Archive for the ‘Religion’ Category

The Recursion of Reaching

Christianity, Freedom, God, Religion | Posted by George
Sep 11 2011

Father was reaching….  He saw you as you were… needy, unloved, hurting, confused, in bondage, deceived… seemingly hopeless… His heart was reaching toward you, knowing what you needed, full of His love and healing power, full of freedom, full of truth, full of peace and hope… He Himself was the answer to every one of your needs and questions.  And He was reaching…

He touched you.  Somehow in the haze of confusion, you perceived a ray of hope and it was Him… somehow His inconceivable love conceived in you the possibility of something besides blind pain and unknowing destruction… somehow His voice pronounced His word (Himself) and pierced the cacophony of lies… lies of pain-avoiding traps, of bondage-inducing choices and lifestyles, of cycles of destruction extending back generations… somehow He reached from an eternity away with His infinitely reaching heart and touched you.

So a new life began… fledgling faith responding to unimaginable connection from outside the bounds of previous reality.  Shimmers of His reality (whole and wholesome, alive and living, mind-bogglingly other-than) began to become impressed onto you and your reality.  Elements of prior reality faded as He Himself began to become your new reality.  And every new bit of revelation that was met with believing transformed another deadly bit of former worldview into another glorious divine insight into His outrageous goodness and transcendent love.

Everything became relative to Him… it was not worthwhile unless it was Him… it was not good unless it was Him… it was not true unless it was Him.  And transformation began… from a dead you into a living you permeated by His love, saturated by His other-ness, suffused by Him Himself… and you began to look like Him.  It was a process.  It remains incomplete.  But Him-ness is replacing the deadness of you-ness and producing the ultimate aliveness of the oneness of Father-child.

The reaching is therefore being fulfilled… the heart of love has thereby been consummated… or has it?  It has!  But in its consummation, that heart is being reproduced and the reaching-ness of our Daddy reaches further not just for you but through you… even as the divine image of the Answer to all your questions is replicated onto the substrate of your identity, He Himself desires to reproduce His reaching in you, that in the image of the Reacher you may be reaching… because Father is reaching….

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Yeah, but did Jesus predict Harold Camping?

Christianity, Culture, God, News, Religion | Posted by George
May 23 2011

So now we all know that Harold Camping did not accurately predict Jesus’ return… but perhaps more importantly, did Jesus predict Harold Camping? But then, why should anyone care?

“Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many.”  (Matt 24:11) That was easy! We can surely agree that Jesus predicted false prophets, and Mr. Camping wasn’t the first.  Interestingly, Jesus’ prophecy regarding false prophets is in the context of the lead-up to the day of His own coming.  It is fascinating, then, that Harold Camping’s false prophecy leans toward confirming Jesus’ true prophecy!

But then again, many atheists of our day prophesied the embarrassment of Harold Camping as well… planning parties, creating whimsical mockeries using “left-behind” clothes in photos, making the most of entrepreneurial opportunities created by false prophesy, etc.

So why should we care? Well that depends on your standpoint.  So choose a world-view and read on…

Believers in Jesus

If you believe that Jesus meant what He said, then the remainder of Matthew 24 would be useful to you.  In reading it, you will find that Jesus’ commands are to beware of deception, to not be afraid, (by implication) to maintain carefully your love of God and endurance, to be ready, and to be doing the work of the Master when He returns.  Did you skip over this list?  If you are a believer in Jesus, Harold Camping’s false prophecy is a real indication that perhaps you should make sure you re-read this list and be actively doing what He says!  Let’s not worry so much about when and how and whether we are pre-mid-post-mil-trib-wrath-istic or otherwise, and let’s just do what Jesus said to be doing when we begin to see the signs of His coming!

Atheists

Why should an atheist care?  Well, interestingly, the whole of the secular atheism establishment is strengthening the faith of the faithful atheists, bolstered by the foolishness of those who believed foolishly in that which was not true.

This also is very consistent with what Jesus predicted in Matthew 24: “The love of many will grow cold.”

Perhaps even more incredible is how these events (which Jesus said “MUST happen”) are setting you, my dear atheist, for your own failed prophecies.  But I should explain.

In Revelation 19:19, there is an amazingly crazy statement.  It says that the rulers of the earth all get together with their armies to fight against Jesus and his heavenly army.  At first glance, it would seem preposterous that anybody would be so stupid as to intentionally go out to fight against God, and indeed it is preposterous.  But this strongly suggests to us that there needs to be some very powerful strengthening of the faith of these anti-God-ites who decide to fight against the All-Powerful One.

In the light of this, we see that the whole Harold Camping prophecy, huge monies spent advertising his failed predictions, and even the media craze and popular hype of this predictable failure… all these are truly necessary for a faith-building exercise for those who desire to believe in not-God.  This has truly been spectacularly effective, although I suspect we will need even more faith-building before we can get everybody so convinced that we all head out with our AK-47s, tanks, and nuclear warheads to fight against God.

So expect some additional hype in the months to come… the Mayan Calendar of 2012 thing should help a bunch too.  Mockery helps a ton.  Figure out a good angle so you can make some money on the next one.

And one other thing, start to feel justified in your hatred for believers.  Jesus predicted this as well, so we can be expecting increasing militancy in your circle of friends and fellow not-God believers.

So, I guess if you want to get to my point, it is simply this, that if you want to continue in your faith, you will have ample opportunity to bolster your faith through mockery, leading to hatred.  But in the end, your faith-inspired (check previous blogs that demonstrate this) prophecy of not-God will meet up with unfortunate evidence to the contrary.  So my counsel is to beware, although such counsel is probably pretty hard to hear, right?

Harold Camping Disciples (or Ex-disciples)

Just because Mr. Camping blew it does not mean God did.  Your issue is the same as his: if you know the Book but don’t hear the voice of the Author, you will be deceived.  Shove the shame off.  Kill off the condemnation.  So you were duped… like most everybody else in one way or another!  You proved faithful, but unfortunately you were faithful to foolishness – find God and be faithful to the Father Himself instead of what somebody says Father meant when He said something some time. Press in and find out what Father is saying to you today.  He’s not mad at you, and He did not disappear as May 21st ticked away.  Just be happy that the deception has been dealt with and move forward toward God – not some religious futility promoted by someone who claims to know the Bible.

The Bible or religion never was going to save you anyway.  That’s God’s job.

Everybody Else

Well, if you are in between or just aren’t sure whether you believe anything or not, then let me say this: don’t get swept up in the mockery.  I know that it is very tempting.  Fooled people are easy to laugh at!  But in the middle of the mockery is the powerful deception that nothing is true… that lie that says that God Himself was wrong because a bunch of people supposedly speaking for Him were very, publicly, outrageously wrong.  And it would be very tempting to gloat a little bit about how you were less wrong because you weren’t even nervous on May 21st.  Tempting, but dangerous.  A better approach?  Do the God experiment, and ask Him if He would show Himself to you… then listen with an open heart.  Because if Jesus predicted Harold Camping, then we may be at the beginning of the end :-) .

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Truth beyond the Provable

Christianity, Culture, God, Religion | Posted by George
Apr 26 2011

Huios: Well, hello, friend Sci-atheist.  I understand you wanted to talk to me?

Sci-atheist: Yes.  I knew you to be a reasonable person and wanted to chat about one of your favorite topics: God.

Huios:  Really!? Sure!  Would you like to get to know Him?

Sci-atheist:  Well, no, but I have been thinking, and I am pretty sure that I can refute any argument you choose to prove that God exists…

Huios:  OK.

Sci-atheist:  What?  You give up?  That was easier than I expected!  You agree there is no God?

Huios:  Well, yes and no.  I agree that I cannot prove that God exists, although you really have to do some philosophical cartwheels to explain away things like meaning and minds… and you really have to accept some pretty unscientific improbabilities to believe in things like evolution and the existence of an ordered universe.  But given all that, along with some serious quantum-mechanical hand-waving, I agree that I cannot prove God’s existence to you.

Sci-atheist:  So have you given up being a fool?

Huios:  If I get your meaning, I suspect we differ in our definitions of the term “fool” but actually, I am most definitely still a believer in God.  I just don’t think I can prove Him to you – especially with “scientific” evidence.  You see, the God I know existed before the stuff of this world – the stuff of science.  In fact, He created both the space into which the stuff was to go, and the time of its existence.  He exists… or existed… or will exist… or all of the above, since I don’t really know how to talk without reference to time… but His existence is without reference to time or space since these are merely elements of His creation.  There was a first day and will be a last day.  Along here somewhere, there will no longer be any place for the earth or the sky and it will all just not be anywhere.  I guess they (space, time, stuff) could all be considered “temporary” relative to the eternity dimensions in which He exists.  All of space-time, all of the rules inherent within space-time, and all the stuff inside space-time are elements of His creation.  Sure, He can and does interact within this bubble of His creation, tweaking this, inserting that, or canceling the other thing as He determines, but that is at His discretion.  So no set of natural experiments will require you to believe in God – He is anchored outside of this natural world that we can experiment on!

Sci-atheist:  But you say that He sometimes intervenes in the natural world – and I know you believe in miracles?!?  So why not have Him do a miracle right now for me?

Huios:  Well, first of all, He is God and not me… I don’t generally “have Him do” things.  Usually I just talk to Him and then He tells me what to be doing and how to do it…  when I do what He says, sometimes there are miracles, but He is no genie in a bottle!

Sci-atheist:  But if He really wants us to believe that He exists, why wouldn’t He just prove Himself?

Huios:  That is a fair question, so let’s look at it.  First, let’s note that God desires to give mankind free will within the boundaries of this life within space-time.  He decided to allow mankind an amazing degree of freedom to choose – all sorts of choices, including whether to believe or not to believe in Him!  Second, my Daddy God does not fit naturally (in His fullness) inside His creation… the more one becomes aware of Him, the weaker is ones hold on the bubble of space-time.  In particular, if Daddy were totally exposed to everyone, nobody would have any free will at all – we’d all be believers!  So God’s desire for a man with free-will precludes your desired demonstration of God.

Sci-atheist:  So in a sense, God conveniently refuses to be proved beyond a shadow of a doubt?

Huios: Well, yes, for now.  As I understand it, after time is done (and I understand that this seems like an oxymoron, so let’s just say “outside the bubble of space-time”) there will be a moment (there we go again with time-words) in which all see Him, and then free-will will evaporate like every other thing that used to exist (time, again! J) inside the space-time bubble, and then, every knee will bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus…

Sci-atheist: Hold on!  Let’s not go there.  But what you are saying is you can’t prove God’s existence.  So you basically give up!

Huios:  Well, you see why, right?  Since Daddy’s existence is rooted outside the bubble, we can’t force experiments on Him.  Since God wants us to have free will, He enforces your right to think like an atheist… at least for now.  So you see what I mean?  There is no way to prove…

Sci-atheist:  That’s right – you cannot prove such a God, so I guess I win!

Huios:  Wait, a second!  He is not provable, but by the same token, He is not falsifiable.  And incidentally, if you consider yourself a scientist, yours is the burden of proof!  Remember the most basic approach to science?  It is a process of creating a null hypothesis and performing an experiment that falsifies your hypothesis.  Unfortunately for your quest for proof, I think you may have a real difficulty in coming up with any falsifiable hypotheses.

Sci-atheist:  No proof either way… hmmm….  Well if you can’t prove God and can’t disprove Him, He must be pretty irrelevant, right?

Huios:  That does not quite follow.  You see, the God I know is the most central part of my life… and yours too (believe Him or not :-) .  It’s just you don’t know it.  But there will be a day when knowing Him will be the only relevant thing, and you and I will both know it then.

Sci-atheist:  Yeah?  Your fearful day of judgment?  Well, how could a good God…?

Huios:  Stop!  Just how are you defining “good”?  Usually, someone who asks a question like the one you were posing defines a “good” that does not depend on God.  But a God Who is ignored in the definition of “good” is a God who has been defined away by the poser of the question!  Can you say “straw man”?  Define good as what God is, and then try to ask the question without imposing your own inconsistency.

Sci-atheist:  Ouch!!  Well, I guess that this whole discussion still leaves us without much of an answer… what a waste of time!

Huios:  Hold on, though… There is one thing that has been discovered!

Sci-atheist:  Really?  Proven?  What is that?

Huios:  We have discovered that we each believe what we choose.  You choose your perspective and hold to it with the same sort of faith of which you have always been aggravated by seeing in others.  I have faith in God; you have faith that there is no God.

Sci-atheist:  Well, you may have a point, but your faith is so blind!

Huios:  Blind is an apt descriptor for one who intentionally chooses to believe that something cannot exist outside of a certain comfortable bubble.  I have heard your own sneering laughter at those who believed the earth was the center of the universe, but there are many who even more foolishly wish to believe the universe is the center of all existence.  It is the same sort of mistake, taking that which seems central and assuming it is the ultimate center without recognizing that which is less comfortable and less accessible – that which is beyond.  But in this case, the costs of universe-centrism are even more significant than earth-centrism:  missing out on the purpose and person of our Creator and Savior.  But the consequences of choosing to know God are too difficult for many people – they know they would have to bend the knee now (in time) as well as later (after time), and we all like to do whatever we want.  “There is none so blind as the one who refuses to see.”

So there are some who are blind, but my faith is not truly blind.  Look, you act like you believe in me – Huios, a person – a sentient entity beyond my amassed set of molecules and biological processes.  You relate to me like a friend.  Yet you cannot prove that there is anything beyond my atomic carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, electrical impulses, genetic codes… but you believe in me as a person because you relate to me, talk with me, find out about me, KNOW me.  I call you a friend because I do the same with you.  I believe in my Daddy God because I do the same with Him – I KNOW Him.

Sci-atheist:  But I don’t know Him… if He exists at all…

Huios:  Then be an extra-bubble scientist and do an extra-bubble experiment!   Send a message out from this bubble into the realm beyond: ask Daddy God to invade your personal space and somehow set up a person-to-person connection… not so much a proof as a relationship.  Then tell Him you’d like to get to know Him… and that you are willing to get to know Him if He will show you something of Himself….  But only do it if you really want to, because He won’t force the issue… you can always choose to not believe in Him!  Still, I recommend that you do the experiment and find out that He is there.

Sci-atheist:  That hardly seems safe, if it were true…

Huios:  You are correct.  It is not remotely safe in the conventional sense of the word.  But it is hardly safe not to know Him since He IS, provable or not.

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Covenantal Justice

Christianity, God, Justice, Religion, Uncategorized | Posted by George
Apr 20 2011

Mankind fell.

Death was on the doorstep.

The great black hole – which was the alter ego (in free will) of the highest destiny of mankind in the most amazing love experiment in eternity – the great black hole of anti-holiness threatened to suck everything into eternal horror, anguish, punishment, and nothingness.

Horrifying, eternal JUSTICE loomed.

Yet LOVE intensely desired. And MERCY would be so very unfulfilled. The great heart of the Father cried out for His sons.

Enter COVENANTAL JUSTICE.

COVENANTAL JUSTICE is an expression of the GOODNESS of God in that His MERCY conspires with His JUSTICE to consummate His LOVE.

You see, God is HOLY. He is so “other-than” everything we know! He is PERFECT. He is PERFECT in all of His ways… His GOODNESS is perfect. His LOVE is perfect. His JUSTICE is perfect. His MERCY is perfect.

So when mankind sinned, it appeared (to an imperfect observer) that one or more elements of Daddy God’s perfection would have to give way to another… that either JUSTICE would win out or MERCY would prevail… that either the GOODNESS of the Father’s heart toward us would be satisfied or His HOLINESS would require judgment… that an irresistible force had come against an immoveable object… one would win and the other lose…

But Daddy said, “Ha!” – because everyone who knows Him knows that He is PERFECT in all of His ways! And Daddy’s perfect GOODNESS and MERCY conspired with His perfect JUSTICE and HOLINESS to create COVENANTAL JUSTICE! And in this way, He consummates both His HOLINESS and His JUSTICE by pouring out His GOODNESS on us! But I preempt myself…

Perhaps you know the mechanism… Daddy sent His Son Jesus to be a sacrifice for sin. Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and did not contain the fallen nature of mankind. And though He was tempted in every way as a man, Jesus did not fall as did Adam, but instead heard and obeyed Daddy perfectly – even to the extent of paying for Daddy’s planned COVENANTAL JUSTICE with His own blood. The basic plan was that Jesus would be the scapegoat for humankind, triggering the JUSTICE of the Father to require a complete divine exchange: Jesus would take upon Himself all the guilt, curse, and punishment of mankind and give in exchange to mankind His divine SONSHIP, HOLINESS, and RELATIONSHIP with the Father.

Please understand, the exchange was not one-way. It is not the truth of the gospel that Jesus saved us from sins only. He saved us from sins and into an amazing Daddy-child relationship with the Father – into SONSHIP. And if sons, then heirs of Daddy God – that is, we get everything that is His.

Let me say it clearly: our Father’s amazing plan put us into a fantastic position:
Daddy’s plan was to make possible for me to enter into an eternal legal agreement such that it would be a violation of Daddy’s JUSTICE to decide to not give me every good thing due to Jesus! Because of Jesus, Daddy’s MERCY and JUSTICE are totally aligned! So we can access that awesome arrangement that Daddy’s MERCY pleads for me, and equally so, His JUSTICE pleads for me, and His GOODNESS delights in giving me everything that fulfills His LOVE for me!

Please note one other thing: COVENANTAL JUSTICE is based on sacrificial blood, not lawfulness. It is not dependent on your worthiness to even a minute degree. COVENANTAL JUSTICE is totally prepaid, and it is imbecility to think you can add to it by any action of your own. The day of unworthiness is over; plead the completed work!

I will say it again:

In the garden, the HOLINESS of God required Him to separate Himself from the sinful, so… lest His heart full of GOODNESS be violated by His HOLY heart of JUSTICE, His GRACE and MERCY conspired with His RIGHTEOUSNESS to create a way for Him to be… to be all of the above to us! Under the covenant of the blood of Jesus, because of His good plan to express the whole of Who He is to us, the JUSTICE of God legally requires Him to (gladly) pour out His PRESENCE, POWER, GLORY, RIGHTEOUSNESS, MERCY, GOODNESS, GRACE, HOLINESS, and JUSTICE into us, consummating His great LOVE for us by giving to us all of who He is. Now that is the good news!

How do we sign on? How do we access this incomprehensibly excellent agreement? It is really simple, so be careful to not miss the simplicity. We believe in the goodness of our Daddy, and ask Him to show us how to operate as His sons. Then we listen to His instructions, we follow them, and we begin to walk with Him in relationship as His sons doing their Daddy’s business. Sounds too easy, doesn’t it? But that is the whole plan. Remember this: The day of unworthiness is over; plead the completed work of Jesus – access COVENANTAL JUSTICE!

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Is God Illogical?

Christianity, God, Religion | Posted by George
Mar 11 2011

I read some atheists decrying the illogic of God, and in some ways I can understand their frustration.  A search for God that expects Him to be a black box which responds consistently to a set of stimuli is bound for frustration.  (In fact, I do think it is illogical to begin a search for God according to my own rules instead of His, considering the presumptive nature of the former and the assumptions which must underlie the search.   Be that as it may…)

But is God illogical?

In my experience with God, it is not so much that He is illogical, nor that I am.  It is much more that every time I think I understand something about Him I discover that there are more dimensions to Him than I had previously understood.  He is not internally  inconsistent, but higher-dimensional than my previous experience.

Think about this for a moment… There are no integers which are the average of two adjacent ones, but then there are rationals.  There are no rationals equivalent to the square root of two, but then there are irrationals.  There are no irrationals equal to the square root of negative two… but then there are complex numbers… and then there are doubtless mathematicians who could carry this sequence on ad infinitum.

This is the sort of thing that I have discovered.  Not that God changes or cannot be understood but is infinitely more interesting, real, and alive in an infinity of dimensions than any doctrine or definition….

Aristotelian gravitational theory gave way to Newton’s, and Newton’s to Einstein’s, and doubtless there is something (or perhaps some string) beyond Einstein.  This is similar to knowing God in my experience, except each of these models suggests something few-dimensional in the progression, whereas interactions with God are necessarily far more multifaceted.

In some sense, it appears to me that an interaction with God is somehow sort of quantum mechanical in that an infinite-dimensional wave-function collapses upon measurement, but it is difficult to fully predict its behavior a priori because of the computational complexities inherent in integrations over infinitely many dimensions.

I surmise that He is just a bunch bigger than my head.  Not surprising, I guess, given the ontological relationship.

Just my experience.  Just reality.

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Dilution and Delusion

Christianity, God, Religion | Posted by George
Mar 10 2011

The gospel is so very frequently diluted in America.  And when it is, people end up deluded in the worst possible way.  The travesty is twofold – not only are people believing lies and living in false comfort while putting their eternity at risk, but also people are living within the limits of false boundaries and empty religion – there is so much more!  God’s reality for you is beyond your wildest dreams, but so often we settle for a diluted, deluded substitute…

Here are some examples:

Just pray this prayer and you will be saved. Dilution and Delusion.  Why?

It is not about a prayer.  It is about belief – a belief that continually and literally changes everything in your life.  It is about believing in Jesus, the Savior, and God our Daddy.

Please, oh please, don’t dare to put your faith in a prayer.  Put your faith in the One to Whom we pray, and not some iconic representation of Him, but the real, living, speaking, empowering, leading, loving Savior.  Even if you put your faith in some partial image of Him, you are in idolatry – instead you must know Him personally!  If you don’t know Him personally, you do not know Him at all… and you have put your faith in faith, or faith in a prayer, or faith in your leader, or faith in some creed.  That is not saving faith!

Either your faith is placed securely in a living, knowable, known Lord and Savior or it is a diluted believing that is not really believing at all.  And not believing at all is delusion and death.

Did you know that being saved is not a one-time happening?  Here is a Scripture:

1 Corinthians 1:18 NASB 18For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Many of the other places in the New Testament where the Greek is translated “be saved” it would be more accurately translated “be being saved.”  The Savior keeps right on saving us, as we know Him, know Him better, and keep on knowing Him better!

You see, it is not a magical incantation that saves us.  A perfectly worded prayer just does not do the trick.  Salvation is the portion of the one who believes in and interacts with a real person – not one who believes in a religion about Jesus.

Just believe in the Scripture and try to live accordingly and you will be saved. Dilution and Delusion.  Why?

It is not about the Scriptures, but about the Person Who is the Focus of the Scriptures, even of life.

John 5:39-40 NASB “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; 40and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life.

These days, many supposed Christians know the Scriptures better than tons of true Christians.  They look good, sound good, speak confidently, and sadly are going to hell.  Knowing the Scriptures never saved anybody.  Having figured out good doctrine never saved anybody – hell will be littered with good doctrine.  Even living “good doctrine” is not good enough.

Galatians 3:22-24 NASB But the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. 23But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed. 24Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith.

Ephesians 2:8-9 NASB For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Often, you pastors out there, it seems that you may be more worried about how your people act in some specific dimension than whether they know the voice of the Savior.  If your people think you are more worried about what they do than Who they know, then they are missing the point!  Dealing with sin in our lives is important.  Good doctrine is helpful.  But without the voice of the Savior in each person’s life, none of that matters!

John 10:14-16 NASB “I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me, 15even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. 16“I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd.

Every sheep of His fold hears His voice.  Every sheep in His flock knows Him even as He knows His Father (i.e. is ONE WITH HIM!).  Your job as pastor is to disciple people, to lead people, and to train people to hear His voice and to know Him. Themselves.  Personally.

Ever notice what the Apostle Paul did with people having poor doctrine?  After writing extensively to his audience, he said,

Philippians 3:15 NASB Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you;

See, he is not so worried about imperfect doctrine as he is about not living in a real relationship that is ongoing, ascending, vital, life-giving… REAL. Unfortunately, most American “Christians” don’t know that you can actually know a real living Savior Who talks with you and walks with you and is more interested in real relationship with you (like, a better relationship, and more personal and intimate and real than with your best friend, your spouse, whoever).  Instead, they have a diluted notion of relationship that is no more than religion… reading and studying the text, believing the text, being right… dilution and delusion!  And this delusion is every bit as dangerous today as it was in the day of Jesus’ conversation with the Pharisees – it is death to those “believers” – no matter how good they look.

Just swim in the emotional current of worship to know God. Dilution and Delusion.  Why?

Many who think they have faith have dead faith.

James 2:17-20 NASB  Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. 18But someone may well say, “You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” 19You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder. 20But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?

There are many who want to worship and love the wonderful lift of emotional worship, but don’t understand that a key element to worship is obedience… belief and obedience are absolutely intertwined – and worship is fundamentally more an expression of the Savior’s Lordship than joyous praise and song.

John 3:36 NASB “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

Believing changes the Lord of your life, and a trading in for a new Lord means that your life is not your own and your world will be forever altered – by the power of God in you.

John 14:12 NASB “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father.

If you think you believe and you don’t do the greater works, either you are deceived about your believing or Jesus was wrong about those who believe.  Argue if you want, but your argument is dilution and delusion… and ultimately death.

Now, I love to pray, and frequently pray for salvation.  I love to read the Scriptures, because they lead me to the Word, Jesus Himself.  And I love to worship God with all of who I am.  But the center of all of life is knowing Daddy and knowing His Son, our Big Brother, Lord, and Savior Jesus. True faith and true prayer and true knowledge and true worship emanate from true personal revelation of God.

No dilution.  No delusion.

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God and Reality

Christianity, Culture, God, Religion | Posted by George
Feb 20 2011

First, a few obvious statements:

  • There is information and reality accessible via scientific research. These are very useful to humankind and I personally truly enjoy the scientific process.  Rational process is a wonderful approach to many realms, and we as people have benefited greatly by it.
  • There are realities beyond those reachable by scientific means. This is well understood by most physicists.  Even in the space-time in which we exist, there are portions of space-time inaccessible to those of us currently living on planet Earth.  But beyond that, most cosmological models (e.g. Big Bang-ish stuff) have time and space and stuff all being spewed out in parallel.  (In other words, the first moment of time and the first infinitesimal of space were things created – and populated with stuff – in the context of this cosmic bang.)  There is something beyond space-time (a higher-order dimension?  a super-reality?) into which space and time are created.  “Before space-time” and “after space-time” seem like funny phrases, but are not unreasonable things to consider, but words like “before” and “after” require something of a different reference point, a different unit of measurement, and even perhaps different rules than our typical space-time-like understanding.
  • It is unscientific to posit without proof that there is nothing super-natural. And further the very notion of the supernatural clearly indicates that science may very well not be the tool to access the supernatural.  Certainly, one can state that God is not necessary for a harmonious perspective on life (see below), but many other well-accepted truths are also not necessary for a harmonious perspective on life.

Next, let me confess that I know God, so I that God is real, and that His reality is central to mine.

  • God the Creator exists/existed/will exist beyond the extent of His creation in both space and time, i.e. eternally. That He pre-existed His creation is a presupposition of the present active tense of the verb.  Biblical perspective on creation clearly has a pre-existent God and also One Who will continue after time.  Given that space also is a creation, one could hardly expect that it housed the pre-creation Creator.  (It is fascinating that the Scriptures declare that it would happen that “no place was found for” the earth and the heavens – I wonder if space-time no longer exists.) The above notion of a “reality beyond” is a notion well-suited to a real understanding of the spiritual realm, one that can legitimately be referred to as “eternity.”
  • God does not require people to acknowledge His existence. In fact, He seems to be pretty determined that anyone that desires to ignore His existence be allowed to do so (although at some cost).  This is not very surprising, given His purpose with man, but that is substance for a future post.  Let it suffice for now to note that there will never be a time (sic) in which man is required to acknowledge God, so in time, there will always be a place for realists, theists, and atheists.  After time, however, it will be otherwise, since anyone or anything that continues to exist after space-time is discontinued will be forced to live in that outer matrix of the eternal.
  • It is to the benefit of the created to know the Creator and His purpose in creation. In a Creator-centered existence, this again seems obvious.

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Just Knowing God – A Necessary Miracle

Christianity, God, Religion | Posted by George
Feb 19 2011

Did you know that actually knowing God is what life is all about?  Did you know that “but I thought that the Bible meant…” is not the way to start an admissible excuse in the courts of final judgment?  Did you know that “Don’t you know that I did all these great things…” is not a useful comment on Judgment Day?  Did you know that “But I was taught this…” does not actually absolve you of the consequences of your life choices?  Only ONE THING holds any water on that last day: personally knowing the Savior and being personally known by Him.

It is called “relationship” and it is not a euphemism for religion.    It is intimate personal connection, not an abstract belief or even simply a willful act of faith.

Most religious people are going to find themselves pretty disappointed on Judgment Day.  People that put their faith in putting their faith in (sic) some abstract belief will come up empty.  “I prayed a prayer of salvation.”  Really?  And then what?  Was it a magical incantation?  “I believe in Jesus as my Savior.”  Really?  Who is this Jesus?  You know, He is a person, not an abstraction.  He is either known as a real live “person” or He is misrepresented as an empty theory.  Either He is known personally or the faith is a counterfeit lottery stub.  Either you relate to Him as He really is, or you relate to an idol representing Him.

“So how do you know if you know Him?”  Everybody knows these days that it is a relationship, not a religion, right? But how do you know if you know Him?  Someone is asking this question, thinking it is reasonable, justifiable.

Then let me ask you… how do you know that you know anybody?  Either you know the person or you don’t.  If you are asking the question in the previous paragraph, then you probably don’t know Him, and you are very likely looking for a religious answer to your question.  I know that sounds harsh, but if in your offense (despite your offense) you find that you want something more than religion, let me assure you that God is truly knowable, but the way forward is most definitely NOT more religion.

For example, some of you might need to read the Bible (I do, regularly), but then again, maybe some of you have read it too much and received it too little.  Jesus said that the Scriptures are not the way to eternal life.  He said that you need Him personally and that searching the Scriptures can be a deadly substitute.  The Scriptures may lead us to a living Savior, but if they don’t they can lead us to something horrible – religion.

So then what question can I ask?  The only right question is, “So, how can I get to know Him better?” and incidentally, literally everyone can ask that question every day… and really should ask that question every day.  The answer to that question is good news/bad news… just like all of true Christianity… or maybe it is bad news/good news….

The bad news is that you can’t do it at all.  The bad news is that it would take a miracle for you to know God.  But there is some good news.

The good news is that if you really want to know Him, He will show you Himself.  If you are willing to give up your own life and ways, He is willing to be found by you.  If you search for Him with your whole heart, He will Himself cause Himself to be found by you.

You see, He did buy the right to be your Daddy.  He bought us each an infinite get-out-of-jail-free card and is ready to test its limits.  The jail is sin, and the jailor is your own ways and thoughts inspired by your enemy.  But He purchased a total freedom for you.  And you can have this, but your jailor (your thoughts and ways) will lead you right back into jail if you let them.

So when you seek Him and find Him (i.e. He is found by you!), you will see Him.  And when you see Him as He is, you can become like Him, or choose to stay like you.  Things about you (that you think of as actually being you) are parts of the ways and thoughts that keep you away from knowing and seeing Him.  But progressively, continuously, serially (and often in parallel!), He will show you Himself – and you will know Him!  You will know Him as He is, and when you really see Him as He is, you become like Him, giving up your old “you” and becoming the new “you” that is just like Him!  That is why it is not a partial heart that finds Him… if you only kinda want to see Him, you are better off not seeing Him and rejecting Him.  So out of His goodness, He does not show Himself to you!

But you see that even finding Him is bad news/good news.  Bad news for all the “old you” things and ways and thoughts.  And this can be truly painful – it is tough to give up the “old you.”  But the good news is that the “new you” is better, more real, more alive, more knowing Him than the “old you” can imagine.  So progressively, and at the pace that your pain tolerance and your <<whole>> heart for Him allows, you can know God.

But this does not happen all at once.  He is infinite, and infinitely infinite.  Rather than destroying me by exposing me to His infiniteness, He shows me a little part of His back… and I know Him more and become like Him more… and then He shows me a little more.  Really, as you get to know Him, you will find it truly delightful!  It is a delightful process to know and become like… know and become like… know and become like….  It is delightful, painful, amazing, harrowing, awesome, dying, wonderful, beautiful, purposeful, life-giving knowing God!

But it is a miracle!  It is a miracle of grace… freely given grace… but did you know that humility attracts grace?  God gives grace to the humble!  So, “how…?”  Just humble yourself before Him, and decide in your heart that knowing Him is the most important thing, and then ask Him to show Himself to you.  And He will.  But it will be a miracle.

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Justice vs. Fairness

Christianity, God, Justice, Religion | Posted by George
Feb 18 2011

Fairness is a figment.  There – I said it.

Fairness is not real, largely because it really does not have a stable, reliable foundation.  Everyone’s conception of fairness is based on himself — his unique set of values and judgments.  Given differing perspectives and world-views, fairness is an argument that cannot be lost, but neither can it be won in any fundamental sense.

I was reading an op-ed the other day by a relatively well-known editorialist in which he noted that he and those who held opposing views were miles apart in their basic values and systems of judgment, but then proceeded to judge his antagonists’ values on the basis of his own.  What a foolish exercise in meaninglessness!  Two children whose favorite colors are red and blue may disagree about the better color, but neither is generally so inane as to argue that since “your red’s blueness does not compare to my blue’s blueness it is obvious that my favorite color is clearly superior to yours.”  But that is the boilerplate of our foolish political arguments, each intended only to foist my favored set of rules on you.

Sure, if I can get you to agree to my rulebook, I will win whatever game we seem to be playing.  Everybody knows that the one who makes the rules wins the game.  But if there is any integrity at all, the pursuit should not be controlling through “fairness” but achieving true justice.

Justice is not nearly so baseless as fairness.  Justice is an element of the nature of God.  The Almighty Himself is the arbiter, guarantor, and even the definition of justice.  A real difficulty arises in knowing and operating in that justice — no doubt about it!  But a significant milestone would be reached if we would be willing to dispense with manipulative definitions of fairness and strive to achieve some approximation to the justice of the Eternal One.

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Welcome

Christianity, Culture, Freedom, God, Justice, News, Politics, Religion, USA | Posted by George
Feb 18 2011

Welcome to Just Reality, a blog on both simple reality with God and pursuit of justice in a free society.  Thanks for coming by!

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