What Would Jesus Do?

August 13, 2009 at 8:18 am (Uncategorized)
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This has become such a catch phrase with many people today that it truly has no meaning.  It seems to me that most who use this phrase mean it to show that they are doing what they think Jesus would do in a given situation.

I would like to take a look at Jesus for a moment and look at some of the things that he did when he walked the earth. Then I would ask you to simply consider, are you really like him at all?

At twelve years old he had such a grasp of what he had been put on the earth to do that he went off on his own, was missing from his family for three days and when his parents found him and began to scold him, his response was essentially; I am doing what God sent me here to do, why are you are so upset? I think we would have considered him a rebellious teen ager.

When the really important religous people were around, he avoided them like the plague, occasionally taking the opportunity to call them bad names and warn them that they were going to hell! Doesn’t it seem strange that if you are one of those who avoid religious institutions and don’t like being around religious people you are considered “out there”, “deceived”, or “not really saved”.  Isn’t it odd that today so many “christians” feel that they need to tell people that don’t even know God that they are going to hell?  Jesus would never do that.

When Jesus prayed for people he did some pretty disgusting things, like spit in the dirt and make a “spit mud cake” and then splat it into some blind guy’s eyes.  And if that wasn’t strange enough, he then tells him to go to a certain fountain and wash his eyes out. The guy is blind for pete’s sake! How is he supposed to find his way anywhere?!  And wouldn’t you think that if this poor guy’s eyes are about to be opened for the first time that having a bunch of nasty dirt and spit in them would not be a good idea?

Once when Jesus prayed for a deaf guy he stuck his fingers in his ears! Hello! Pretty ridiculous if you ask me. When you want to hear something it is usually a good idea to get whatever is sticking in your ears out of the way!

On another occasion Jesus walks up to a guy who is obviously completely blind and has been screaming out for him to help him. Give you one guess what Jesus said when he approached him. Wrong! Jesus asked him what the guy wanted Jesus to do for him. Uh, uhmmm, let me think, maybe heal my blind eyes!

So I ask you, do you do what Jesus did? If your idea of being like Jesus is acting like a limp-wristed, pacifistic, push-over who cares about appearance and avoids confrontation at all costs, think again! And maybe give some thought to really doing what Jesus would do in your situation. I think you may find a new exhilarating freedom when you catch a glimpse of this wonderful God we serve!

A mentor of mine recently said, “The mind of Christ is not a logical mind.”  We are promised in the Ancient Writings that we have the mind of Christ. Yes, that means now, we already possess it.  Flick the switch and let it begin to operate in your life. I promise you, you’ve never had so much fun!

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The Trees of the Fields

July 22, 2009 at 9:18 am (Uncategorized)
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I have a love for trees. They are an important, no, vital part of our environment. Without them we would be unable to live.

Most of us would say that they are living things. But have you considered just how alive they are?  Would you walk up to one and say hello? Would you expect a response?

The Ancient Writings of Scripture tell us quite alot about trees, which if you are like me,  you may have already read, but passed over without considering the reality of what was said.  For example, did you know that trees consider and understand?  Did you know that they respond emotionally with joy by clapping their hands, and/or waving?

Scientists have proven that trees communicate with other trees by way of a signal to warn of pests or other dangers. This communication is passed along for great distances and has been shown not to be a result of direct contact.

I am currently studying this wonderful gift from our Creator. There is much to learn of which I hope to not only obtain knowledge, but a greater understanding in how to relate with these varied, and  sometimes majestic fellow-members of this planet we live on.

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All Hands on Deck

July 2, 2009 at 2:50 pm (Christianity, Musings, Supernatural or Paranormal?)

Have you ever wondered if you are spiritually gifted?  Do you find all this spiritual stuff interesting and even enticing but feel you don’t have any way to find out if it is true or not?

One of the greatest challenges you may face in this life is whether to believe in God or not.  One of the greatest dares you may ever accept is to simply ask the question. To whom? Well, to Him of course.  I dare you. Just take a moment wherever you are and simply direct your thoughts toward God.  If you are alone and can speak out loud then go ahead and ask him. If you are in a place where talking out loud would be weird, then just in your mind ask him. Yes, ask him if he is real and challenge him that if he is real, to show you somehow.

I think you will be surprised at what you might find out.  And don’t be surprised if it happens quicker than you expect.

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What Are You Looking For?

April 27, 2009 at 4:01 pm (Christianity, Uncategorized)
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There is such upheaval in the world today and especially in the group (or should I say groups) of people who consider themselves followers of Jesus. We are constantly meeting more and more people who are not satisfied with their spiritual life, nor with their experience in the institutional church and are looking for an alternative.

If you arrived here from our ministry website you already realize that we meet in our home and aren’t your typical “church” or “spiritual fellowship”. Just read our decisions page and then you can decide if we are crazy or what you have been looking for. 

I also blog on simplechurch.com which is a site suited for those who have left the institutional church so I encourage you to visit there.  If you are not a member of a group you are welcome to join ours.

I would love to hear your comments on this particular topic or have the opportunity to answer any questions.

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Full Embrace

September 3, 2008 at 11:14 am (Christianity, Musings)
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Years ago I received a word from God during a fellowship gathering in our home, “Receive My full embrace.” I’ve written about this previously, but am gaining further understanding of its meaning and wanted to revisit this word.

 

If you have ever looked at a timeline, especially one that covers hundreds of years, you will clearly see just how small our lifespan is, in the context of the whole of time. Our years are marked by certain experiences, lessons learned, choices made, relationships gained and lost, children, and spirituality.  Many of our life choices carry consequences that influence us for many years, some positive and some not so good.

 

If you are a lover of God and follower of Jesus, you may have been taught as I, that bad things come from the devil and only good things come from God. Not so, my friend. It is my clear conviction at this point in my spiritual journey that every good and perfect gift comes from the Father of Lights; however, His ways are not our ways, and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. Our definition of what is good is most times marred by our own soulish desire for what we perceive as best for us.

 

When reading the Ancient Writings you will find numerous texts that declare openly that God is the source of what may seem like some pretty horrendous things. The issue is are you willing to receive from God all that He has for you, period. Even if that means that His desire is for you to experience some things that could be perceived as bad.

 

Personally my family has experienced some horrendous treatment by other so called believers, and at the time it seemed almost inconceivable that this could actually be the hand of God working in us. But now I am fully convinced that it was.  For example, one afternoon as I sat quietly reading and meditating on the Lord, I heard him say, “You are going to be betrayed, for this a road we have not yet walked together.”

 

I must admit that I was very puzzled, and my first thought went to, “Who could it possibly be that would betray us?” Within a few short months as things began to unfold the identity of the betrayers was revealed, those closest to us, ones that I would have said were the least likely for it to have been. Understand that I am not saying that God put it in their hearts to betray us, but He certainly saw it coming and warned us, not preventing it, but allowing us to “receive it” as part of His plan for us to walk a new road with Him.

 

I have also previously written and firmly believe that God is more concerned with our reactions than our actions. And thus, allows us to experience struggles, hurts, pains, disappointments, and the like to give us opportunity to “walk a new road” with Him, learning how to properly respond in every circumstance.

 

It is certainly empowering to acknowledge that no matter what happens in my life, I can with confidence give thanks and praise to God, understanding that this experience is His gift to me, and gives me opportunity to know Him in a new way. Besides, it is much more pleasant to keep my heart focused on God than be looking around for the devil and his demons.

 

Come, my friend, step in, put your arms around Him, allowing Him to enclose you in HIs. Get in close, put your head against His chest, listen for His heartbeat. Breathe deep of His fragrance, and loose yourself in His embrace. Surrender your complete being to all that His embrace may include. Remember, there is nothing there in that secret place, except Him, so there is nothing to fear.

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Which is Which?

June 19, 2008 at 8:28 am (Uncategorized)
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There are so many books, articles, and opinions on what dreams mean that it can be very confusing. Most of the time when I read articles on the subject I am left with a feeling of dissatisfaction, knowing in my deeper self that what is said is just not true.

 

When I look at my own or others’ dreams for interpretation I use what I call the Hebraic method rather than the Jungian method. This is based on my own understanding of spiritual reality, as I believe there is a personal Deity, whom I call God, who is intimately involved in my life and uses my dreams to communicate with me. There is a big difference in viewing the message of your dreams from this outer perspective and looking at them as your “talking to yourself.”

 

Over the years of studying dream interpretation from this perspective I have come to understand the importance of learning how to speak in metaphors, parables, analogies, and allegories. Once you are able to look at your dreams and your life with a larger perspective you will marvel at the diversity of ways that God speaks today.

 

In response to this new language I have developed a guide which I call Dreamspeak, Guide to the Symbolic Language of Dreams. It is more than a listing of dream symbols and their meanings, it is a compilation of elements and their diverse meanings in the language of Dreamspeak. It includes 2000 entries, meanings of colors, meanings of numbers, meanings of Hebrew letters and their numerical values, different types of dreams you may have, countries and their mottoes, states and their nicknames and mottoes, Jewish prayers for preparation for sleep, and a section which I call “Perils of Spiritual Language” which is a listing of terms and their definitions in the hope that those of us from different spiritual backgrounds can understand each other.  Feel free to let me know if you would like to purchase a copy.

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Kabbalah for Christians?

April 29, 2008 at 2:36 pm (Christianity, Musings, Supernatural or Paranormal?, Uncategorized)
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I just finished reading ”Kabbalah A Brief Introduction for Christians” by Tamar Frankiel.  Consider the following excerpt:  
pg 86
 
This is a temptation that occurs all the time at the level of Manifestation: to build ourselves a rigid little universe in which we insist on being the star players.
 
How do we correct our rigidity? One way is to remember that responsibility is not something that can belong to a person (“it’s my responsibility”). Responsibility is the ability to respond, which implies a larger context, a community, a world of other actors and thinkers, and God as a major player too, with intricate processes linking heaven to earth.  This is the Jewish concept of convenant.  We are all responsible for one another and to one another. You may be a prince or princess, given dominion over your part of the world, but you live in a larger world of nobility, including a divine king who is intimately involved.

I recalled that I was first introduced to this idea years ago while listening to Dan Juster, a Messianic Jew, and I have to admit it was foreign to my then current thinking; our decisions about where to live, work, etc. should not be based on where to find the best job, or even where we want to be, but on the group or community that God has you living in.  We are to have a Kingdom mentality, not thinking of ourselves in terms of just individuals, but a part of a much bigger picture, and much larger purpose.  It was a great teaching on the importance of how we view our connection with those with whom we fellowship, such as our fellow church members, or group of some kind to which we have joined ourselves.  With Kingdom thinking, that relationship will be thought of like the teaching that marriage is till death do us part (or some unusual, major reason God says to go). The key being that we allow ourselves to make the commitment and obey God, not base our choices on our “economy”, whether they be emotional, financial, etc. 

As for the excerpt: I was moved by the concept of responsibility not being about something that is “on” us, but it is the ability to respond. That is a whole new way of looking at it for me. It really resonated with a dream teaching I received from Opal, a being who shows up in my dreams and teaches me at times, and the teaching was simply this: You are given many opportunities in your life to inconvenience people. It is in that inconvenience that the person has the ability to receive blessing or cursing, depending on their response to the inconvenience. So even your being a problem can be a blessing if the other person responds rightly.
 
Everything we do as we live and move can be an expression of Him; even down to the things that seem to be “not so good”. Do you get it? My giving to others isn’t limited to my money, my time, etc.; even my needing can be a mode of giving (I give a person an opportunity to bless themselves by helping me). We are sooooooo connected to each other, even those we don’t know. And as the watchman teaching in Ezekiel (I think) says, I am responsible for the actions of others, in so far as I have given them instruction, or failed to give it.
 
I was also taught once in twilight that God cares more about our response to things than what we initiate. The teaching about “a soft word turning away wrath” isn’t about getting the other person to let go of their anger, it is about our response to someone’s anger. Oh my God! The more I think about this the more incredibly powerful it is!
 
I hope this is making sense. Tamar explained in the book that we are all like small holograms of God. No matter how small you cut the pieces, each piece is still a complete picture. That does not make us God, but it certainly reveals that we have all of Him in us. And so does all of creation. We just all express Him in different ways. The trees are emotional and clap their hands with joy; the rocks are memorial and only speak; the stars sing; etc.
 
What I do does effect you, and others, not just me. And that goes back to what I think in my heart is who or what I am. I am also response able to get my thinking right so my actions are right so my expression of Him is right so I can help you get your thinking right so your actions are right………
 
Love to get this conversation going.  You know the synagogues in Jesus’ day were lively places where debate and discussion took place.  There’s no reason why that can’t happen here.

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Message in a Tooth

April 24, 2008 at 9:17 am (Christianity, Great Stories, Musings, Supernatural or Paranormal?)
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On September 27, 2007, I dreamed that I was in my dentist office because I felt like my left front tooth was loose. I realized there was some kind of wax over the top part of it and when I pulled that off the whole new crown that is currently on my tooth came loose. I pushed it back in place to keep it from falling out.

 

After arriving at the dentist’s office they were very busy and the waiting room was packed. There seemed to be a break so lots of young people had gone outside to play ball or something until it was their time to be seen by the dentist.

 

I had the feeling that it was going to take a long time for me to be seen. I noticed Joe & Jennifer B. (the pastor and his wife that we originally moved to NY in order to help establish a church) had walked in. They both were wearing coats and Joe had a hat on. They were talking to some of the people.  I never spoke to them, just realized it was them. I thought it was odd to see them there after all these years. (haven’t seen or had contact with them in close to 20 years.)

 

When I woke up, I immediately had the thought:  We initially came to New York to help to establish a church. We came with the idea to work with a pastor in getting a work established. My left front tooth has to do with my understanding of my own destiny. I have lost sight of that, and am in danger of losing it altogether. It must be time for us to do what we came here to do.  Only now I know it is not to help in a “church” but to help others “be the church.”

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Thoughts that Keep on Thinking

April 24, 2008 at 9:14 am (Uncategorized)
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You’ve said Your thoughts are ever on me. How can that be? If  your thoughts are also on him and her,  too.  It is the essence of the vastness of You. 

Jacob walked with a limp after his wrestling with You. Your touch affected his whole walk and tilted his perspective. It gave his gait a whole new rhythm.

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Brain Melt

April 24, 2008 at 9:10 am (Christianity, Musings, Uncategorized)
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As I have said many times, I do not have all the answers; I am just no longer afraid to ask the questions. Following are some of the thoughts that I have had that provoke questions and very slowly begin to unfold answers.  

 

One issue is the understanding of who God really is. I am sure that I do not have a Hebraic understanding of Him, as I am so steeped in the Greek mindset of Trinity. It has always bothered me that the idea of the Trinity was given in a dream to someone during the Nyacene council. So much other “bad” stuff came from that council, that I wonder if our concept of God has been marred somehow by that.

 

It also has been a question of mine if there is a way that someone can get to heaven without knowing who Jesus is. I mean, someone who never gets to hear His story explained, and does not know Him by name. Not that His sacrifice isn’t necessary; but for those who desire truth, and love the creator but never know about Jesus; I now think they do go to heaven. The Bible says that God makes himself known to every person by nature so that all are without excuse. Abraham didn’t know how it would happen but only that God would make a way, and it was counted to him as righteousness. I also cannot believe that the native American tribes who worshipped the Creator God would not have gone to heaven even though they would not have known to call the name Jesus or have full understanding of what he did for them. When Jesus died for the sins of the world, did He only die for those who would be told who he was and what he did, or for all those who would love God and seek truth? What about the Jewish people who love and serve God but do not understand who Jesus is yet? I am not talking about those who have heard and who refuse to believe, nor those who have had the experience and rejected Him or walked away. Let me make myself clear, I do believe that the sacrificial death of Jesus upon the cross is THE ONLY WAY that we have access to God. There is no other way of salvation. I guess what my pondering is, bottom line, is can you receive salvation without fulling understanding and can you believe in God making a way for you without knowing to call Him by the name Jesus?

  Another thing that makes you go hhhhmmmmm…… 

I woke up one morning at 4am and the verse, “his blood be upon us and upon our children” was going through my mind. Is it possible that the prophetic words spoken by those who cried out for Jesus to be crucified was actually a declaration of salvation over the Jewish people. I realize that they were really answering Pilate when he said that he washed his hands of the responsibility of the death of this innocent man. What they were saying is that they would take responsibility for Jesus death and that responsibility would be upon them and their children after them, and I assume they meant for perpetual generations.

Doesn’t it make you wonder, if the death of Jesus was planned from the foundation, and was God’s express purpose; couldn’t their taking responsibility for it actually work for their good? Even in their ignorance they were speaking out that His Blood would be upon them and their children. Amazing that I have never seen that before. Having His blood on them is exactly what we would say that we want for the Jewish people.

I know that I do not have answers right now, just a lot of questions. But I feel that I see God in a more merciful, and loving light than I had in the past. And I hope to come to a more full understanding of the fact that we serve One God. Jesus who was on the earth and triumphed over death is now Triumphant God in heaven. There are not 3 beings; just one.

 

It is more than I can wrap my brain around and thus the drip, drip, drip, of my brain melting in my head.

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