Game Changer: Transition

     Every so often during our lifetime there are things that happen that I call a "game-changer."  It is when either an event of magnitude happens to change the course that you were or are on.  In a horse race it is the "long shot."  In poker it is the high stakes hand that changes the players, who stays in and who folds and is out.  Baseball the grand slam, football the hail mary. and so it goes.  Things rarely stay the same for a long long time before life changes for you.
     It is at this time that flight or fight kicks in and we can be forever changed by the event.
Christ was a game changer for the whole world.  The Romans didn't see him coming nor did the Jews.  Everything and anything he was around changed forever.  Likewise if we are to come into contact with the true Jesus, then you can expect to be changed,your views totally altered and your mentality takes a 360 to view the new world that you have just encountered.
    It is with caution that I say be careful because there are those within the way that will try and shape you to their idea of Christ and his doctrines.  One must have a little skepticism in regards to believing everything and everyone during this critical time of change.  New believers must be aware of truth not bent or maligned to an individual but must examine for themselves the truths Jesus spoke and you must eat the word and Jesus said, eat my body and drink my blood!  Quite barbaric?  The Jews misunderstood too.  If Jesus is the bread from heaven and gives ever lasting life then you must find out what that means.  It cannot embrace methods of churches nor can it embrace strictly doctrines or you will be a weak Christian and rely on others.  You are the one to open your eyes, I know I let others feed me way too many food groups within Christology and for some years now I have learned to listen in a quiet place and find out again just what that game changer apprehended me for.
  Now I am not saying be alone in your Christianity, just find a Christianity not imposing a man's will mixed with singular vision. It's so much more.  We must find it within ourselves to be as open and pliable as Jesus and take into consideration that what he did and said had limitations for us.  The guidelines he drew were non restrictive in that he did not require a man or woman to be forced into believing nor did I think he intend institutions to be that way either.  So if there is a church or type of one that says "this has to be the way it is" just be careful.  Everything I have read so far about the life Jesus led and the things he did were on a level of love for us.  While he  relieved us of certain sufferings and performed miracles to prove that the kingdom of God did exist and changed our misconceptions of God  he explained sometimes in parables  just what it was he was offering to us while we live here on this little blue ball.
     None of it included a divided church de-nominalized and fractured to the point of stagnation.  Nor did it include isolationist churches" better than they" so that it became internal and pregnant with it's own form of Christianity sometimes toxic to those who had pure hearts and searched for Jesus at all cost to themselves.  I was one of them.  It aborted it's own members as time went on and was blinded to the harm inflicted on the ones who labored in it for the sake of  "spot or wrinkle" showing up.  It was legalistic after all.
     Now for the good news after all of that.  It is possible to live as Christ intended and it takes time to let the Holy Spirit do this in you.  If and when we rub shoulders with all there is on this planet of ours then we either become bigoted against what it is we think we do not want to be or we let the game change us and find that the passions and ideas that we foment within can be toned down to the point of no offense as did Jesus. So what if we do not agree politically or socially with another?  So what if we do not agree with lifestyles in the open?  Do we take a stand?  Carry a sign and protest?  We could but in its temporal form it will be with us until this world ends.  There are fights to do this in at times when repression or lives are at stake.  But in day to day living finding a fight does not necessarily win the day.
     So how do new Christians deal with the many things that come at them like a bounding snow-ball?
Jesus is patient and he will allow things in our lives to temper us and to not become extreme.  One of the many facets of Christianity has been like a diamond.  Within many churches that hold to certain ways of worship there have been those that really love God and spurn rigidity and so I feast on it wherever I find it.  Like a good desert it will  satisfy and we can be assured that there are many thousands of people that serve Christ purely and so you will find a part of Christ's  body there.
     Church hopping today is I would guess is prevalent because no one is willing to totally be out there and risk it all or they just have not tasted the desert yet!   Hunger is one of the strongest of urges we have aside from sex and it will drive us to find the truth.
     Jesus offered the woman at the well water of life to thirst no more.  She met the real deal.
"Blessed are those who believe and have not seen," Jesus said.  So we are blessed when we let  the high stakes poker hand come our way and change us forever. Though it is not easy to follow.
IXOYE.
   

One step and into another kingdom: FAITH

     Alternate universes need not be thought of as far away or impossible to enter into.  Side by side realities exist right now,right here on earth.  What? You say? How is this possible?  Listen to some of these words spoken by...you know who...John 8:23

But he continued, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.

John 8:22-24 

1. John 13:36
   Simon Peter asked him, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus replied, “Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.”
   John 13:35-37 (in Context) John 13 (Whole Chapter) Other Translations

Result pages:33 

Do you know the laws of the heavens?
    Can you set up God’s[a] dominion over the earth? (Job)

Footnotes

     

     So as our wonderful scientists delve further into the smallest particles "The God Particle" or Higgs-boson there are physical laws not working as they should and were broken by Jesus 2000 + years ago.

 Water into wine... compound change, increased matter... (bread and fish to feed many more people than the food they originally had on hand.  Elements silenced...stormy seas and lightening calmed by a word.  Peter walking on a liquid surface.  Jesus walking through the door and appearing as what "a changeling, and morphing back into someone the disciples could recognize?  The brightest of bright white lite as he transfigured on a mount. 

     Paul taken up to a third heaven whether in body or not he did not know. Enoch and Elijah taken alive into the heavens before witnesses.  And so the list ever grows to shape a mystery not easily understood.  

     There is yet another mystery, Faith.  By faith men were healed and by faith those first disciples received from heaven the Spirit ( an invisible spirit) that caused them to speak in other tongues. They were witnesses of the Messiah  The Son of God, who came from another place, dimension or reality (yet born of a virgin) we cannot see with our eyes.  But yet by faith we take one step by belief and enter into another kingdom with different rules and different physical properties right here, right now and find ourselves caught up in a fabulous world  that God had intended from the beginning.  Healings now apprehended, wisdom and peace found.  Answers to hard questions answered.  Will we still suffer and be in this world?  Yes but with an advocate who went through everything possible and then.....raised from the dead. And we also will raise and be like him.......What kind of body? A spiritual body Paul says... of flesh transformed like Jesus and glorified somehow able to eat food again and live forever. Fantastic!

Defying Caesar's decrees: There is another king!

     They are all defying Caesar’s decree saying that there is another king, one called Jesus.”8 When they heard this, the crowd and the city officials were thrown into turmoil.
     GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, CUBA –  The commander of the Guantanamo Bay naval base decided Wednesday to move Nativity scenes from two dining halls following complaints that the decorations improperly promoted Christianity.

"They are terrified. Right now, there is a witch hunt going on to find out who did this," said Weinstein, a former Air Force lawyer who said the troops wanted to remain anonymous.

"By placing these displays in prominent common areas, the impression is that one faith is better than others and that the military institution singularly promotes Christianity," said the email, provided to The Associated Press by the organization without the names of the senders.

The senders said they put up with a great deal of hardship in their jobs, including having bodily fluids hurled at them by prisoners, and should not be made uncomfortable on their time off.

But other Jews were jealous; so they rounded up some bad characters from the marketplace, formed a mob and started a riot in the city.

     

     Let's compare notes!  Today we have this story headlined in the NY times suggesting persecution of sorts in that a display of the Nativity was aggressively promoting Christianity and not respecting others.  Lets look at this seriously...these are only representations of people who lived 2000 years ago.  It represents the birth of Christ.  Was there proselytizing going on? People to people? The article did not say so.  Could people think what they chose concerning the Nativity? Yes I think adults have the capacity to think for themselves.  But because of the power behind the Nativity and the IDEAS therein lies the problem.  

     Look at the trouble Paul stirred up when he began preaching the very gospel he used to persecute others for.  There is a behind the scenes spiritual power play going on every day for the fight for truth.  Even in the ridiculous.  Does Satan fear the name of Christ? You bet!  So it will always be repressed on every front on every battlefield so that there is a blackout of truth.  Funny though it was such a threat considering it is within a military compound of the world's strongest military that holds Muslim prisoners........though extremists in their own right. If in fact the MRFF Military Religious Freedom Foundation was correct in adhering to free and democratic principles as denoted by the Constitution and the founding fathers intention to separate church and state issues for fear of duplicating in this country what England tried to enforce, should mere viewing of the Nativity invoke such turmoil?  Surely Paul went to Prison and his death for more weighty matters. Such is American Christianity.  

From Every Nation Tongue and Tribe: Those who believe will be accepted:

     

     9 About noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. 10 He became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance.11 He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. 12 It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles and birds. 13 Then a voice told him, “Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.”

14 “Surely not, Lord!” Peter replied. “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.”

15 The voice spoke to him a second time, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”

     To the Jews these words spoken by Peter were a new revelation they had not yet heard. Concerning uncircumcised Gentiles now allowed in the presence of their company and God's as well.  This was a call to fulfill God's plan in saving the known world and spreading a new and vibrant life in Jesus Christ.  Those Gentiles having heard the message of Christ were now a people in grafted into the new and forming Church.  Peter brought the initial word of acceptance  to those of the house of Cornelius and at the same time one Saul of Tarsus a devout Jew and a member of the Pharisees persecuted "The Way" seeking letters from the Priests to haul them away and imprison them and or kill them.  He was stopped dead in his tracks on his way to Damascus and blinded by a great light, Jesus, who confronted him and told him it was he who Saul was persecuting, i,e the new Christians Jesus now made known they were his people and part of himself. Simultaneously Saul, now renamed Paul was sent to the Gentiles as a missionary. He preached Christ crucified and risen and  converted those who would hear in what would be a fantastic ministry to the known world.  Jews and Gentiles and all nations who would accept Christ as Savior would be included in Salvation and knowledge of Jewish history.
     The promise was to those "near and afar off" and as many  who would confess Jesus as Lord.  Who could have seen that one who was murderous and zealous for "God" (actually what had become a religious system and empty of life) would instead be turned a three-sixty and used by the one true God to change the world!  
                       " There is neither Jew nor Greek nor slave or free" but all are one in Christ Jesus.

     

But God's Word is Not Chained

     This thing, this burning, it has been with me from the beginning. The road to Damascus there is where it all began... still new and unfolding even here in this cold and dark world I find myself in.  I am chained now for the second time.  This time harsher and more restrictive than the first.  Even my friends whom I called friends have deserted me.  Those who are seen with me are criminals too.  Those who ran must have been ashamed, but I, I am not ashamed of the Gospel.
     For to me it was revealed that now I have run the last course of the race and am to be offered up in a few hours.  A spectacle awaits me.  Leering faces harsh taunts from those I do not know.  Caesars friends...not mine...not my King either.  This is why I am here.  I am now an affront to the "Roman Empire."  For thirty years I was stoned by my own countrymen, beaten and shipwrecked and the Romans just looked the other way.  Now we are hundreds of thousands spread out throughout the Empire and now a threat to Nero himself.  WE are those who love one another? Why can't they see it? It is the ultimate offering, to love one another as he first loved us!  But this is insidious, political and an evil than runs the course through mens hearts and opposes God himself.  Vanity and exaltation to the highest heavens the Last Great Empire of Daniel's Golden Statue.  This is what God will tear down and use us, a lowly people to do it.  This is what Nero fears most,,,he is already judged, he is crazy.
     Fire swept the streets last night and I was told that widespread panic gripped the whole city.  Everyone was in fear of his life.  I am told we Christians are to blame.
     I sit in chains but God's word is never chained, it goes where it will, plants seeds in the hardest of ground and blossoms fruit the world hates.  That is why I will gladly give myself to the blade.  It is Christ in me that lives and not I!
     So many years ago I watched a young man get stoned to death with a smile on his face!  Stephen.  A man I hope to meet tomorrow. A man I need forgiveness from.  A man that I had incited others to kill!  I deeply regret this.  Perhaps he was me. How could I have known?
     My feet are cold and unwrapped, my hands and wrists raw from being manacled to this wall day in and day out.  My eyes, well they are of no use to me at all.  Just as well not likely to see anything worthwhile now.
   My hope is in Christ and Timothy he is the one who will run for me now.   I am spent......and my crown awaits me....

                       St. Paul.
                       from a Roman Prison.

   

Three Times denied: Three times:Do you love me?

     "Strike the shepherd and the sheep will scatter."  A common and tested saying all too true.  In the  garden of Gethsemene as Jesus of Nazareth was taken captive Peter had defended him by cutting off the ear of one called Malchus, promptly in which Jesus healed the man and told Peter to sheath his sword.  A bold move by Peter.  Defending the one you love is easy. Or so it would seem. Jesus was still with him and very easy to defend because of the relative proximity to Peter and the other disciples. There was strength in numbers.   Upon seeing the reality of Jesus being taken captive and lead to authorities, doubt and fear began to settle in to Peter's understanding.  As Jesus was lead onward and away from Peter he became scared for his own life and therefore denied three times that he even knew Jesus.  The man had a serious battle with fear.  And he wept bitterly.  Confused, somewhat abandoned by the one he looked too Peter did what we all could do in that moment, deny Christ.  A fearful thing to do because of the consequences of that kind of testimony.  It is said that if a man deny Christ, then he will deny that man before the Father.  Not a position I would want to find myself in.
     Fast forward to a time after the ascension and Peter finds himself again next to Christ being probed by him asking "Peter do you love me more than these?"  Fish!  "Lord you know that I love you",Peter says. Three times this is asked and three times answered by Peter with sorrow in his heart because of his earlier denials.  It is clear to Jesus just what is needed to prod this disciple on  in order to accomplish what Jesus had intended from the beginning.  There was no mention of his denial, or failings, just a simple calling to fulfill what Jesus wanted him to fulfill. "Feed my sheep."  Mercy was already working and Peter must have known this about Jesus.  Imagine the relief he felt and inward joy of forgiveness.
     Read on in the  book of Acts what kind of man peter became after the giving of the Holy Spirit, it is inspiring..........