Love Conquers All

I have been dealing with a lot of temptations lately, and have been yearning for the Lord's manifest presence in me and in the earth. I want to be fruitful, but am continually brought back to my own uselessness. Anyway, I think, AGAIN I think the Lord said, stop striving. It's all been condensed down in to these two commandments: Love God completely, and love your neighbor as self. I ask Him, "How?" I think He says, "Just do it. Don't worry about 'how.'" I trust, I hope, I try to remind others when I can. I don't know how to be a pioneer when I'm not a pioneer. Loving/serving one another is the antidote to falling back into sin.

The only way to say out of sin:

For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, “YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.” ... But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.

I think the best way to 'love your neighbor' is to continually direct the gaze of their eyes back to Jesus.

But, I frequently seem paralyzed from doing much because the feeling that there is so little time. How great a building can be made in only 2 days? If any Christ-worshipers find this, it must have been by His leading. Please tell me what you think.

This is to Women

I was recently listening as a woman was trying to speak a word from the Lord. She was constantly being subverted in her talking by feeling the need to apologize for not wearing makeup. But, she was beautiful! What's up with that? Why do women and girls go around worrying about not having their masks on (makeup) and apologizing for it? Do they not know that the nasty masks actually cover up their true beauty? I know some jobs/school situations may require women to wear makeup as part of the dress code. Understandable it is in that case for a woman to put that mask on, so as not to offend the law of the office, but if you are not under the law of the dress code, don't wear it! If your husband is one of those ones who thinks that you look better in makeup, then I suppose you should wear it for his sake...and I will have to talk sense to him separately. Otherwise, women, understand that when you are standing there in front of the mirror there is a little demon there too whispering, "your hair line is not right, your nose is too big, your eyebrow is the wrong shape, your skin is ugly..." And you believe it. Stop believing it, and every time you go in front of the mirror, first kick the demons out by acknowledging that the God of all things truly beautiful created you and gave you the body and face that you have, and it was not an accident. The only way to increase your beauty is to increase your devotion on the God of true beauty. Plastering nasty substances on your face will only teach your face to stop shining in the beauty God has given it.

Intentional Gap This Time

Going searching for the Kingdom of Heaven. Don't plan to be around the internet that much. Adios.

Two Tunics

Beware of overdoing the metaphors.

In Churchianity, pastors have become exceedingly good at using old testament and new testament stories as metaphors for their teachings. The exodus of Israel out of Egypt becomes the template for a called one to become a faithful follower of Jesus. This is often good. But also, very often it is used incorrectly. Coming into the promised land becomes moving from the old paid for building, to the new indebted building, and enlarging your tents means getting richer.

They also use plain and simple instructions as metaphors for larger principles. This can also be good, but I think it becomes much easier to think of these things in the neighborhood of make believe, than in the real world of stuff. I challenge you to go out into the actual real life world and find someone needing a shirt, and give them yours. We can have all kinds of wonderful faith in the confines of our heads, but the only way to know if there is any substance to that faith, is to go out and command it to DO it.

Side note: one reason it becomes difficult to DO it, is that those who really need don't often walk around out in the open with big red painted signs saying "I need a shirt." You and I have to take enough interest to find out.

Needs. Some are hungry. Some are cold (even in South Texas this happens). Some need a place to sleep when it rains. Some have a place to sleep, but have no money to buy food. Some wear better clothes than I do, but sleep alone at night with the mosquitoes and ants on concrete.

Churchianity has had clever metaphors for many hundreds of years. It's all worthless unless you go out there and DO the things.

End War

I'll throw my two cents into this.


I agree, no nation that I know of has any business making war (declared or not) on another nation's people. Any nation (U.S.) that kills millions of it own unborn children obviously has lost all good powers of judgment and has given up its rights (if it ever had any) to rule. How can a man rule another man's children if he encourages his own to run wild?


They use the lie that, "They are fighting for the freedom that you enjoy, so you should support them." No doubt that there have been many valiant soldiers who have endured much hardship and given their lives for the lie of national freedom. Is it a big surprise? All death comes from a lie. I appreciate the strong character of those who have valiantly and innocently given their lives for the nation, but I count it as tragedy, not heroism. The only true tragic hero is the Lord/Lamb Christ Jesus. All freedom that is worth anything comes from believing in Jesus.


But to create anti-war organizations and march around carrying signs opposing all war in general is just a waste of breath, I'm afraid. Let the people who don't know God do that; they are haters of God, but violently oppose war. War will not cease until the anti-christ ends it for a short time (even then, it may be a mirage). True end to war will not happen until the Prince of Peace reigns.

So, instead of fighting to end war, which is itself a kind of war, fight to make straight the way of the Lord's coming. Preach Jesus to all nations, teaching them everything Jesus has taught you. We fight all our battles as we always have, by drawing nearer to the person of Christ. Make no mistake, we are at war; it is not a war of bullets and bombs, but of turning the other cheek and giving away your second tunic.

Out With The Trash

Yes sir, it is done.

I went and researched the origins of that song and found what I suspected. It is not a good song. It may be art, but art does not achieve the Glory of God. (in this sense) Art is beauty broken. It still has some beauty, as a carry-over from its original state, but it falls short because perfection is the requirement, nothing less. You cannot paint a picture of a tree more beautiful than the tree itself. To try is like taking pictures of a war torn, ruined city scene. You may find shapes and images that make your jaw sag, but they are still pictures of distruction, not life.

By the new title, I'm not trying to be prideful, but submissive to the prompting in me. The wonderful hidden mysteries are open to anyone who walks the path of our Christ. Glorify the Lamb today, and definitely sing Hallelujahs!

Guidelines for the Church

Guidelines for the Church

Do not engage in any buying or selling. If there is any exchange in goods or moneys or properties, it is to be by free gift only. But also, don't begrudge those who do. Why? Because the love of money is the root of many evils. Exchanging goods and services for money, even in the innocent beginnings (to support the ministry), easily and quickly slips into another godless business of money-making. Instead model the ministry after the example of Jesus when He fed the five thousand; let the increase come from Heaven.

Do not join with any worldly entity. Any union between the church and the government or state institutions will result in a snare for the church. The Church is made up of individuals who are free spirits, freed by Christ, and not to be caged again. As people, obey all the laws of the state, until the event whereby the state tries to enforce a law that is contrary to the command of the High King, Jesus. Create no institution; so that the state, IRS, or law makers can not get their hands on you.

Do not set up a name for yourself. Do not signify yourself in any way other than "the Church," or the "body of Christ," or other named recorded in scripture. You can signify the part of the Church by the geographical location it is in. For example, "the Church at Corinth, or the Church at Corpus Christi." Just as the man, Adam, named his wife, so Christ Jesus names His Church.

Do not set up any man or woman over you. The individual members are to submit to one another as unto Christ, and unto Christ directly. If there are pastors and prophets and teachers, they are co-laborers and servants, not the boss or a priest through whom you are to learn Christ. You learn Christ by individually dying daily and participating in His Resurrection, and by washing yourself in the Word. If you listen to a pastor or teacher, or anyone else, listen not to them, but listen for the voice of the Holy Spirit through them. You can learn to recognize this Voice by turning away from all the junk of the world, and devoting your pursuits to the scriptures, and prayer.

Believe the scriptures with a pure conscience. If you read a passage and don't understand it, don't try to explain it. The Holy Spirit alone gives understanding to hidden things. If you try to explain it before the Spirit of Truth teaches it to you, then you will fall into a snare. Trust in God always, and never lean on your own understanding.

Build no Kingdom on Earth. Instead, be the light of the world, be the bride of Christ, and comfort those who mourn and suffer, and give every earthly resource to the increase of the Kingdom of Heaven. The Lord and King, Jesus will bring His Kingdom when He comes, not too many days from now. Our place is not to set up kingdoms, but to lower the mountains, and raise the valleys, so that when His Kingdom comes, it has cleared land to set up on. So, don't drain all the resources that we are to use to feed the hungry, and clothe them, in order to build bigger buildings, and produce flashier bulletins. Meet in facilities that you already have, or in homes, or in no facility at all, in restaurants, in parks, online in various groups, on the streets, in office buildings, in football stadiums, at the beach, or anywhere else you can. If you seal yourself away in brick boxes, you are not the light of the world.

Do not quarrel, but search the scriptures diligently. Being saved from sin, and slow to speak, and quick to believe what we see in the scripture, we can come to the knowledge of the truth.

Redeemed Hallelujahs

I was blown away yesterday; after having written the prevous post, I was walking and listening to the radio when God sent me this song. Except, it wasn't the same: someone had taken the lyrics and redeemed them. It was just what I had been talking about, and God mercifully sent it to me on that same day. Praise the Lord! Hallelujah

Title Change?

On a lighter side, this blog title "Broken Hallelujahs" is starting to bug me a little. I chose it because I thought it sounded cool, and because that song it comes from was such a mystery to me. I thought the blog should be kind of a symbolic exploration of that mystery.

I don't really know what the writer of the song was going for, but I take an existentialist approach to songs anyway. That mean that regardless of what the song's intention is, I take the sound of it and the lyrics, if I know them, and try to think of it in a sense that I understand. Why should a person sing someone else's song? They shouldn't. They should either make their own songs to sing, or warp other songs into their own. Of course, some songs are so wrong that they cannot be used at all, but some can be made useful if I just swap out a few words here and there. Many country songs can be turned into great worship songs just by changing a few silly words out for better ones. I could never sing in the choir because I would be changing the words all the time (and the tune, for that matter). That would be funny.

They way I generally view the position of the singer of "Broken Hallelujahs" is one of an enemy of God's eventual bowing to the truth of His Lordship. Or maybe it's that there can't truthfully be exultantly sung Hallelujahs, because Hallelujah means "You are exalted, and I am not." I don't know if the previous statement is entirely true. Maybe it's a piece of false humility to believe that we can't be exultant in the Lord.

In any case, the song is not complete. There is a time for the enemies of God to be humbled, and there may be legitimate place for them to then sing broken hallelujahs, but the next right(eous) step is to repent and believe. You don't stay in the broken hallelujahs stage forever, but must move on.

Messy

I'm contemplating a lot of things. It's messy. The truth is not messy, but trying to enact it in the "real" world is.

I want my foundations to be solid so I don't build something that will fall when we get down the road a ways. But how solid is solid enough? If I spend my life only in making the foundation strong, what of the building that is the foundation's purpose?

I want to behave like the part of the body that I am, in submission to all the other parts, yet I don't know where those parts are. Where is the group that has like-minded-ness? Is it a good idea or a bad one to go out alone, without at least one co-laborer? And what of the ends of the earth? If there were a path to walk there, I believe I would start walking today, though the journey should take years.

Yet, simulaneously, I feel that wretched nature at the door, like a disobedient cat, ready to dart inside if I leave the door ajar for the slightest moment.

Hearing Speaking Doing but the Greatest of these is

Profound thoughts are coming at lightning speed these days, but I fear the "be not hearers of the Word only, but doers." And I have yet to figure out a way to remain confident about how that doing is to be carried out.

What is to be done? "Go into the everywhere and disciple all unto Christ." But I don't have the power to go to the Salar, it seems. Go where here? Downtown? To the rejects of society? Who are the rejects? Homeless people seem to be more popular than ever in the news, and among the charities. That's fine, I'll go to them, I suppose.

But I feel powerless. I feel like I need to learn more. What if my doctrine is not correct? Just the other day I saw that my understanding of baptism was in error. What if there are other areas that are misguided like my baptism was? And shouldn't I have a partner? Jesus sent them out in twos because there needed to be two witnesses to new things. Should I wait till God provides a co-laborer? Should I wait till God drops on me special words of knowledge to guide me into whatever ministry He should desire, in the same way He told the eleven to remain still until Pentecost?

Or, is "doing" included in recording these profound thoughts that seem to be truthful. Is my ministry supposed to be in teaching and exhorting by writing? How can there be time for that? So many have done that before and got nearly no where.

And the homeless probably know the gospel better than the average church goer. Maybe. I guess there's only one way to find out.

Opposite of Selfish

The other day we were at the beach walking. As we walked, we became strung out—Mom and sister up ahead, me in the middle, and Dad back a ways—and I took the opportunity to reflect on the Creator while averting my eyes from common temptations that arise in such settings. Then my mind put together the concept that in all things, we under Christ’s new law (which is not really new, but eternal) should be selfless and God’s phrase in Genesis, “It is not good that man should be alone.”


The first concept, that all creatures which have choice should love other with their all their spirit, mind, and emotions, had no loose ends in the newly created world. That is, until the making of the man in flesh. The problem then arose of how could the man properly care for his flesh part without being self-serving and therefore defy the law of the universe?


Self-gratification is illegal in God’s eternal Kingdom, but serving and gratifying God and others is central to His way. I think the Lord God Himself is the personification of this law of love, and demonstrates it in literally everything He says and does, or doesn’t say or do. Silence and not acting at times is the most loving thing He can do for you. And this law transcends all levels of human trinity and Holy Trinity. And the order is always to be first spirit, then mind and emotion, and then lastly, body.


The primary, if not only way to make spiritual love happen is to obey the greatest commandment: Love the Lord you God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. That’s a whole series of blog posts in and of itself. The spirit is to be the ruler of all your other parts. The mind, emotions, and body should answer to the spirit, and the spirit should answer to God.


How to love God and others with your mind is in learning. Study the Word to know God, and hear and remember His testimonies. Meditate on them. Toward fellow people, learn them. What do they know that you can use to point them toward God? What experiences have they had that God has given them to be a light unto their path? Be mindful of their business, and not merely your own. Pray for them. The mind is to be the ruler of the emotions, and the body, but it is to be subject to the spirit as the spirit is subject to God. We are to lean not on our own understanding, but in all things acknowledge Him.


Also, we are to love God and others with our emotions. Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. This I could do better at sometimes. When Jesus walked the earth He saw people and had compassion on them. We should be the same. My impulse too often is to turn away when I see someone who has suffered, not because I don’t care, but because I fear trying to feel it with them, and I feel helpless to do something about it. But sadness and despair are not the only emotions. Happiness and Joy serve the spirit and sometimes blow the mind (which is good for it) by reacting correctly to the faithfulness and goodness of God. The emotions rule the body, but are still subject to the mind and spirit, which is under God.


We come to the body. As you may have easily noticed, the way I’m trying to describe it here is completely the reverse of what goes on in the world today. This is because after God created man and his wife in the garden they disobeyed Him and brought into the world a corrupted natural order.


An appropriate word for this order is anti-christ (like an adjective, instead of like a noun). This is immediately apparent today in relationships. “Love at first sight,” is the norm, and then if they randomly arrive at a second date, some emotional ties may form, and then if they are very lucky, they may even learn how to live with one another for a while. (requires mental love) But without Christ, spiritual love cannot happen because, being under Adam who sinned, there spirit is dead. And being dead, it is bringing slow death to their mind, emotions, and body.


But under Christ, the spirit is being revived. And for a short time yet, while this world lasts, I believe a man and a woman together can prove the perfect will of God by fitting the law of love template over their lives together.


I think the original intent in the garden for the creation of woman was to make it possible for the body to be cared for without selfishness being allowed to disrupt the perfect order of the law of love. She was in fact his very own body. She was bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh. But, she was a separate person. Paul said this is a great mystery and that, “he who loves his own wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it.” It is also true that, “The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does; and likewise also the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.” So, her body belongs to him, and also his body belongs to her.


Even (or especially) in small things they are to serve one another in their bodies. For example, she brushes his teeth because it is her job and privilege under the law of love to take care of his teeth. Or he can brush his own teeth (which are hers) under the law of love as a faithful steward of them so that her teeth which are in his mouth (which is hers also) will last as long as they can for her. In the same way all the actions that are taken between them are out of selfless care and love for the other—in body, but also in emotion, mind, and mysteriously, spirit. He should dress the way she wants him to gladly, and for her enjoyment. Likewise, she should dress the way he would enjoy. You can fill in the blanks with all the different ways this is to work in a relationship.


During my musings while walking, I also contemplated some examples of the breaking of the law of love that occur frequently. Not to go too far into this, just consider what’s happening when a man breaks the seventh commandment. He is believing a lie that says this is for him, and he’s stealing what has been given to some other man, but the center of it is that he is putting another god before the Lord God (namely, himself) and assuming the role of giver of all good gifts unto himself.


The law of love does the opposite. It says “I love the Lord God and I believe He is good and is the creator and giver of all good things.” It says “That woman is not mine to look at, but has been given to another man, and I am glad for that man for the good gifts God has given him. Bless the Lord, oh my soul.” The selfless body watches against covetous eyes. The selfless emotions might laugh for joy at that other man’s happiness, and the selfless mind might ponder the mysteries of God displayed between them. The selfless spirit might thank God for the privilege of seeing them and their testimony, and hope in God for the fullness of all joy between them.

Jobs Available

What if every human life is a Job story?


This is an idea that has bounced around in my head for a while, sometimes the only thing that keeps me from giving up in some way. It’s the idea that in some completely unique way, unrepeated by previous lives, or ones that come afterward, we each by our behavior prove something to the heavenly realms about God.


If this is the case, then it would make sense that during the data gathering phases of this divine experiment, we, the guinea pigs, would be kept unawares. It wouldn’t be good science if we were allowed to corrupt the findings by knowing about the particulars of the experiment. Of course, there may be some who are allowed in on it to varying degrees, like the well-known prophets and men of God of the Bible and church history. The parameters of each experiment would naturally depend on the specific nature of the question it seeks to answer.


I would love to experience many of the fancy things of the Spirit like dramatic healings, words of knowledge, pinpoint accurate prophecies, and room silencing wise teachings. I would like to hear audible voices from God to make my life decisions easy, or at least undeniable circumstantial confirmations, but alas these sweet touches have been dishearteningly few and far between. I’m sure I can find a way to blame myself, but I’ve also heard of others who despite their errors, still had the privilege of hearing from God in powerful ways. But then I think, “Well, maybe Father is seeing what one of His will do if he has only the testimony of scripture, and life experiences to go by.” If an evil and perverse generation seeks after a sign, does that mean I should be ashamed of hoping for miracles and demonstrations of His power?


I am feeling a little bit frustrated and hurt from seemingly missing out on a lot of the good stuff, but I can still take my cues from Job and acknowledge that He is God and I am not. I am for Him, in Christ, and not the other way around.

Lord, I am available for You and as ready as I know how to be.

A Little More on Humility

A person cannot arrive at humility by striving to be humble. Possibly some of the people that strive for humility the most are the Tibetan Buddhists, who prostrate themselves on the ground thousands of times for payment of one sin, and spend lifetimes in the selfless pursuit of a higher reincarnation. Yet for all their great effort, it will not succeed. True humility only happens by drawing near to the Lord Jesus, for humility is the appropriate human response to Truth.


Moses was the most humble person of his day. The word that we are looking at can be described, “meek, lowly, or poor.” He’s the one of whom God said, “With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the LORD shall he behold.” He’s the one who was allowed to be put in the cleft of a rock while the Lord God passed by so he could get a glimpse of His form. This is the question: did he get to draw nearer to God because he was humble, or did drawing nearer to God cause him to become humble? The answer is yes! This is where we discover Truth, and where we are discovered by Truth. Jesus Christ is the fixed point. He is the Truth that will not be moved. When anything is drawing near to Him, He is drawing it. When you call out to Him, He is already calling out to you. Conversely, when you deny Him, He has already denied you.


“He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.”


To the degree that you are in agreement with the Light, you are humble. Moses was so humble that God used him as His agent to bring the Holy Scriptures into being. Whether he actually wrote them, or was given the insight to compile them from pre-existing documentation or oral tradition doesn’t matter. God chose to use Moses to bring together the precepts, the teachings, the Torah. If sin means “missing the mark,” the Torah means “hitting the mark.”


So, how do you have humility? It's by knowing what's true about your right place under God. How do you know that? It's by knowing the truth about Christ Jesus’ authority over you. (“If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.”) How? “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.”


Put away your TV shows, football idols, music fanship, and any other hobbies that distract you from full on attention to the Lord your God.

Contradictions

Next day. Well, not exactly. Next YEAR and next day:

Something that has intrigued me for years is the apparent contradictions in the Bible. Normally when you hear the phrase "contradictions in the Bible," it's something that has come out of the mouth of a skeptic. And I would bet that the person who utters such a remark has not actually studied the scriptures and found it to be true, but is merely repeating what he has heard somewhere before from some other unbeliever.

But I am not a skeptic. I believe what the Bible says is true. It is inspired by God in its entirety, even the parts that I don't understand and can't fathom how they could be possible. By virtue of the nature of God that has been proven to me, I choose to trust that the scriptures are the incarnation of the Word of God (in written form; Jesus is the human form) and if something must bend for me to understand it, then that something should be me, and not the scriptures.

So it strikes me as important to consider the special relevance of passages which by taking them in plainly, seem to make nearly opposite statements.


Matthew 11:12 “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force."
Matthew 5:3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."


Galatians 6:2 "Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ."
Galatians 6:5 "For each one will bear his own load."


John 10:29 "My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand."
I Corinthians 9:27 "but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified. "

Perhaps in coming days we'll be able to take a closer look at some of these.