to seek God alone. This was brought to me by the recollection of Samuel. (Friend of God) Thought I sought God alone the silence continued.
There is a story of Mary and Martha petitioning Christ in utter desperation over the terminal health of their brother Lazarus. Most of you know the story but do you know the truth therein. Jesus delayed. To them He met them with silence. When He came their thoughts were “too late.” Why do you suppose Christ behaved this way? Was He cruel, too busy, disinterested? Perhaps as the scriptures make clear His care for them was His constant concern. (like ours) Also though is the ordained work to glorify the Son. Are we without benefit by the Son’s glory? Did their prayers get answered? I would say exceedingly, abundantly, beyond all they could ask or think. (Eph. 3:20) Actually what could easily be construed as a shun in the spirit was a promotion. God knew He could trust Mary and Martha with the silence. Their prayer was aright. They were wise to rely on Him. God’s silence was the answer to their prayer as it was for mine. To seek only a visible cause and effect prayer life is a very elementary state of grace. God’s ways and methods are to exceed our comprehension. When He is unfathomable we should be on the lookout watching and praying because His redemption draws near.
Another example is Mary seeking the dead body of Christ at the tomb. She was asking a living, risen, impossible-to-die-Lord. Was her prayer answered? She did receive the body of Jesus but exceedingly, abundantly, beyond her wildest imagination. Can you magnify the Lord with me? Even if your imagination expands He is BIGGER!
Some prayers are met with silence because they are wrong. You don’t need a fruit inspector to tell you this you know. All the others if God be not a liar are answered. Most of the time answered better and bigger than your prayer request. Mary and Martha got Lazarus back but they also got a revelation of the resurrection power of the Son. He answered their prayer according to their need but forever changed their knowledge of Him in their sight. His glory and esteem all rose with their knowledge.
Do you think Mary and Martha even pondered the thought of receiving their brother from the dead while he lay stinking and Jesus remained far removed? Of course not. Neither can you imagine what work Christ is up to while we at Dorean lay stinking and ridiculed for our reliance on Christ. Thought He be afar off He has heard our prayers and when time and place converge into the ordained work for the Son to walk in what new revelation will we receive? Will it be any less spectacular than Mary or Martha’s? I think not! What will be the report to this generation of the mighty works Jesus has performed? You are important and so are your struggles and needs, but not so exceedingly important that their will be exalted over the Son. Nor should we desire this because it is clear by God’s practice that He knows my needs better than I know them myself.
To think Scott, Kurt, Alsup, prison, foreclosure, fraud, are outside the control of our Creator is the folly of our fruit inspectors. Don’t dwell in Smallville with the faithless. They don’t pray or understand what a high privilege was bestowed upon you when God gave you prayer for Him to answer. This knowledge is too great and too intimate for the strangers of creation. Adam brought disobedience to your soul and Christ brought you trust. Choose now who you will serve. If you choose Adam even a stupid fish will rebuke you. These are our critics? Please! The next silence God gives you could very well be the silence of your enemies.
There is a story of Mary and Martha petitioning Christ in utter desperation over the terminal health of their brother Lazarus. Most of you know the story but do you know the truth therein. Jesus delayed. To them He met them with silence. When He came their thoughts were “too late.” Why do you suppose Christ behaved this way? Was He cruel, too busy, disinterested? Perhaps as the scriptures make clear His care for them was His constant concern. (like ours) Also though is the ordained work to glorify the Son. Are we without benefit by the Son’s glory? Did their prayers get answered? I would say exceedingly, abundantly, beyond all they could ask or think. (Eph. 3:20) Actually what could easily be construed as a shun in the spirit was a promotion. God knew He could trust Mary and Martha with the silence. Their prayer was aright. They were wise to rely on Him. God’s silence was the answer to their prayer as it was for mine. To seek only a visible cause and effect prayer life is a very elementary state of grace. God’s ways and methods are to exceed our comprehension. When He is unfathomable we should be on the lookout watching and praying because His redemption draws near.
Another example is Mary seeking the dead body of Christ at the tomb. She was asking a living, risen, impossible-to-die-Lord. Was her prayer answered? She did receive the body of Jesus but exceedingly, abundantly, beyond her wildest imagination. Can you magnify the Lord with me? Even if your imagination expands He is BIGGER!
Some prayers are met with silence because they are wrong. You don’t need a fruit inspector to tell you this you know. All the others if God be not a liar are answered. Most of the time answered better and bigger than your prayer request. Mary and Martha got Lazarus back but they also got a revelation of the resurrection power of the Son. He answered their prayer according to their need but forever changed their knowledge of Him in their sight. His glory and esteem all rose with their knowledge.
Do you think Mary and Martha even pondered the thought of receiving their brother from the dead while he lay stinking and Jesus remained far removed? Of course not. Neither can you imagine what work Christ is up to while we at Dorean lay stinking and ridiculed for our reliance on Christ. Thought He be afar off He has heard our prayers and when time and place converge into the ordained work for the Son to walk in what new revelation will we receive? Will it be any less spectacular than Mary or Martha’s? I think not! What will be the report to this generation of the mighty works Jesus has performed? You are important and so are your struggles and needs, but not so exceedingly important that their will be exalted over the Son. Nor should we desire this because it is clear by God’s practice that He knows my needs better than I know them myself.
To think Scott, Kurt, Alsup, prison, foreclosure, fraud, are outside the control of our Creator is the folly of our fruit inspectors. Don’t dwell in Smallville with the faithless. They don’t pray or understand what a high privilege was bestowed upon you when God gave you prayer for Him to answer. This knowledge is too great and too intimate for the strangers of creation. Adam brought disobedience to your soul and Christ brought you trust. Choose now who you will serve. If you choose Adam even a stupid fish will rebuke you. These are our critics? Please! The next silence God gives you could very well be the silence of your enemies.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Magnify IV (3-31-09)
I have seen the comment here to many times to count “what benefit does all this religious talk bring,” or some variation thereof. For the commentor none but for those of you who are going to magnify the Lord with me it shall be a great deal of importance.
A lot of attention is paid to my works by these foolish fruit inspectors. I want to use this idea of works viewed through a Biblical perspective to magnify your understanding. There are basically 3 Greek words used for works in the New Testament I will spell them in English phonetically since I’m not certain this blog is capable of Greek letters. (1) Is the work Ergon its cognates have entered our language as the root for energy. (2) Dunamis which entered into our language as the root for dynamite. (3) Praxis which is equal to acts or practice.
When my fruit inspectors talk of my acts in judgment they are really thinking of praxis. It is funny that God’s word uses this word in context much like they apply it but the attributes are severely misplaced. In Mt. 16:27 God judges MEN according to their practice. Nothing mentioned of men judging men but that’s just a minor detail. This is further explained in Mt. 25:31-46 lest you be confused by a small text. The most prevalent word used is dunamis to address the work of Christ. This is a holy dynamite power ordained for Christ to walk in. To us these works are revealed as miracles. We are not called to do works. We are to live by faith and that faith being the faith of Christ. This not of yourselves it is a gift of God. Study the works of Christ and you will see that God the Father uses these works to authenticate His Son and to bring revelation to man. If these are the parameters of Christ work what makes you think your prayers, imaginations, or works outside of them net any benefit. In practice my critics say I am a thief and a liar. Yet they fail to allow Christ to judge me. If they are judging me with the judgment of Christ why do they fail to see the work of Christ in my words and deeds? Is Christ’s judgment as feeble as a man’s?
Here is my perspective challenge for you. Are you using feeble human judgement concerning your involvement in Dorean? Could it be that Christ has already been ordained to do dunamis work through your life at this time in history to bring revelation of the Son? Oh yeah this is all about you and your idea of how Christ shows Himself to be your God. This is my imagination speaking here so I admit in advance that it falls far short of the actuallities of the true work of Christ.
Suppose my imagination is correct that God hates injustice. That He looks down upon the poor, weak, and needy. That He hears their petitions for mercy and justice. That He will act according to His will to address the issue. That He has (like the man born blind) ordained a work for His Son to do at this time, in this situation, that glorifies the Son and reveals the redemption plan. If this short sighted imagination can stretch just a little perhaps it can at least see the clouds which are the footstool of our God.
Perhaps then Scott and I created Dorean to enlist enough witnesses to the fraud that God could trust to be faithful with His Son’s glory. All of us called as saints given over to the glory of the Son being willing to make no claims upon our life except to bring honor to Christ are now firmly planted in the controversy. Now our petitions are a true report brought by the body of Christ to the Father. Suddenly and in an instant when ideal for the revealing of the Son and His redemptive plan God ordains a work, a work only God can do with His dunamis power. WE become like the 153 fish. They were schooled against their nature in shallow water at a time of day not to their liking, fattened and made large, all to be consumed in the work of the Son ordained to bring Him glory. Will you allow yourself to be given over fully, to be ensnared in this net called Dorean? Perhaps you were called for such a time as this. This is the one act or practice you can perform; will you give yourself over to God’s work? The fish had no choice but we do. If we choose right how much more will God glorify His Son through our life than these simple fish.
The world makes its plans to fix the problem in remedies contaminated by greed, fraud, and corruption. None of these methods are remotely equal to how God wants to redeem the situation. I am eagerly watching and praying with my eyes fixed on Christ as He agonizes out His plan of redemption. What will God have me do in His work. I stand already because with tears of blood I see Him concerned about deliverance. Do not fall into temptation but enduringly keep watch. Our Lord will act soon, that is His practice!
A lot of attention is paid to my works by these foolish fruit inspectors. I want to use this idea of works viewed through a Biblical perspective to magnify your understanding. There are basically 3 Greek words used for works in the New Testament I will spell them in English phonetically since I’m not certain this blog is capable of Greek letters. (1) Is the work Ergon its cognates have entered our language as the root for energy. (2) Dunamis which entered into our language as the root for dynamite. (3) Praxis which is equal to acts or practice.
When my fruit inspectors talk of my acts in judgment they are really thinking of praxis. It is funny that God’s word uses this word in context much like they apply it but the attributes are severely misplaced. In Mt. 16:27 God judges MEN according to their practice. Nothing mentioned of men judging men but that’s just a minor detail. This is further explained in Mt. 25:31-46 lest you be confused by a small text. The most prevalent word used is dunamis to address the work of Christ. This is a holy dynamite power ordained for Christ to walk in. To us these works are revealed as miracles. We are not called to do works. We are to live by faith and that faith being the faith of Christ. This not of yourselves it is a gift of God. Study the works of Christ and you will see that God the Father uses these works to authenticate His Son and to bring revelation to man. If these are the parameters of Christ work what makes you think your prayers, imaginations, or works outside of them net any benefit. In practice my critics say I am a thief and a liar. Yet they fail to allow Christ to judge me. If they are judging me with the judgment of Christ why do they fail to see the work of Christ in my words and deeds? Is Christ’s judgment as feeble as a man’s?
Here is my perspective challenge for you. Are you using feeble human judgement concerning your involvement in Dorean? Could it be that Christ has already been ordained to do dunamis work through your life at this time in history to bring revelation of the Son? Oh yeah this is all about you and your idea of how Christ shows Himself to be your God. This is my imagination speaking here so I admit in advance that it falls far short of the actuallities of the true work of Christ.
Suppose my imagination is correct that God hates injustice. That He looks down upon the poor, weak, and needy. That He hears their petitions for mercy and justice. That He will act according to His will to address the issue. That He has (like the man born blind) ordained a work for His Son to do at this time, in this situation, that glorifies the Son and reveals the redemption plan. If this short sighted imagination can stretch just a little perhaps it can at least see the clouds which are the footstool of our God.
Perhaps then Scott and I created Dorean to enlist enough witnesses to the fraud that God could trust to be faithful with His Son’s glory. All of us called as saints given over to the glory of the Son being willing to make no claims upon our life except to bring honor to Christ are now firmly planted in the controversy. Now our petitions are a true report brought by the body of Christ to the Father. Suddenly and in an instant when ideal for the revealing of the Son and His redemptive plan God ordains a work, a work only God can do with His dunamis power. WE become like the 153 fish. They were schooled against their nature in shallow water at a time of day not to their liking, fattened and made large, all to be consumed in the work of the Son ordained to bring Him glory. Will you allow yourself to be given over fully, to be ensnared in this net called Dorean? Perhaps you were called for such a time as this. This is the one act or practice you can perform; will you give yourself over to God’s work? The fish had no choice but we do. If we choose right how much more will God glorify His Son through our life than these simple fish.
The world makes its plans to fix the problem in remedies contaminated by greed, fraud, and corruption. None of these methods are remotely equal to how God wants to redeem the situation. I am eagerly watching and praying with my eyes fixed on Christ as He agonizes out His plan of redemption. What will God have me do in His work. I stand already because with tears of blood I see Him concerned about deliverance. Do not fall into temptation but enduringly keep watch. Our Lord will act soon, that is His practice!
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