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Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Does God Learn? Where Did God's Wisdom Come From?

New Video: Does God Learn?
From where did God's Knowledge & Wisdom come?

Click here: http://www.bible-truths.com/video/WhereGodsKnowledgeL.wmv

This video and with what L. Ray has to say here, should blow your mind, and spiritually touch your heart to see some truth as it did me, even more then just what is said here.

Here is what the Spirit of the Lord showed me, in what he says. He doesn’t say what I saw here in what He said, but this is what the Spirit of the Lord showed me in what he said, but which is what I believe he means to teach here spiritually.

Colossians 1:16
For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities-- all things have been created through Him and for Him.


Who? Wisdom that's who. Who is Wisdom - Jesus Christ- that's who.

I Corinthians 2:6-16

6 Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away;

7but we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory;

8 the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory;

9 but just as it is written,
"THINGS WHICH EYE HAS NOT SEEN AND EAR HAS NOT HEARD,
AND which HAVE NOT ENTERED THE HEART OF MAN,
ALL THAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM."


10 For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.

11 For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God.

12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God,

13 which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.

14 But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.
 

15 But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one.
16For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, THAT HE WILL INSTRUCT HIM?  

But we have the mind of Christ.


Can you see it, Christ is the Wisdom that he is speaking about here.


This will help you to see what I see how God sees.... God in seeing Jesus (his created being, the man -Jesus)- by His foreknowledge of ALL THINGS IN MAN’S HISTORY that He (GOD THE CREATOR) would bring about. (that He the Father would come and give birth, to Jesus by His Spirit through a young maiden named Mary) and in Jesus- the man, would be the full expression of HIM- God.
Jesus -the man, Christ- the God.
Yes, Christ *Anointed One, has always been- He is pre-existent, and Jesus was already with the Father, for Wisdom (Jesus the man, his created being) came forth out of the Father by His foreknowledge of what He was going to do, in creating the man Jesus that He would send forth to suffer, and die, and redeem all of His creation. Thus GOD SUFFERED by His foreknowledge, and Wisdom came forth to create what we read in Genesis - In the beginning!
This Jesus, the man, born in human flesh but by the Spirit of God, is, was and always has been, though he had not been in human history yet,so He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the End, of creation - man's history!
Yet, people do not believe, that since all creation began in Him that it won't end in Him- the great consummation that Scripture is so clear about, where "God will be all in all."
There are not THREE GODS but only the one TRUE God, from which Wisdom (the Son) was birthed from and that came and is and always was!
Thus GOD WAS IN CHRIST, of course He was!
Thus, Jesus would be and is- the Son of God and Son of Man.
Who now sits at the right hand (authority and power) of the Father, Our Creator.
God realizes and experiences suffering.... GOD DID AND DOES AND HAS SUFFERED.
Christ “learned” obedience through suffering,
Christ suffered so that we might live!
but more than that, what I see now is because God knew and experienced those same sufferings in complete reality, He suffered, and this suffering, produced the Wisdom that came forth from Him which created all things.
See the circle of how God sees, it is infinitive, and immortal, it has no beginning and no end. God is, and always will be. God was and is now. Thus this Wisdom that came from within God to create was there already but was birthed out of the foreknowledge of Him, knowing from within Him, within His very self, He would bring forth the man Jesus, who would be the full expression of Him, who would suffer and God would suffer with Him, so God experienced that suffering as well, and out of that suffering, Came wisdom- Christ, and out of that came "In the beginning".
What a paradigm mind blowing, spiritual blessing understanding.
I got from this one thing that L. Ray went after to seek an answer for. Like a child with a simple child like question. Mommy does God learn?
Jesus said:
Mark 10:15
"Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all."

Does God Learn?

Yes! but no, not in the sense He learned from something outside of Himself, but from within, He suffered, and foreknowing, and from within that foreknowing, He suffered and from within that suffering, WISDOM came forth, and all things were created for Him and by Him

I hope you see this one! It will rattle your cage, and bless you spiritually beyond bounds!

Here is something else to see out of this, nothing is REALLY learned from outside of you- exterior- letter of the word, everything is learned experientially from within you Spirit.
We learn what we really learn, not by what someone else teaches us, but what we learn from our own experiences.
Thus we experience thus we learn. That is why NO man can really learn from just the letter of the word, He must experience the Living Word , to learn, the WISDOM!
“Intelligent answers may come from outward teaching, but Wisdom comes from within.”
I am so thankful for the things I have undergone all my life, all the suffering, all the problems and pain, all my failures, all my missing the marks, because from it, I gained experience which has given me His Wisdom, not just some “book” knowledge” but life knowledge. I only love like I love, because I have experienced His love, which burst through from His Wisdom which too came by pain.

If you suffer, if you are in pain, my message to you, is God HAS SUFFERED AS WELL, and HE IS SUFFERING EVEN NOW in patience, until the plan is revealed as COMPLETE IN CHRIST, which many yet want NOT to see or believe, but someday soon, the plan that Jesus saved all of that which is HIS, His creation will be revealed, and my heart as His heart suffers in patience of awaiting for that glorious day, when Jesus will be revealed to all men, as the ALPHA AND OMEGA!. The beginning for us and the end for all of us.

BTW- L. Ray Stevens is one of most discerning Scriptural teachers I have ever read, that has tremendous Wisdom as well. If you have not ever read anything he has written I challenge you to do so. You can find all of his writings at:
www.bible-truths.com

Ray has been battling stage IV terminal prostate cancer which metastasized a year ago throughout his skull, spine, arms, legs, shoulders, hips and pelvis. His PSA (which should be .5, or certainly no higher than 1 or 2) has risen from 107 last summer, to a staggering 740 by December, 2008.

He is under the extensive care of a local Naturopath, (who has two doctor's degrees) and is following a rather ponderous protocol involving nearly a hundred daily doses of a wide variety of supplements along with daily ozone treatments and various other procedures.

Ray has deeply appreciated hearing from those who have known of his condition. But let it be known that Ray trusts in God for any healing, not in supplements.

March 2010, Ray is still alive and here is the last post, I have found on his condition.
Greetings to God's Elect, Forum members, and bible-truths readers:

I am encouraged by all the emails I receive from many who are praying for my recovery. I wish that I had a better report to give than I am able at this time. Today starts the third week that I am confined to a wheelchair. I cannot walk or stand. Part of the problem is gout. Hospice checked my blood for Uric acid last week, and it was very elevated. Since then, the massive swelling of my feet, right knee, and left hand and fingers, along with the pain has diminished somewhat, but I am still unable to walk or stand. I am not discouraged, however. My trial is not greater than I can bear. The Emphatic Diaglott and the Concordant New Testament renders I Cor. 10:13 better than the King James:

"Now, faithful is God, Who will not be leaving you to be tried above what you are able, but, together with the trial, will be making the sequel also, TO ENABLE YOU TO UNDERGO IT."

I am able to sit and work at my computer on most days. My latest paper: "HELL is a Christian Hoax" is nearing a hundred pages. I thought it would be finished by last Fall--hopefully sometime next month. Look for it at the top of our home page. In fact, below is a reproduction of the first page of my paper:

HELL is a Christian hoax

L. Ray Smith debunks the Christian/Muslim doctrine of an eternal hell while giving a Scriptural critique and commentary on New York Times best selling book: "23 minutes in Hell" by Bill Wiese.

You can read some of this critique at: http://bible-truths.com/23-minutes-in-hell.html

May the God of heaven and earth, grant you His Wisdom, and may you come to know the full breath and knowledge of His encompassing love and mercy toward all of His creation through Jesus Christ His Son.

Joseph W. Black D.D.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

You Believe in Eternal Torment, then PREACH IT!

My Famous Sermon on Hell Fire.
 

You can use it if you like it if you think it might save one person from this "torment" eternally.

The Sermon Begins.. walk slowly to the platform, Bible under your arm, slamming it unto the podium to wake up all those awful persistent evil and wicked sinners who CHOOSE to live in sin..

"Today, I am so glad you are here. For I have come to tell you one thing and one thing only, unless you leave here tonight without a decision to believe in Jesus, you are going straight to hell and there your body will be in hot flaming fire to be tortured forever, and ever and ever more.
Have you ever burned yourself before?
Have you felt that pain, that instant agony and sought relief from your pain?
Did it bring tears to your eyes?
You sought relief didn't you?
Well I am sorry to say, that if you don't believe in Jesus God's only Son, this night, that you are going to feel pain and agony of that burn, not just on a finger or your hand, but your entire living body for the rest of eternity. The stench of flesh burning and the agony of that pain, will go on forever, and worst yet, your sister or your brother, or your mother or your own children (if faith is what saves you, too bad they can't believe like the rest of us, huh? So there is only one place for them too go as well as all those other people of different religions and denominations who never even had a chance- never heard and knew about Jesus to even believe!), even your wife, may be there in hell as well.
You can have the assurance of going to heaven looking down at them and you will not be able to go to them, and give them some water to cool the pain, you won't be able to doctor their burns, because see GOD is going to make sure their flesh doesn't cook away. He is going to give them eternal life too, so they can burn forever!
But if YOU don't "believe" tonight like I did- He is going to have His way with you forever and ever and ever and ever for every finite sin you ever committed, your crying and gnashing of teeth will do you no good, He will only pour more fuel upon the brimstone, and He will be satisfied to see your pain and agony, He and the others in heaven, will be joyful to see you burn, because it will remind them, they believed, and that is why they are where they are at and you aren't. You get what you chose SINNER, so you better choose right now!
HELL OR HEAVEN, only you can save yourself right now, with the right decision, the good decision.
Quit your EVIL!
Those in heaven will be proud with their decision for Christ, they with God will take joy in your everlasting torment, they will sing and dance around the fire and at last say JUSTICE to you SINNERS. They will say at last the wicked are getting the eternal whack they deserve. At last there is no evil, God has thrown in His hell, my mother, my brother, my baby, and the Hindu down the street into ETERNAL TORMENT, they deserved it, they wouldn't believe!
We are so glad that WE chose Jesus, and don't have to be tortured forever and ever and ever like they do!
We weren't stupid we got ourselves out of that, all you had to do was just simply repent and believe.

I tell you those of you sitting there, right now, thinking, that's alright I have tomorrow or next Sunday to come down, but oh! No! Don't think that God will grant you another breath to breathe, you better get down to this altar right now, you better fall on your knees before GOD who is just waiting to deliver His eternal torments upon you because you fail to quit sinning and come to Jesus!
I can smell the stench of your flesh now, I can hear your voice now, crying to me to give you a drop of water.
But wait, I hear the cries of most of humanity, I hear the Buddhist, I hear the Hindu, I hear the Jewish, I hear the Confucianist, I hear the Muslim, I hear the cries of ever man ever born before Christ came to go to the cross, trillions upon trillions of people in the Old Testament, trillion upon trillion since Christ died to deliver us from hell that you refused to believe in.
I hear the cries of those who refuse to come to church, I hear the cries of drunks, the drug addicts and the homosexuals, the prostitutes, I hear their cries for help, I smell the stench of their flesh, and watch as the flames rise higher and higher as they get what they deserve, they chose to sin, but oh not me, see I believe in Jesus, so I got me some salvation quick.
I saw that hell, that God was going to send me to, if I didn't “believe” in Jesus, so I got my ticket to heaven quick, I got my self together as quickly as I could and I said the sinners prayer, got myself into church, cleaned up my own life, all because you see I believe in hell, and damnation and eternal torture, and I believe God DEMANDS my belief,
You bet, I believed that He Jesus died for me, so I am safe now.
Do you want that safety and security from being cast into eternal torment, where Satan will be, to make it all the worse, to stab you with his pitch fork, and stoke the fires of hell, damnation and eternal torture, is that where you want to be?
Then if not, you best start feeling the agony, the pain here and now in your mind, and hurry run to this altar and repent of all your sins, tell God what a lousy worm you are, how you are no good, and just a lousy no good for nothing sinner, and you don't want Him mad at you any longer, you see what He does with those He is angry with, He will see that you get what is coming to you, and it isn't going to be as short as the pleasure of your sin was, for those finite sins, He will see that your body and flesh is tortured forever and ever and ever. Along with all the children who didn’t believe, all those that never heard the Good News!

The Good News, is Jesus bought you some time, he bought you a way out from getting this punishment that you so well deserve, he gave you a chance to get out of hell for free if YOU just will believe that brother, and accept him as the One who paid off the angry and vengeful God by taking your punishment.

I hear those screams of agony now, but for me, I don't mind, I don't care, you see they deserve that what they are going to get, they refused to "believe."

But wait, I do care enough to tell you about it, so get down here tonight.

"Today is the day of salvation!"

I smell the stench of their flesh, and I hear the Devil laughing with glee for he has WON most of all of humanity.

That's right most all of humanity because brother many are called but only a few chosen, has God chosen you for hell or heaven, it's up to YOU to decide, here and now, whether you want to live in heaven and watch the others fry, or do you want to be one of the human french fries? (this one always gets a laugh, comedic relief is good for those who saved themselves and believed already)

Make up your mind for today is the day of salvation from this eternal torment that GOD will be sure to see you get if you walk away tonight without telling him you are sorry for your being a no good sinner, and you are going to do it right for now on, you aren't going to cuss, anymore, you are not going to fornicate anymore, you are not going to drink anymore, you can't because your going to be too busy doing good things, like going to church, reading your Bible and praying.
(This is good, gives them time to do it during the week just before Sunday service) Besides, it is belief that saves them, right?

You aren't going to keep your money anymore for you, your going to give 10% or more whatever is necessary to prove you BELIEVE  You are going to give it to this church for now on. {Collection will be taken immediately at the end of this service.} Coffers are full after a good night of hell fire preaching, I promise.

You better come now, the invitation is open, or this eternal torment might begin for you in the next minute, I know a guy who was sitting there just like you, I know he wasn't saved, never saw him come here but that one night, his wife had come for years, I preached this same sermon, he dropped over dead before he could even hear the rest of my sermon, and sorry to say, Sister Mary, and you know this, he is right now frying and screaming in agony, right this very moment, he is forever and ever in torture with no chance of relief, Mary knows it, but she warned Him and now she can hear his cries for help and smell the stench of his flesh, but she is OK with that, and proud, she believed, he didn't so he is only getting what he deserves and chose.

Today is the day for salvation from HELL, get down here quick like I did, repent, quit doing all that sinning get here to church on time, start reading that Bible, so you can see and read into it how God destroys and punishes forever and ever and ever those who refuse to “ believe”.
Now is the time, save your flesh, run down here, before the fire is stoked with one more of the trillions that have died and been cast in to those eternal fires, where the worm dieth not. The worms get eternal life too just to eat on your burning flesh!
That is right it won't die either, it will eat at your burned flesh, your eye balls popping out from the heat then God will see that your flesh grows back for more pain and agony, and yes you will have life eternally in pain, and torment. Come quick and get your way out now, Jesus said I am the Way out of HELL and the TRUTH that there is a hell, and the LIFE in heaven that you can have if you just believe in me!
Do it now, before that fire gets stoked with your flesh, your body being cast into it.

I can tell you, what it looks like I was a Firefighter for years and a Medic, I went on a case where a murderous infidel, who was angry at his wife for refusing to love him, he cut their throats and burned them, he tied his wife up, cut her throat, and then his mother in laws, and then his father in laws, then he set the house on fire, and I was called to the scene, I know what burning flesh looks like and how the eye balls burst from the heat, and the stench of a burned body, but that is OK, he only demanded what God is demanding and he didn't get it either, the personal worship and servitude he demanded, so he did just what God is going to do to all you sinners out there!
Ah! there is nothing like the smell of burning flesh in the morning. 

Quick believe, save yourselves quickly, believe that Jesus died for your sins, to save you from this eternal torment, so you don't have to end up like this family did. Believe that God said, hey you deserve to be burned forever and ever, but I will just murder and kill my Son on a cross, and that will satisfy my WRATH and I am making it easy, I didn't make Him pay what you are going to pay if you don't believe tonight, he had the whole world's sins upon Him, but for your finite sins... I am going to torture you and torture you forever and ever!

AMEN – Run quick I am looking to see you down here in the next minute, Jesus is “tenderly” calling come and save yourself from the eternal torments of hell and damnation and torture forever and ever and ever and ever and ever.... and ever.... and …......(the organ plays, two songs, Just As I AM and Jesus is Tenderly Calling)
Lots of weeping, and crying going on.
Sister Mary she just smiles, because her brother died last week too, and he never said he believed.
She will be in heaven but her husband and brother that she really didn't love, because they wouldn't believe are rotting in stinking burning flesh, but that is OK, she is going to heaven! Me too! I made the right choice!
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(Sister Mary gets to spend eternity with the God of Vengeance and Hatred who "your" bible describes as "God is Wrath" which of course we know has to be right -seeing how it is according to the traditions of men and their famous Theologians that most believe in.)
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If those preachers that so believe in hell, and eternal torment, then why aren't they preaching this at every sermon to rescue those that may not know in their own congregations and cities and to everyone they meet?

They need to be on the street corners,every whore house, every bar, every homosexual gathering, every place that smokers stand puffing their cigarettes, etc. but perhaps not, maybe they will as in this sermon just be happy that "they believed."

If it was me, and I believed in this as the end of most men, I wouldn't be preaching those watered down, namby-pamby sermons,

I would want to rescue everyone I could from the pain, but of course that's me,

I just happen to love people, like God truly does, and I just happen to see a need to bring the love and life of Christ within me to them, so that the light of Jesus Christ within me, will expel the darkness of the CARNAL MIND and the old ADAMIC thinking that God hates humanity or ever did.
I love them all, for God so loved the world, that Jesus said I came not to condemn the world but to SAVE THE WORLD.
I love them so,they can see the true of God of glory and His Son Jesus Christ, and find the Holy Spirit will teach them and mature them and set them free from sin and death!
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If I was to believe that God was going to send everyone that never “believed" in Jesus, to hell THAT is how my sermon would sound.
If I believed that my belief saved me, then that is the sermon I would preach. 

I would quit all this namby-pamby preaching, and teaching and get SERIOUS with that to which you believe Christ came to, was to get people out of hell and into heaven.
 If I believed that "nonsense" I wouldn't waste my time with all those "inspirational, self help, positive, pull yourself up by your own bootstrap messages and all this Jesus loves you and the Father loves you business and get after business, unless, I like the idea that I am going to heaven, and so what if 55 million people will die this year alone and well over almost all of them will never hear they can get out of hell with a free ticket of just "believing" in a Jesus that died so they don't have to go there.
But then again since "your belief" saved you, I guess all that humanistic, positive self help, pull yourself up by your bootstraps sermons make sense, for the "faithful."  Since they too are all full of that "I" and "me" stuff.  Good sermons to lift man's hearts up as "gods".. since your belief gets you right up there with God as "a god." So, why waste your time trying to save them from hell, they already purchased their "fire insurance" and your just teaching them how to "grab all they gusto they can, since they only go around once in this life."  
So what if their flesh will be there to burn forever and ever and ever and EVER! Oh! I get it, no sinners ever show up at your church, just the righteous, so you don't preach what you believe when your among the "faithful".  You only speak that of those who don't believe as you do. Sure that makes sense, fry the rest, and keep the best for the best.
I would quit those namby-pamby funerals for those that I knew right off they weren't "saved".
I would start speaking the truth at those funerals and tell everyone straight out where old Uncle Joe is going to and where he is at.
I wouldn't waste a moment, they would hear the best sermon they ever came to hear and better yet, if they committed suicide, I would tell them that is the guarantee they are in hell. Remember the sin unto death, theology you preach or believe in?
Quit all that namby-pamby lying preaching preacher or "christian" and put your mouth where your so called faith is if you really believe what you say you believe.

That is what I would preach if I was one of those ETERNAL TORMENT THEOLOGIANS AND PREACHERS AND CHRISTIANS.

Well since all you good folks and preachers and theologians believe this,

WHY AREN'T YOU PREACHING LIKE I WOULD HERE for this is what you say it all means, and what you say the reason Jesus came, and you say, this is what he came to save us from, and that he paid the penalty for sin, but wait, alas, How come if he paid the penalty, why isn't He still there, undergoing this eternal torment so I don't have to?

Perhaps? Maybe perhaps, someone misunderstood, God must have been the one must have not known what He was going to do to sinners forever- since He forgot to tell Adam about it, and all the OLD TESTAMENT people about it, and wait, Paul forgot to include it in his letters, Jesus forgot to tell us this, while talking to the Pharisees about the coming destruction of Israel, which happened in 70 AD, and Gee whiz he only mentions a similar story like that preached here in a PARABLE that dealt with the turning of the tables on the Jews in favor of the Gentiles, and how they wouldn't know Him even if He was to rise from the dead. A parable that was impossible to be a true story, since Christ had not died yet, and no one could go to heaven.. how did  Lazarus get there?

Did God forget this important subject to make it clear throughout Scripture? A subject that all of "christendom" will fight to the teeth and call you names and a heretic because you don't believe in this "SATANIC" hell of evil thought and imagination.

Shouldn't the entire story tell us, and be clear without any doubt of this HELL you teach and believe in?

It is apparent, that God is not love but He is wrath? According to this HERESY of the church!

Since that is what you believe, quit telling everybody God is love, and then telling them God is wrath.
Which is He?
Sounds kind of schizophrenic to me, but isn't that what the Atheist say. "I get it, Jesus is the nice guy God, The Father is the not so nice guy God, and the Holy Spirit he is only there to help those who have believed, is that right?"

Well I am not sure what you are saying about Him, but if questioned isn't that the only answer you are offering?

I will assure you, that you who may serve under the lash of a Creator who wishes nothing more then to eternally torment most of humanity and hates the sinner and offers no other alternative to remove the sinners sin, then ETERNAL TORMENT, then your GOD is not the GOD OF ALL CREATION that loves HIS CREATION SINCE THE BEGINNING OF TIME, and that HE IS THE ETERNAL "ONE" who was in Christ Jesus, who came, lived and died, to reveal that GOD IS LOVE and that HE JESUS HAS DIED TO SAVE THE WORLD, and HE JESUS IS ALIVE working in and toward every man's heart preparing it, to love GOD and not to be a slave but a SON!

If you REALLY BELIEVE IN YOUR ETERNAL TORMENT then live like it, and preach like it or SHUT UP!

Quit lying to people and if you are going to lie to them at least preach a sermon like I did above and preach some good old fashion Jonathan Edward sermons, and scare them quick into an altar call and save some poor idiot from going to hell! Besides, your belt of self righteousness may not have enough notches on it yet, to give you something to brag about when you get to heaven...you have a long ways to go to catch up with Billy Graham!
You need a whole lot more missionaries too seeing how over half the world or more weren't born into a nation where they have ever heard the sermon- "BELIEVE IN JESUS OR GO TO HELL" - GOOD NEWS?

There will be millions born tomorrow where YOUR Gospel is never preached or even learned or talked about, you best get busy preacher and "christian", or your GOD is not going to send you to hell, being your such a saint and all, but boy! are you going to get a tongue lashing from your GOD when the time comes for JUDGMENT DAY! Who knows maybe He'll hold your feet over the BBQ just long enough to make you repent of your failure to preach the "Good News" ???
How could he let you get by with letting so many sheep get lost out there and end up in hell. But that is OK, I forget your GOD is a GOD OF WRATH and not of love.
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For a better perspective that is true SCRIPTURALLY and not based on the VAIN IMAGINATIONS OF THE CARNAL MIND, I recommend the following excellent reads.

http://bible-truths.com/23-minutes-in-hell.html

http://www.tentmaker.org/

and there are many more places that others have done a thorough Biblical examination of this theology, like myself, who see the true "GOOD NEWS OF JESUS CHRIST."

It's time, either preach what you believe, or shut up about it.
Time to seek the Father and the Son and start praying God show me truth, deliver my mind from tradition and Holy Spirit come and teach me as promised, that which lifts Jesus up and teaches me of Him and reveals my Father who John says, God is love.

If you want to know why Christ died for you and gave you forgiveness of sin, and just what it is HE DELIVERED YOU FROM AND CAN DELIVER YOU FROM NOW and WILL DELIVER
YOU FROM.

Then I recommend, you get busy trying to really discover what it means to be a Christian, and what Jesus really did at Calvary for ALL MEN!


I believe in the Eternal Reconciliation of ALL Mankind in Christ and through Him alone and forever more, what do you believe?

Hell? Eternal Torment? A parable preached as literalism? Perhaps it is time to study the Word of God, and show your own self approved. Rightly dividing the WORD OF GOD. and hear the voice of the LIVING WORD- Jesus Christ speak to your heart and mind.

Time to get off the pew, get out of the "Cemetaries" (Seminaries), put down all the presuppositions of what you have been taught and discover this wonderful deliverance from the power of death, the devil, the fear of death, and the enslavement to sin that Jesus died for you to give you come to know the "One true God- the GOD OF LOVE and HIS FORGIVENESS FOR ALL MANKIND through His only begotten Son Jesus Christ. Come to know him intimately,

Come to drink of His living water and eat of Him who is the true bread of heaven. It is time to throw out the stale bread and the poisoned waters of tradition and lies, and MEET JESUS THE VICTOR!
Which is what Jesus really did at Calvary. God was in Christ, reconciling the WORLD unto Himself, forgiving THEM THEIR TRESPASSES.

Doesn't sound like eternal torment is any forgiving to me, does it you?

Doesn't sound like Jesus prayer that He said His Father always heard Him and answered was answered does it, when He said "Father forgive them for they know not what they do? Who was the them?
Was it just the Romans, and the Pharisees, He asked forgiveness for or just who put or what put Him on the Cross, MANKIND? ADAM?
Learn more and find Hope for all man, instead of the garbage that tradition has put out there or if you aren't going to bother to SEEK TRUTH SO THAT HE CAN SET YOU FREE then for "goodness sake" at least preach your eternal torment and live like you say you believe.

Quit being a hypocrite!

Joseph Black

Friday, February 11, 2011

The Egyptian Revolution

What does this mean for Egypt. It means that clearly the people brought about the downfall of Mubarek, by an overall peaceful Revolution. Perhaps just over 10-15 years this could not have happened. Why? The reason is the Internet has made the world a smaller community, now at least, people can still get the truth out there as they see it, and not have it completely shut off to the world, by those who can subvert, and pervert the truth of what is going on in another country, though there are still many attempts by the powers to shut down the reality and keep us all living in their matrix of lies, of controlled media, the truth does come out. Regardless, how conservative Americans may think of Julian Assange, he is a great revolutionary, in that he dared to step out of the matrix of the controlled media, and controlled information that people are dished out normally into their lives everyday.
Truth be told, what revolutions may have incurred in our own country should all the truths have come out, that really go on behind closed doors in Washington, D.C.
Would those Revolutions brought about a better country then the economic oppression, and problems we are experiencing now because of the few elitist who hold power even now in our country? Probably not.
All governments, are fruit hanging off one tree, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Each man's rule, each man's change of rule, is because there are always those who think they can do good out of their natural selves. This is in clear contradiction to history, and to Scripture. Man is "a god" in truth in this world, in the temporal and carnal lives of men. We know this to be true, that each of us live in a relationship where there are those whether in our immediate world, family, community, or State, there are always those who will hold power over someone else. Even those who seemed to be limited in power, the poor and destitute, yet hold some power over the lives of others, because of their position, their lack of, they influence, others by that very life they live. They can power over the emotions of others, and the natural (carnal) nature of men to do good.
This is the incredible truth, thus Jesus was not being heartless, when He said the poor will always be among you.
The rich of course, may hold greater power over our lives, even to the point of life and death of our temporal selves. They may rule over the very resources to which God gave all men, be it food, water, clothing, and shelter, but as Jesus said, Don't be afraid of those who can only cast your body into the grave (hadys).
Mankind is forever seeking to be "a god", when it is clear in temporal things, he may make "god like" decisions by powering over others in one sense or another.
The fact be told though, there is no other God, in that all that transpires in history, whether it be your history, or the history of others, or nations or kingdoms, are NOT outside of the counsel, the purpose or the will of God.
Man's being "a god" is only illusion, a non-reality, that he creates for himself with a carnal mind. He fails to see outside of himself, the Spiritual, that the CREATOR is in every decision you and I will ever make, or ever do. This is hard for the carnal mind to grasp, simply because to believe so, removes the illusion of their being a "god."
Men holds onto the idea of human will, as his own god, thinking that all his actions, decisions, words and deeds, he has accomplished or performed are some right he believes he has innately to be absolutely independent of the Creator.
This is his the illusion that the serpent brought, "you shall be like god."
Thus man, was exposed to who he really is, but at the same time that knowing, closed his mind and heart to the reality of the God who is love.
From the very beginning to the story of Jesus and each man's story today, he fails to see, that which is the TRUTH. Jesus Christ. They fail to see the real story, they still are living in an illusion of the flesh. They have re-designed the Good News to Bad News, so that they themselves may yet divide themselves over other men, to maintain their "godhood.", to remain "a god", to set themselves apart from the race of humanity, that Paul makes very clear, is and was in the same boat, and that boat was sinking and sunk. that God in his power, among all the decisions men were making, thinking that he actually was exercising human will, God the Creator, was putting men in bondage to the self, the ego, the I am "a god." The illusion of Adam, that He from the very beginning the Almighty Creator of heaven and earth had a plan, and that His plan has never been subverted by His creature man, or devil.
We see this celebration of man's supposed will in revolution, we see this in the face of the protesters, we see this whenever men, think by their power, they have changed the course of their own history to what they believe is their own making. They celebrate in Egypt now, but that is only for the moment, they believed by exercising their god like status they have accomplished their freedom. History will prove that is not so.
History and the very facts of the United States prove that we are not truly free.
There will always be those that men will place their worship in, who are no greater then they are, but they will yet believe and trust that some "mortal" like themselves, will help them achieve their immortality. Israel did it time after time, and so hasn't every nation or power throughout history but where are these kingdoms now, where are their kings? Are not all these powers now lying in the dust of history past.
Egypt of the past, Israel of the past, Rome of the past, Greece of the past, all are washed away by the sands of time. Their attempts to obtain immortality ended up in mortality. They are non-existent, they no longer are among us, their vestige of memory may be there, their influence upon the thoughts and actions of men in the future may be there, but where is their reality, it is gone with the winds of time. America someday, will be the same. It is already becoming so, and has become so, the very foundations of what it was built upon, have already descended into the "grave", for we see, the ideals of the forefathers, the early history of this nation and it's purposes to establish a freedom to mankind never known by the world, is a mere illusion as well.
There are those who blindly hold onto the illusion, but they too will disappear into the dust blown in the wind.
Revolution, true revolution, is what Christ brought to us as men, Christ reveals the spiritual reality of man, He reveals the reality of reality, and exposes the vain imaginations, desires and lies of men. Yet, men has buried that in two thousand years of tradition and lies, and created only a new illusion that hides the TRUTH. One to know this truth, must go and sell all he has and give it to the poor, and come follow Him. But do you see the road following Him will lead to?
Do realize that before the resurrection their must be a death, to your ego, death to your human will, death to your very self. Take up your cross and follow me, Jesus says, but no man wants to take up his Cadillac and say I have arrived!
I am not trying here to draw up some false picture of it is more holy to be physically poor, no Jesus spoke of a poverty of spirit that brings blessing.
This poverty in order to gain, his riches, must come to rich man and poor man alike. It is an equalizer, it is a leveler, it brings us first to know all of our condition as man, ALL have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Which means DEATH! but then the story of Jesus says, where sin abounded through the one man Adam, grace abounded more through Jesus Christ.
It is that in the one man Adam all died, and in Christ all shall live.
But how shall you ever arrive at the truth of that, unless YOU DIE!
Immediately many of you, will fail to even grasp the word DIE, your thoughts are turned to that of carnality rather then spirituality, you immediately think of a funeral, a dead man in a casket, your end. You immediately think like Martha did, "I know Lord he will be raised in the resurrection of the last day."
Let us be reminded of Jesus reply.
You immediately because of all the tradition your brain and ego self has been built upon like Thomas you have heard Jesus speak of life and death time after time, and like Thomas you say, let us go and die with him.
No, this death, that Jesus would reveal, was not just His going to the Cross, it was the life He lives, the words He breathed, the actions He took, it was all a realized, death to human will and He makes that clear in John 5:19
"Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner."
Do you actually believe you can do anything outside of His will, or receive anything outside of His will.
John understood where all that you have and are comes from:
John 3:27
John answered and said, " A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven.
Are you really ready to incur spiritual poverty and lay down your mantel of desiring to be "a god" thinking you are "a god."
Are you ready to die to the illusive self, for the reality of God. Are you ready to die to the illusive traditions, and lies you have believed all your life about yourself and the Creator? Are you ready to see Jesus for He really is, who is the LAST ADAM.
Is your heart prepared to know the one true God, and His son whom He has sent?
Are you really ready for REVOLUTION?
Then I declare to you, it doesn't begin by overthrowing governments, it begins by overthrowing the government of your own heart and thoughts, and recieving the KINGDOM OF GOD which has been freely given to you. The Kingdom of God is within you, are you yet wasting time, looking for the kingdom out there, when He is present? Are you looking for that outside of yourself, that has been graciously placed within yourself?
I desire Revolution everyday in my life, and that revolution is, has and will continue to take place in my heart and thoughts as He brings down those kingdoms of the illusion of self, and just who I am as man, and I bow to His truth, the only truth, who said, I am the way, the truth and the life! Do you desire to know the way, do you desire to know the truth and do you desire to have life, here and now?
Then look to the Truth! He is standing right there in your face, you can find Him, if you will but let go of the illusion, and your heart cry out as loudly and in unison as the tulmutously as the throngs of voices who have so placed there trust in a false revolution.
 I want REVOLUTION, give me REAL REVOLUTION, and perhaps you will find the Mubarek of your heart will step down from his throne, your ego, your old illusive Adamic self, and Jesus the Last Adam will take His rightful throne of glory in your life. If you will, there is righteousness, peace and joy, that for which we all seek to know, and that these Egyptians really desire, but they like most have sought it by the hands of their own and the hands of another man, will they recieve righteousness, joy and peace.
No, their personal worlds will remain in the same turmoil as always, and along with it will come despair.
But wait God has a better plan for the human race, it has been revealed, is being revealed and shall be alas revealed in the grand consummation of all things that are reconciled in Christ to the glory of the Father.
We will then see Him as He is. Redeemer of the human race. 

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Welcome To My Blog of Blogs

Since 2007, I have been blogging, I have had several different blogs up here, many on different subjects, different themes, etc. I eventually after time wore on, if the visits decreased, I took them down, so this blog is an attempt to pull together all my old blogs into one blog. In so doing to keep the documentation of these blogs, allow former readers to find perhaps an old favorite of theirs, and to open space for me to write new thoughts, interest, etc. So, I hope to pull this off, and pull all the save one's to this blog. My old Athens Independent News Blog the one I kept up here from 2007 until just recently probably contains over 100 individual articles, I wrote and was widely visited and quoted for many of those years. In reading it, I hope you find something, that may spur your interest, or curiosity, and that you will discover the transition of thought processes for me over the years. Life is a journey, and writing will reveal the transformation we undergo as time passes.
Here you will find post from Athens Independent News, Dialegomai, It Is Finished, Victorious Love, A Gentler Approach, Facts and Hypothesis, and more of my former blogs. I have only one other blogger that is separately published as it deals with Meteorite hunting for novices.
Enjoy.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

It is Finished "

“For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love” (Galatians 5:6)

Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. (Romans 3:24)

That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. (Titus 3:7)

But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they [The Gentiles]. (Acts 15:11)

Ephesians 2:5 states that “by grace ye are saved.”

“For by grace are ye saved through faith” (Ephesians 2:8)

5:6). Here is a great key to opening this mystery. Faith is needed, but it must be faith that works and the only true way that faith can work is by love.

So we have saving grace which we receive through faith that works by love and the source of all love is God! “God is love” (1John 4:8, 16

So whence does faith come from?
Does it come from just a believing in something?
What defines True Faith?

This faith is not simply an acknowledgment of existence, for “the devils also believe (pisteuo), and tremble” (James 2:19).

We are not saved, because one day we believed. So what?
As James said, the devils "believe"
It is not our belief that wrought salvation to ourselves or anyone for that matter.
It was Christ faith, his trust, his love, that graced us ALL unto salvation.
Love and faith are equal, one cannot stand without the other.

So John writes, I John 4:7-13
7 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is begotten of God, and knoweth God.

8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

9 Herein was the love of God manifested in us, that God hath sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him.

10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

12 No man hath beheld God at any time: if we love one another, God abideth in us, and his love is perfected in us:

So let us examine, John 3:14-20 in new light.

14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up;

15 that whosoever believeth may in him have eternal life.

16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal life.

17 For God sent not the Son into the world to judge the world; but that the world should be saved through him.

18 He that believeth on him is not judged: he that believeth not hath been judged already, because he hath not believed on the name of the only begotten Son of God.

19 And this is the judgment, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil.

Now keep in mind, this passage is spoken by our Lord before He has been lifted up on the cross -this is ALL PRE-CROSS speech, while man and Jesus are yet under the law. Jesus is speaking in terms of man, as he stands there right before them a that moment in time.

Only those that accepted Him before he died for who He was were receiving His Grace while present, in that moment of time. They were being shown or revealed the death they were in, and were being brought into life, knowing the Father and the Son.
He thus says this defining what ETERNAL LIFE,is. He says nothing here about it being the opposite of after you die of going to hell versus you go to heaven:
John 17:3
Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.


See man's religious propensity is to always focus, on the what happens after you die. All religions have been built upon this premise, because it is the one unknown of mankind, no one has been there and returned to life to tell us, this is what it's like to die. Jesus did no explaining as to what transpired while dead.
Every known religion of mankind has been built on a premise of good and evil, hell and heaven. Jesus came to deconstruct religion and bring life. Culture and society has been built on or around death not life.
The Egyptians did the same, as any anthropologist can show you, religion and society has been built on the premise of death, not life in the here and now.

The difference is- Jesus revealed true death, but His emphasis was always not on our end, but on us being given a new beginning. All men.
He was here to make that new beginning possible and then the end the goal.
In the end, to wipe out sin and death, good and evil, and religion, and all of those things that have held mankind under bondage for lifetimes.

Paul writes this as proof of that for which Christ was about to do, as the new father of the entire human race in Romans 5:11-12

11 Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation Death Through Adam, Life Through Christ
12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned—

Note he Paul doesn't say it would be any different as man have tried to re-interpret the word of God, for the sake of their tradition.
It says JUST AS.
What happened to ALL of us, not just a few of us, but ALL of us because of Adam?
We didn't get Adam's nature because we "believed in Adam", we got his nature as representative of all mankind, and that bloodline would run, until when, the New Adam was brought forth.
Note in these verses, the CHANGE the TRANSITION OF ALL MEN.
1 Corinthians 15:22
For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.

1 Corinthians 15:45
So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being” ; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit.

Note something different about this Adam, this LAST Adam Paul calls Jesus, He isn't just a living being....HE IS THE LIFE GIVING SPIRIT.
He did what...He gave unto man a whole brand new nature that man had not held since before the FALL, He has breathed in us His Spirit, we have been restored, He said it is finished, and it is!

Paul again in Romans speaking.
13 To be sure, sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not charged against anyone’s account where there is no law.
Did Jesus fulfill the law or not?
Did he not remove the law and give us grace or not?
Did he only have you in mind, when He did so, or the whole world?
Were you saved only when YOU came to believe. Even the devils believe.

It wasn't my belief, or your mother's belief or anyone's belief that ever saved you, it was this new plan of God, this new turn around of all events, that saved us all, all of us. What a wondrous God He is, God is love.
Why do most man not understand this?
1 Corinthians 1:18
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
What is this perishing, what is this salvation but life from the death we have been in. We have re-defined scriptural meaning as to just what Jesus saved us from.
He didn't come to save us from hell!
He came to save us in our everyday lives, whereby we live here and now, from perishing, not being useful or graced with knowing God and the Son, intimately.
To keep us from such foolishness to think that somehow we are always the one's that can save ourselves from ourselves. For that which was the nature of fallen man, to live only as a good person or evil person, but all the same He could not ever be righteous.
That is the wonderful gift given to us, that we all have been graced with in Christ final proclamation of "It is Finished", but how will we ever know to come to experience this "so great of a salvation?"

When we see God graces us to understand it, this is the Sovereignty of God for this life, to some they will never understand it, for the purposes and plan of God, it is his choice but it has nothing to do, with them going to hell or heaven, it has everything to do with experiencing and having a knowing fellowship here now with God the Father and Jesus Christ the Son before death.
How could we ever become so stupid to believe that God eternal, only operates within the confines of our time and space. We must realize that His work in Christ is eternal, no man will ever, nor has any man died the death that Jesus died.

For the wages of sin is death, separation from the Father, while under the Law, we were DEAD in sin and trespasses, but now that the Law has been removed in Christ, he has set us free, all of us, from sin.
This isn't saying we can't do evil, nor does it say we can't do good, what it says, we are no longer under that condemnation as man anymore, NOT ONE, because of Jesus. We are no longer defined by what we do, but Who He Is and who we were in Him and who we are in Him now.
When you grasp that, you will have abundant life, age lasting(aion)life, because you will be experiencing fellowship with Him.
Please don't perish in THIS LIFE, you can do so, if you please, but God is love, and in the end, when you step out of this door into eternity, he will still be there, with the Gospel, man's death has nothing to do with the nullifying what Christ has done.
You know it in your heart, and have longed for this truth.
Here is what God has done, as Paul states, not as man and tradition states:
2 Corinthians 5:19
that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
Reconciliation is done, it is complete, there is nothing that separates any man from God anymore, that was grace.
To enjoy it, to experience this reconciliation, here and now in this life, however we do have to place our entire reliance and trust upon that which He has done. So trust pays a part to acquisition of that which is ours.
Paul writes this in Romans 3:21-25
23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
24being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus;
25whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed;

Note is the word "people" used here to mean an exclusive people or an inclusive people meaning ALL PEOPLE? In light of the other scriptures it surely means ALL!
Inclusive I say to you. "It is Finished".

What yet is it that belongs to you and I and that all men need to pray and ask God is to make this grace known to us in grander measure so we can know it, experience it, think it, live it, walk in it, abide in it, so that Paul writes this in Romans 3:26-28
26for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
27Where then is boasting? It is excluded By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith.
28For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law.
So, God has reconciled all men, all men are justified, but how can they have faith, to know this, and experience this new exchanged life, of justification and know that their old one life has been removed in Christ, and their new one given freely by grace in Christ, the last Adam, the life giving Spirit.
By only one means: Romans 10:11-13
14 How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15 And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”
We read Romans 10:17
17 Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ.
Notice "the word about Christ"... it is the message of "It is finished" that we are to preach, of God's reconciliation, finished, completed in Christ, not about some wild story, about did you know Jesus died so you won't have to go to hell.
No! that is not the Good News, that is just a confabulated messed up presentation of the truth made up by men and their vain imaginations, that presents none of the truth that Paul was preaching nor that we should be preaching.
Paul in all his writings, doesn't mention at all, HELL, once. Why has "christianity" so failed to miss the GOOD NEWS.
I tell you why?
19 And this is the judgment, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil.

Awake oh! body of Christ and let us present the Good News and let us present not the God of the dead but the God of the living.
Matthew 22:32
‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’ ? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”
Mark 12:27
He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!”
Luke 20:38
He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.”
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.

Colossians 3:1
[ Living as Those Made Alive in Christ ] Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
Thinking, teaching, preaching on salvation from hell is surely not thinking on that which is above!
God saved us from who we were, to make us who we are, in Him.
So that we might have life here and now and forever.
Let us preach, Christ crucified, let us preach, the truth of Universal Reconciliation and faith needed to enjoy it in the here and now.
Yes there is no more sin and death, your physical death has no meaning in relationship to sin, it is the separation from which man was from God their loving father, that was death, and thanks be to our Lord, no man is under that penalty anymore.
This is universal reconciliation- it is finished.
However, for it to become real for you or for me, or to others, to know what it means daily to walk in that knowledge of God's love, and that we are not what we do, but who we are now in Christ Jesus, there must come trust, reliance upon- faith, love to experience that, and bring it into our lives and the lives of those around us and the world we live in.
So, yes faith, has everything to do, with experiencing this grace, but has nothing to do with creating this grace for which Christ has freely given unto all men. It is when we begin to experience it, that is the meaning behind the word salvation, here, not there on the other side of the grave.
Jesus said that part - "It is Finished"... the rest He is still working out in us, through us, and by us, with Him in us, as we realize and walk in Him, knowing WE WERE IN HIM THEN and WE ARE IN HIM NOW.
Isn't it wonderful to experience so great a salvation, why would you want to exclude others with some false presentation of the gospel, which as Paul said it no gospel at all, instead tell them of God's universal reconciliation and that it belongs to them as well, and let them experience eternal life as well, right now.

Why make them wait until time to start for that is after they leave here, save God the work of having to tell them the story, when they stand in the presence of the one who reconciled us to Him, and they have to say, Geez I didn't know, and God will say, that's OK Son, now I will tell you and show you the GOOD NEWS....welcome!
Will there be a judgment, yes, and that is for another time, and another article, but it is the same as ours who have come to know Him, temporal and corrective, not eternal and punishment.


Joseph Black D.D.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Weeping Woman

John 20:11-14 (New American Standard Bible)

11 But Mary was standing outside the tomb weeping; and so, as she wept, she stooped and looked into the tomb;
12 and she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been lying.
13 And they said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him."
14 When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus.
15 Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?" Supposing Him to be the gardener, she said to Him, "Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him away."
16 Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned and said to Him in Hebrew, "Rabboni!" (which means, Teacher).


Please note, Mary first stated something that was correct her observation, it was fact, Jesus body was gone! So she wept, she was in despair, perhaps she thought if she could but see Him just one more time, she could get back that sense of His presence, of Him before He died.

It wasn't Mary's speaking something that was lack of faith, the mouth does speak what the heart believes and is most often based on truth on observable facts, what we see the facts are.
Yet, there is a deeper truth, we are to see, and learn. It goes beyond our intellect, it reaches down into our hearts and sets us free!

Yes, truth was Jesus had died, that was a fact, she was right to say that and believe that, He was no longer in her presence, she had that correct as well, His body was gone, she had that correct, and she wanted to know His presence again even if He was just a lifeless body. She had this wrong, because the Father had a grander plan then she could comprehend.

She wanted to know His presence again, so much, that she told Jesus while not yet,knowing who He was, "tell me where you have laid His body, and I will take Him away!"

I know the hardest part for me, of my first wife's death, was when they put her body into the ground. When she was there in the casket, I could still look at her with my eyes, touch her if I wanted to, but the reality comes to your heart when they lower that casket into the ground and your last sight of them is laid away. The grave separated me from her presence. Unlike we practice, burying our loved ones under the ground, the Hebrews buried above the ground, one could still go to the grave and see their loved one, touch them, and gain some sense of remembrance of them. Perhaps sense their presence again.

She knew he was dead, she stood there at the cross, saw it happen, and his body was no longer where she had prepared it after He was dead, it's was gone.
Where's my dead Jesus?
That is what her heart was asking, and she spoke what was on her heart?
Where she went from there, is where we often go in our own faith and understanding of the Gospel. We know the facts of what pain we are in, we know Jesus, but all of a sudden we have forgotten the Gospel, the truth of the "exchanged life."

Many times like many of you, I have found myself at the hard places in life, because I failed to see who I am in Him and to realize that, No, He is not dead.
He is here, present right now not just a memory but in reality.
He is very much alive, I in Him and Him in me.

We often like Mary Magdalene, get so focused either on the Jesus of history, Jesus on the cross, that it clouds our minds and just like Mary, we see only His death on the cross. If that is all we see of Jesus, and nothing beyond the cross, we have it wrong in the first place and unbelief only magnifies from there into every area of our life.
We begin to believe, well He is not here, I will just be what I have always been, a stinking sinner until He comes or suffer the pain of this life alone.
He is in His heaven and I am stuck here on this earth. Maybe if I try a little harder, I can get from here to there. So, we leave our first love.
Remember, we didn't love Him first, we love Him now because He first loved us.

The Good News is - He has come, he is present now, standing right there with you, in you, and as you desiring to live through you everyday. You are in Him.
No, I am not saying we are Jesus, but we are so in union with Him by what He has done, we are of one Spirit with Him joined to Him forever.
Jesus is all the time right here in our presence.
I am not saying that the cross isn't an important part of the overall Gospel, but the cross is not the whole Gospel. Christ didn't come to keep us from going to hell, he came and broke down it's doors and got us out of what we were already in, sin and death (hell).

The living, the resurrected Jesus, the exchanged life we now have in Him, should be the center of our trust as well as knowing what we were, that old self, was already put to death at the cross. He didn't go to the cross, to be beat up by God, He went there out of love, to rescue us from our sin, our nature of the old man, the flesh. We killed Him with our sin, and he died because of His love.

Just like Mary, too often we don't know His presence, because all we see is forgiveness of sin instead of our death to the sin nature, she knew His forgiveness, He had rescued her from the life of death she was living as a demoniac, and those circumstances would have led to her being stoned to death or remaining cast off from who considered themselves, good.
She loved much because she had been forgiven much. Jesus had showed her a glimpse of what was too come, and what was happening around her. He gave her a glimpse of what would be after the cross and resurrection for her life. Victory.

She just didn't know how much He really loved her, that He would never abandon her, and He would never leave her without His presence.
He wouldn't leave her to her own strength to deliver herself from a life that she once lived, where the dark powers of evil could destroy that which God loved. Forgiveness alone doesn't give us deliverance from the power of what we were and the powers that brought it about.
Jesus not only had forgiven us his life offered that, he had to die, to remove the who we were, and destroy that evil in us, that made life evil. He had to be resurrected to make a new who we are. God was expressing his love toward us, not punishing us, in Christ. We still don't get that one, right, because of a lot of false teaching on who God is. We hang onto shadows, and Old Testament revelation which was not a clear picture of the God of love. It is in Christ, that we come to understand and gain the clear picture of the Father and who He is. So John could say, God is love.

Jesus was to be gone but for that short time of the grave.
She like the disciples and us many times, did not hear or do we hear, for He said He would die, but be raised up in three days.
We too often because of wrong teaching and relying on our experiences in life, treat His resurrection as something that only has meaning for when we die, sometime way out there in the future and all we are left with is a dead Jesus!
A Jesus that forgives, but that's it. We have to wait until later in the future to get anything else. I want to say, right now, "what we have now, is what we will have then, so if you don't have it now, don't expect it later."

The Old Testament had a means for the Hebrews to receive forgiveness from God, but it could never remove the consciousness of sin. It couldn't remove the power of sin, the law (religion), or the consequences of sin, which is death (spiritual separation from our Creator God). It could only offer forgiveness for a short time for the sin. The priest had to come back year after year to provide forgiveness.
It was limited forgiveness to one people, the Hebrews or those Gentiles who accepted the one true God. God had a grander plan in mind.
No, He did much more than just offer us forgiveness, but what He did was become the more perfect sacrifice, rather then the blood of bulls and goats, He was the perfect lamb of God, that would remove the stain of sin, the consciousness of sin, the power of sin, and it's consequences and make a new creation. No longer would the Old Adam represent God's creation but the new Adam - Christ would.
He would become sin, He would take what we were, upon Himself. He was the propitiation for our sins and deliver us from that nature, that power, the consequence.

We don't realize that when we look at the cross that is who we use to be, we look at His resurrection and that is who we are.

Rather than perceiving the Good News, the entirety of the full Good News, as if we are sitting at the docks of despair, and weeping, thinking that some day the ship will arrive. We need to realize who we are now, that we have been raised by Him into newness of life already. The ship has arrived and we are on it!
We are headed on our journey home and the boat we are on, is home. His name is Jesus.

We are completely new creations because He died, because He lives, because He has joined Himself to us before the cross in his life, He was a human, at the cross he died as a human but even more he died the death that we won't have to- complete and utter separation from God in that moment of time, and in the resurrection he was raised as a God, and we are one in Him, forever more.
This doesn't make us "a god," as some have twisted that to mean, it shows we are loved of God and precious to Him as children, brethren and sisters of Christ and children. Made to be Sons of God, not the Son of God.

You know, we say we believe in Jesus, but aren't we just often acknowledging the Jesus of history. We often play this number in our heads due to a lot of poor teaching and religion stealing our first love away.
"Yes, I believe He died and was resurrected, but we like Mary are saying to ourselves and others - "they have stolen his body away, He's gone."
We desire and need to know the presence of that love again, when I saw my forgiveness in Him. We started on the right train, but somewhere after we saw we were forgiven by Him, we didn't get the whole message because religion crept in and stole even that little bit of revelation that God had given us, that by faith we could be forgiven, then started right back into trying to appease God. He is already pleased with us, in His Son. Rest in it.

This was the Jesus that made Mary weep, he was not only dead in her mind, but his body, her explanation or "theology" was that is body had to have been stolen.
She fell under the magic of the lie, that the soldiers were to tell everybody as to why His body was no longer there. They were to tell everyone that some of his disciples had stole the body away in the night.

Then she turns around, and there He is, she doesn't recognize Him.

One of the beautiful parts of this story, is, He didn't chide her, and say to her, "Mary quit being a sinner, where's your faith."
No, He so loves her, He show first His concern for her.
He loves her with the love of the Father, His heart feels her pain, and He ask "Woman, why are you weeping? then He ask something the angels didn't ask -
"Whom are you seeking?"
Jesus gets right to the heart of her heart, her concern, He knew she wasn't crying over just anything, but that she was seeking Him.
He doesn't continue after that, to say anything, He stops and let's her tell him why she weeps.
He listens to her desire to know His presence once again.
She was even ready to go to the extent to gain that presence again, that if this stranger had his body she would come and take His body away.

What a difference that makes doesn't it, He doesn't attack her evaluation of the situation, or her inability to recognize Him, or that she believes His body has been stolen, or any of that.
He spoke first to her out of love. He expresses His love, He knows what is on her heart, He allows her to speak, and then something changes her, something, drastically happens, something opens her eyes to see Him.
He says her name- "Mary" and she with that one word her own name spoke from the lips of the one she so desired to know His presence again, the scales of blindness, that just moments before kept her from recognizing Jesus fall off. She awakes from the facts of only what she has observed and imagined to see that which was unseen just moments before, she recognizes it is Him.
Rabboni! She exclaims...
Her heart is lifted into the heavenlies, her smile returns, her sadness turns to joy, and suddenly her tears are wiped away, and she finds there is no more pain and death.

You know I have found in my life, when I got into those places of mistrust, or started believing the lies again that He is not present, my heart would be hurting, my heart would be breaking, I how I longed to know His presence again, that's when Jesus comes to me me, and He ask me, "Man, why are you weeping?" and He doesn't stop there, He knows why I am weeping, He ask, "Whom are you seeking?"
Then He looks at me with those tender eyes and love permeates His being, and He speaks to me, and says, "Joe!"
My heart is lifted and my countenance restored. Oh! Glory to God in the highest.

It is then when my mind and heart recognize He is alive, and I realize that the resurrection of Him is true and as real for me, as it was for Mary, and like Mary, I cry out "Rabboni," which means Teacher. It cries out Savior, It cries out my King, it cries out my life.

Isn't it wonderful, the best Teacher in the world, is not one who hits us with a ruler, and tells us "behave now, do it right or I will send you to hell."
No! That is not my king of glory.
My king comes along in my pain and in my hurt and says, "why do you weep, whom do you seek."
I am alive, here, now in your presence. I know that because I hear my name at Calvary, I hear my name that day in the Garden, I hear my name spoken by Him before the Father. What wondrous love is this.
He is our ever present Teacher and our ever present life.
We are not what we do, but we are - who He is.
Our behavior doesn't define us.
Our misbehavior, our mistrust at times, It doesn't change His love for us and His desire for us to know His presence. He didn't leave us alone. We don't have an evil twin in us, We have Jesus!

Jesus didn't look at Mary and judge her for not knowing what happened at the cross, and for not understanding the resurrection, neither did Jesus chastise Mary for not recognizing Him while His presence was right there with her.
He made His presence known to her, this is what He does for us, when our focus becomes, the cross, as if that is all He was to do, was to die for our sins and give us forgiveness of sin, then go to heaven and leave us here without His presence, then we miss the full picture of that death and the resurrection.
He is still right here present right now. Oh! that we might grasp a clearer revelation of the resurrection as well.
2 Corinthians 5:21
"He ( speaking of God) made Him (speaking of Jesus) who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we (that's you and me) might become the righteousness of God in Him..

He didn't die to be punished for our sins, he died, to be "sin on our behalf "so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

This is what happened at resurrection we were in Him then as well.

He gave us His righteousness.

Colossians 1:22
yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach--

He was resurrected so...

Romans 6:4
Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

Ephesians 2:6 (New American Standard Bible)
6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

Right here, right now.

It is a free gift from a loving God who doesn't expect us to be something we aren't instead He takes that which we were, and kills it, at the cross and gladly gives us, what He is in the resurrection.
Do you realize, you are in Him - right now in heavenly places. A partaker of His divine nature, a holy nation, a royal priesthood. You didn't make yourself that, He did, and He doesn't see us any different when we forget who we are in Him.
God is not looking down on you, and saying "get it right,"
He is not shaking his finger at you, when you fall into mistrust of the Gospel.
He is saying "It is finished"...and He raps it all up in Revelation with "It is done."

What is faith, it is the trusting in the shared death, resurrection and life we now have in Him. It is seeing the power of love and He that is love.
It isn't seeing His presence as way off there in heaven somewhere.
Nor are we waiting for Him to come to fix us or the world. Yes, He will raise us up in the last day, to have everything he has, immortality. The rest He has spoken already.
He said "it is finished." Trust those words. Trust Him!

He is constantly reminding us, bringing to our sight, the truth of the Gospel saying, I am alive and so aren't you. He speaks our name to us reminding us, of His eternal love for us.

Despair, grief and sin in our lives overwhelms us at times, because we haven't heard Him speak our name- He is right here in our presence, right now, resurrected and alive, in you and in me and we are in Him.. and the really cool thing is, He doesn't waste His time to chide us or condemn us for times of mistrust, instead He speaks to His in His language, of who He is. God is love!

Mary discovered that day, that Jesus is alive, have you? That Jesus loved her so much she had not abandoned her.

Or are you still trying to figure out somehow, someway, to make it look like you believe that, by religious effort, living in unbelief of the death and resurrection, living in your unbelief, that He is not here, with you in the midst of your troubles or even your mistrust at times. Perhaps you have never met the Jesus I am speaking of. I hope I have introduced Him to you, for those who have met Him, He hasn't left you here as twins, one evil one and one good one.
He has made a new man, woman or child of you in His Son. He is your life now.

He is here, we are in Him and He in us.


Hear him speak your name there at the garden as He did Mary's name.

He will I promise, in the midst of the darkest hours we experience, look at us, and say, Why do you weep, whom do you seek? and then He WILL speak our name, because He is so closely connected to us, He understands our desire to know His presence in our life everyday. He is here right now with you and with me, speaking our names, saying I am alive, and so are you.
Mary got the answer, and her weeping was turned into joy.

Love all encompassing love, touched her heart with those words of compassion, as opposed to words of condemnation, He brought her beyond just the forgiveness she knew, He brought her Himself, again, raised from the death she so feared had taken Him away. She realized He was the Victor over sin and death, and He said "I am here Mary, it is I." Just like Peter heard him say as the waves crashed about Him. It is I. I am not ghost, I am the living resurrected conqueror over sin and death.
Isn't it great that He knows my name and your name and all of those to which He died for, all those to which He was raised for, and all of those to which He has poured out His Spirit for, and all those for which are joined to Him in Holy Matrimony, His Bride! Come let us enjoy our honeymoon with Him.

Dr. J.