New Blog Site

I have started up a new blog site, that is devoted to Christian discourse.
The purposes to which is explained in the first article there written.
I have sent out some invitations to some of my readers. If you feel that you would like to be not just a reader but a commentator and would like to add articles to the blog, but weren't invited in the first send out of invitations, then just send me an email and I will add you. The only restriction to being a member is you must be a Christian already. The site is for the purpose of discussion on Christianity, it's practices and more. This site, doesn't exclude anyone because of their denomination, it does exclude those that may be Atheistic, Agnostic or just want to disparage individual believers in Christ. It however will contain many writings, questions and polls, that may not fall in line with mainstream Western ideological teachings and practices as interpreted by Organized religion in America or elsewhere for that matter. I can promise you it will be orthodox in the sense it will be based on scripture, but not necessarily the mess of scripture that many men and the institution of "church" has made it become in a lot of areas for 1900 years. It will be based on the one true foundation of Christ and His Apostles.

It isn't for those who are sold on the idea that we already know it all or have the answers, because it is clear that no of us do. There are some truths that are apparent when we remove our rose colored glasses and quit having tunnel vision.

The purpose of the site is for those who hunger more for God and less of "religion" and it's practices. It's purpose is for those that still have questions and need answers to things they find difficult to understand either in Scripture or "church practices". It's purpose is so that we may disciple one another, and for those that feel God has endowed them with the gift of teaching by discourse as well. Discourse or discussion is whereby we all learn, not by just listening and being silent on a bench somewhere. Christ intended and practiced discourse, the Apostles did and many labelled Christian groups that formulated in Christian history did as well. Most of which have been stifled by the Clergy/Laity power hungry institution of organized religion, who feel they only hold a corner of the truth.

Truth is arrived at by believers when they turn to being instructed by the Holy Spirit and Scripture first and foremost and then by discussion and relationship with other believers.
Let us look at one specific scripture that gave me the momentum in my own Christian life after spending years of hearing various doctrines, denominations and practices proclaimed by mere man who told me what to beleive or practice because of either position, title or education. They thought they were to be the interpreter of Christian truth for me.

I have spent 48 years of my life in the pursuit of truth to that which is already mine in Christ, but it wasn't until I fell on my knees before the Father in my bedroom in 1977, that God put me on a course, of His teaching me, that I have never regretted. It wasn't until that moment that I cried out to the Lord and said, "Teach Me, O Lord that I might not sin against you".
It has been a joy ride since with the Lord at the wheel of my life. There have been ups and downs and fiery trials as well as blessings, but God is teaching me and I am still learning. I haven't arrived yet but I press on to the goal. Our ultimate purpose in this life is to glorify Him and to be conformed to His image and His image alone.

Let's look at 1 John 2:27

7 And as for you, the anointing which ye received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any one teach you; but as his anointing teacheth you; concerning all things, and is true, and is no lie, and even as it taught you, ye abide in him.

The problem doesnt lie in us being taught by the Holy Spirit, and to fear that we will somehow get off base and become cultic is a false proposition so often used by the power in the institution of the church to keep "Christians" ignorant and under thier thumbs.
The problem lies in that we are lazy and it's easier for us to rely on others to tell us what truth is, when all along we have the "Spirit of Truth" living within us, if we are His.
I John surely gives us the guidelines in which to determine if we are His or not. Not many, if they read this book which in my opinion holds some of the strongest doctrinal guidelines who and what a Christian is, that most people ignore it, because they would find themselves outside of it's defining Apostolic doctrines.
They would find their lives examined by the Holy Spirit as coming short of being nothing more than religious and still fooled into thinking they might save themselves through works righteousness, church membership, tithing and a million other qualifiers added by the traditions of men.

The admonition for us to practice discourse for us as a believer, allows us to test everything, but it doesnt mean just because someone else comes along and tries to tell you that you are wrong or has another argument, that you just accept what they have to say. What you believe in your heart, that God the Father has taught you through the indwelling person of Jesus Christ and given to you by his Holy Spirit, no man will ever get you to depart from it.
There are no arguments that men can present to tear you away from truth that you actually know in your heart versus what you may have been taught in your head.

All beliefs, that are really settled in us, are both experiential and taught beliefs. We cannot rely on just one or the other. We must have a balance to arrive at the truth of the two. We must not rule out teachings or doctrines over the experential or experential over the teachings and doctrines we have in our lives.
If one goes to one side or the other and only that, error is apt to happen. Thus, there are many that live the Christian life in error, because they have never looked deeper than what they have been taught and most often have disregarded their own experiences. There are others that are in error because of experiences only, that cannot be documented by good scriptural exegesis or proper interpretation, have lived their lives based on them, they wish not to be taught. All that matters is their experiences. Both sides are open weapons for the enemy to use against us.

God is not a liar, he is truth and He expects us to walk in that truth. You must first desire it above all things. You must desire it above your positions, your titles, your education, your previous learning, your occupation it must be above all else, before the Father will allow you to learn what He has been teaching you all along. Come to me as a child.
A child knows nothing on it's own, and is totally dependent upon it's parents. If your life is not abundant in the joy of knowing the Lord and it depends on anything else other than Him, than you are headed down a wrong path, a broad road to destruction. If you were stripped of all that you had today in life, would you still have the joy of knowing Him alone.
I have been close at times, to having nothing but Him and I can't say that I always had that joy that the Apostles knew even in the midst of affliction. I am on that path. I want to love him more than anything in this world including my own physical life. I don't think any of us can say we have arrived there yet. The more I learn of Him the more it grows though. The more He becomes the most important thing to me over all this life could offer. Over riches, success, recognition, power, title or position. I desire Him alone above all else.

Faith is not blind devotion to any one teaching or interpretation, True faith is based on truth which encompasses more then living on the crumbs that you have been fed under a church, denomination or any one teacher. You must study to show yourselves worthy. Study involves discourse, looking at all sides of a question and not settling in until the truth is arrived at. Words, doctrines, denominations, or any of the religious things we can crowd our lives with can ever provide for us what God can do in intimate relationship with Him. Jesus knew that relationship, it wasn't a superficial relationship, it wasn't religious devotion, it wasn't because he had been taught to pray, he was at all times concious of the Father's presence. Thus, he was constantly found praying through the night on the Mount of Olives moved by the Spirit of God to make intercession, thanks, and to recieve encouragement from the only source that is needed, the Father.

I found in my journey those things that weren't truth, the Holy Spirit did eventually remove from me, and replace with teaching from Him. Often some new teachings that come along are at best old misconceptions, errors but for sure aren't new. To give you an example the "Health, Wealth and Prosperity message it isn't new, it wasn't some special revelation from Kenneth Hagin, it is an old spiritual error as old as can be, that became popularized by our present culture of materialism, the desire for wealth and worldly success. Kenneth Hagins teachings are nothing more than plagiarism from teachings, that he had read, that go way back that are a hodgepodge mixture of paganism, metaphysics, christian scientistism,and other cultic teachings.
Their foundations are found in a false teacher named E.W. Kenyon. To understand where E.W. Kenyon got them, you have to study him and his development of the false doctrines he taught. Most people never question what they are taught they just go with the flow and never doubt. I am glad God brought me to a place to doubt in my life at times.
One of the best books I have read that documents all this is a book entitled " A Different Gospel, by D. R. McConnel. His excellent research and scriptural knowledge assited me in finding my way out of this false teaching back in 1986. I like most, was attracted to it's positive thinking and success message, and I actually was a preacher of this false doctrine at one time in my ministerial life, to which I am ashamed to admit to now. God has forgiven me and taught me truth to eliminate that spirit of error, that the enemy had subtely led me into. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak, and no one understands our flesh more than the enemy and he is constantly standing in the corridors of our lives awaiting the opportune time to appear as an "angel of light".

The origins of the Health, Wealth and Prosperity message in my opinion are from the depths of Satan's kingdom- this world and are as false a doctrine that can be found today in any cultic circles across the world. It's propagators -preachers and teachers, the Copelands, the Benny Hinns, the TBN'er's, the Robert Tilton's and the new "Golden Boy" out of Houston - Joel Osteen, have either just been decieved as I was or as in many cases I discovered they chose to decieve and be decieved for the profit and power of it. There is tremendous personal financial profit and worldly success available in teaching the people with "itching ears". Make people feel good about the sin their are committing and turn into a "good news" and they will leap on it by the droves and pour their money into it and all they have, because it is founded on lust of the flesh, lust of the eye, and the pride of life.

Paul warned of them in scripture "who peddle the Word of God for profit". What sounds good doesn't always make for holiness and scriptural truth. The HW&P message is so far off base scripturally and orthodox Christianity if anyone spends anytime in the Bible it won't be long before you doubt it's message and are converted from this spirit of error. The Word of God does correct but sometimes we need the assistance of hearing the other side of the argument to arrive at the Word really has to say.
The sad part of it is most of the American churches have bought into at least a portion of the HW&P message, if not all of it.

One will usually find God will correct you on these things if you have a teachable spirit and if you are His. Matter of fact, He will correct you anyway even when you are not very teachable, because of His love for you as "His child".
I don't know it all, I surely don't have His wisdom, but the things He has taught me, I am as sure of as the letters on this page. No one but Him could tell me any different. The Christian life and learning is made up of many variables. Scripture, mysticism,(not in the New Age sense of the word) but in the sense that God speaks to us outside of the norm of the real world of just our 5 senses at times, he speaks to us in the quiet of our room and our heart, our interaction with other believers, our personal experiences as a believer, as we are individually His, and our search for truth is propelled by His Spirit within us to become founded in Him.
It was Jesus who said "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and all these other things will be added unto you". How often do we really take the time from our materialistic lives to actually seek Him first. We live life backwards. We come looking for the things rather than God most of the time, and thus it is easy to be swayed by the false teachers to offer you the things of this life, rather than a relationship with Christ.
My awakening over the years as a believer has never come outside of intense study of scripture first and reading it without coming to it with pre-conceived ideas of what it says before I read it. You must empty your prejudices, suppositions and all that you have been taught if you wish to be taught by God the Father, by the Holy Spirit.
This is the purpose of Dialegomai (the greek word for "discourse", that has been so often mis-translated as preaching). Discourse is two sided conversation not one sided speaking or teaching. Isaiah 1:18 - "Come now, and let us reason together, saith Jehovah: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool".
Note: to even come to salvation, God uses our reasoning with him, to bring us into salvation. God calls us, we begin to reason and then He teaches us in that discourse with Him on what our problem is ( sin) and His solution for it. Grace and mercy through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Once we are born again, God never discontinues that discourse, for the one thing that we have which is in the image of God is the ability to reason. No other animal of God's creation can reason, they act on instinct or taught behavior alone. God gave us not an individual will so much as he gave us the ability to reason. That reasoning is our gift from God and to shut it down and be silent reduces us to nothing more than any other animal on earth that can be taught by it's master, it's environment or it's biological needs to behave in a certain manner. Thus the clergy -laity system propagates lazy Christians. Why should they study for themselves, why should they read the Bible themselves, why should they attempt to find the real meaning by certain passages, all these things have been interpreted for them, and it's easier that way, to just rely on them, rather than to reason, to seek God first, to dig into matters, and get after the meat. The flesh is happy with a superficial Christian or a "carnal Christian". The flesh relishes having someone else reason for you rather than exercise the one gift God gave mankind that no other animal on earth has regardless of what the evolutionist try to tell us.
I still have never seen a monkey sit down at a piano write and compose some of the most beautiful music your ears will ever hear. I have never seen a monkey paint a picture that revealed the beauty of a scene that God has created. I have never seen a monkey speak words to inspire or write to inspire others. It is our power to reason that sets us above all of creation as a creature it's basis comes from God and Him alone. So, I invite you to become a part of this continued reasoning that we will be on a journey of until He calls us home and all our questions will be answered standing in the presence of His love for eternity. Our new blog is called
Dialegomai and can be found as an invited member at http://christian-discourse.blogspot.com/
Once again if you want to be an important part of this blog, and would like to actually take part in discourse and reasoning and learn from others as well as the motivation to look further into God's Word and history and more and want to join and have not recieved an email of invitation, send email to me at jwblack49@aol.com

Dr. J.

Our Intellect and Purpose Founded in Christ

I have recently noted that my readership has increased worldwide, literally. I take this information, weighing even more a greater responsibility for my readers to gain truth and enlightment in all areas of importance to us. I believe it is my duty, to expel the darkness with the light of truth whereever I may. Thus the purpose of this news blog is to do just that. To cause people, to wake up, and think for themselves for once and begin to examine all of life outside of their tunnel vision, their rose colored glasses and most of all to follow the admonition of God's Word, which says to have a transformation of the mind. To no longer think as the unsaved, and heathen do. This often requires you to let go of everything you were ever taught or heard, to be open to the Holy Spirit, to hear the small still voice of God, that gives you the ability to discern good (His good) from evil ( this Babylonian system of lies conjured up by Satan and loved by the flesh).
Truth does matter!
Even Pilate wanted to know the truth, for he asked Jesus, "what is truth?".
The truth stood right there in front of his eyes, yet because he held the tunnel vision of power, greed and supremacy, and because of his own fleshly desires,he could not see it.
We as Christians should NEVER accept anything at face value. We need to always question, and question some more, until God opens our eyes to see Jesus, and the truth about matters in this life and the life to come.
I believe Christians should be the most wise people in the world. For if they have prayed and sought God, they will be provided His wisdom. This wisdom applies to everyday life and decisions, and if we hear Him and act accordingly we can live our lives in His will, with His guidance and His direction, and His truth. This doesn't mean though they are to be the most properous, healthy, etc, that the propagaters of that lie teach. It means that even in poverty, or sickness, we will have an understanding and peace of mind, that is beyond understanding.
I seek truth in prayer and in hearing God everyday. His truth often so goes against the grain of the average persons thinking, that it makes them angry, at me. It often even shocks my senses and flesh, and I have to look to God to explain, I have to explore, I have to question and seek Him again, to reason with me.
Didn't Jesus say, if they persecuted me they will persecute you?
I believe as carriers of the truth, bearers of the torch of light, we must speak out, and must be willing to accept the hatred of others for doing so.
I believe that in all matters of life, whether it be history, politics, theology, or any other OLOGY that man wants to come up with, we should be those that hold truth to the highest level. We should not have tunnel vision, wear rose colored glasses and be moved by every little whim and doctrine of men. I believe at some point if we are growing as a beleiver, we will come to a settled place in our acceptance of Christ and His teachings and we should no longer be fooled by the lies of the enemy, our flesh, or the world. I believe that often we will stand in direct contradiction of the most popular opinion on any matter, because we have been taught by the Creator, the one who holds all the history of men in His hands, whether it be, history past or history to come. He already knows it and He is allowing it to transpire so that in the end, every tongue shall confess that "Jesus Christ is Lord".
We often have questions as we start out as Christians, we often wonder about things.
I say to you new Christian, that is fine, God wants and intends for you to reason with Him, but He also wants to enlighten your reasoning processes, so you can see Him. In the book of Job, we see this, and we see finally Job exclaiming, I have heard of you, but today, my eyes have seen the Lord. Job had a paradigm shift of thinking but it came as a result of reasoning with God, who showed himself to Job, with questions that were really statements of God's sovereignty. God is sovereign and there will be things in your life, that you will have to leave in his hand of sovereignty. I have been in a learning process of that for the last 6 years, for see, I lost my first wife, in a tragic but strange accident. We would have been married 27 years come that January 2002, when she was killed 2 days before Thanksgiving in 2001 by a horse that stepped into the path of our car on an Interstate highway. I have had a million questions why? I have cried, and questioned and I can only come to one conclusion- God's sovereign will, who am I that He has to give me an answer on that one, other than He is God and for me to trust Him. I admit, I still have struggles with this and have had nightmares, anxiety attacks, flashbacks and more to that day.
It was horrible and tragic, and slowly but surely I will recoup, but it still hurts to lose someone you love so dearly and not to question the Father, with Why?
Was it not the Father himself, who said, "Come let us reason together"? I believe more than emotion, or popular opinion, we should use the intellect to which God gave us, to reason things out with Him. Our intellect is what God gave us, that separates us from all other animals. Now, I admit that intellect has been deeply darkened, and is lost in the shadows of sin. It fell, when Adam fell.
However, when the Father gives us the new birth as new creations, something should be stirring within us, that makes us, ask questions, never asked before, and God intends this. He wants us to question our pre-birth thought structure, beliefs, customs and way of life. He desires we obtain the mind of Christ. We can, as we spend time in relationship with Him through the Holy Spirit, the Written Word of God, and the experiences He provides us after our new birth acquire TRUTH.
Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life.

How often we forget, he came to radically change us, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. However, it begins spiritually, then proceeds mentally then to balance our souls emotionally.
I often write about things, that 10 years ago, I would have never written, for I differed no more than the average person on matters, for I had not had MY thinking transformed as greatly as it has been today. I have spent since age 6, reading my Bible, asking questions, that God wanted to answer, but it wasn't until about 10 years ago I became willing to set aside my prejudics, my bias, and my traditions. Traditions -those things I had been taught by men and not by God. God couldn't get through to me, until, I laid it all down and said Jesus, you are my King - teach me, and give me a willing heart to listen, that I began to have the greatest shift of paradigm of thought that I could ever have experienced. Something that would never have happened, if I would have just continued to go along with the crowd, the majority thought, the religious traditions of men. Until you are willing to really step out in faith, and say I am willing to face persecution, and hatred by even those who you considered family and friends, you aren't yet willing to suffer with Christ. You will suffer lies made up about you, accusations, persecutions, name calling and more. Most of it coming from those that are the most "religious".
Just as Jesus suffered it, you will too. It becomes the discipline to drive you to your knees before the Father, and say, not my will, but YOUR WILL BE DONE!
It will test your flesh to the maximum, it will take every bit of the restraint of the Holy Spirit within you to keep you from relying on the flesh and wanting to strike back, injure those who injure you, insult those who insult you, get back at those who have used you.
People ask me often about different circumstances that have happened in my life, they ask the question, why didn't you do this or that to them, why didnt you sue, why didnt you hit them back, why didnt you attack them back, why didnt you return "tit for tat", why didnt you "take and eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth"
I have only one answer - Jesus.
Jesus within me, wouldnt allow it. The Holy Spirit restrained me, and I learned from it to rely upon my Father. He is the great judge of all men, and I leave judgement and vengeance to Him. Jesus never answered insult with insult or injury with injury, he put Himself wholeheartedly into the hands of the Father.
This doesnt mean, I have learned to do this absolutely perfectly, but I am learning. I am learning to let go and let Jesus. As Paul said, "not that I have yet reached perfection, but I press on to the goal, the prize, the high calling in Christ Jesus.
This is our purpose, to become molded into the very image and likeness of Him, we have no other purpose in life above this. God is building His eternal dwelling place and it will be eternally within His people, but he can't as long as we aren't willing to let go. While we hold onto our own traditions, prejudices, bias, and our ways of thinking, or going along with the crowd, we will remain stifled, we will be quenching the Holy Spirit in our lives. We will remain stunted babies in Christ, when it is His purpose to bring us up to full maturity in Christ. God's intention for men- is to restore His glory and image in us! To restore man to His original intention, what is called the "Image of God".
Christ in you, the hope of glory.

So, when I write often, sometimes being not perfect, my flesh might jump into the writing. This stands true of everything we read or hear from others, pastors, teachers, great evangelist, none are perfect and neither am I. Thus the word of God tells us, "to hold onto that which is good and to abstain from that which is evil". We are to discern the two, we are to use reason, given by God, to separate out that which is evil and that which is of God's goodness, not our concept of good, because it was tainted at the Garden and has been ever since, until we seek His wisdom and guidance to truly comprehend holiness, goodness as defined by the Father, not defined by men we will remain confused and our minds in darkness.

We can only be taught when we have a teachable spirit before God, and not so much before men.
This can only be done when we realize our intellect must be transformed by the reading of the Word and in time spent with the Father to teach us. Time running to and fro from church to church, teacher to teacher, pastor to pastor, Bible school to Bible school, will never give us, what the Father can do in 10 minutes of quiet time before Him and the Word.
My transformation of intellect was radically changed when I analytically sat down and used the inductive method of study and begin to read and re-read the New Testament over 100 times. I asked the questions, who, what, when, where, why, and how. I begin to dig into His word, dig into understanding, researching Jewish thought and religious practices of the times, the way of life in the times, the culture, the theology, religions and more of the times.
I begin to see God's word through the eyes of the ancient early church, to see Paul and his ministry how it was directly opposed to the religions of the time, to understand how he assimilated with the Gentiles. I begin to think with an Eastern mind instead of the Western cultural mind that is so far from even comprehending these times, and life.
Once, this begins to happen, radical paradigm shifts of thinking will take place, you will now be able to grasp how outstanding these words are written for the testimony of Jesus. The Bible isn't a book to be worshipped, it is a book inspired by the Holy Spirit to lead us "to the testimony of Christ". Yes, there are some translational errors, there are some words added and taken away, but this in no way, changes what God the Father spoke, when the Word became flesh. The LOGOS of God, walked among men, died for men, and was resurrected for men, for all ages, all times, and forever.
The only answer to life, truth and the way can be found only in Yashua ( Jesus)!

I challenge your intellect, I challenge your traditions, your culture, your religion, your history, your politics, because Jesus did! He rattled the world with His coming, His words, His life, His death and His Resurrection. He still rattles the world intellectually, emotionally and spiritually, wherever Jesus really is, there will be true controversy, there will be men disagreeing.
The reason there is no truth outside of Him, and so those that so desparately cling to their idols, will be shocked, dismayed, and angry at His presence. They will do anything to hold onto their gods, rather than recognize Jesus as Lord.

I love Steve Brown, a theology professor at the Reformed Church Seminary in Florida, he said. "You should offend someone once a week". Meaning not that we go out and purposely look for someone to say something to make them mad, but if we have Jesus and He has us...someone is going to be offended by Christ, and most often it is the most religious of men. Jesus offended the Jews, the Pharisees and Rome.
Make Jesus your purpose in life- but here I post the warning sign, if you do "be prepared to make someone mad at you, to hate you and even perhaps want to kill you".
When Jesus has you, the world, the flesh and the devil get REAL UPSET with you, because all these things are contrary to the love of the Father.
It gets worse, as you discover truths in life, that no one wants to hear. Beware, the pearls you have to offer, will often result in you and them being trampled underfoot by those that will hate your pearls of truth and hate you as well.
"Through much tribulation we enter the Kingdom of God", as Luke wrote in the book of Acts.
May your tribulations be not consequences of your own misbehavior or lack of wisdom, but may they be, because you have given your intellect and purpose for life to Christ. We will all have those consequences which the Father uses as the hand of discipline, but he also is full of mercy, grace, compassion and truth, and will never discipline His children with the intent to destroy them, for He ultimately wants you to have life, eternal life, that only begins in Christ. He loves us so much that it often leaves me sitting in awe, that He is so kind to me and loving, when I often can be just the opposite. That's just it, we can't produce holiness within ourselves, it is something that only He can do within us, through His resurrected life lived out through us. One thing to know, when He does live His way out through us, He will offend someone by the way we live our lives. Let your intellect and your purpose be transformed by His light and Truth and know, that "all things work to the good of those who love God"!
Even the history, the politics, the evil going on, God is not without knowledge or purpose in it to work out His plan. The nations will bow before Him, for He is King and none other.

Dr. J.