Juxtapose:Witness

Juxtaposed | Define Juxtaposed at Dictionary.com

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Juxtaposed definition, to place close together or side by side, especially for comparison or contrast. See more.

     We stand at the apex of our history.  We seem to be able to turn our thoughts and our dreams into a reality like never before.  Horse and buggy days though only  a century and a half ago seem ancient.  Six thousand years and little change occurred as warfare  and kingdoms made use of the same things for a thousand years.  Though there  are pockets of this type of living still around, it is rare.  Yet there are those who stand as witness to an event still relevant today.  Witnesses to a resurrection power; the only one of it's kind.

     Those who "believe" and are a "verb unto themselves" are those who take an action based on a firm and fixed belief of an occurrance  that happened even though not physically present.   This is not a passive believe as though, yes ,"I believe there is a God, but I don't know who that is!"  That is a stance of being nebulous.

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Nebulous definition, hazy, vague, indistinct, or confused: a nebulous recollection

     A witness is one who has seen, been privy too, or has inside knowledge, a close one.  

     Therefore: Those who walked with Jesus were witnesses, and eyewitnesses of his resurrection, and his life here on earth.   With the advent of the Holy Spirit approaching; Jesus told them to wait for the "Helper" the very one he spoke to them about before his crucifixion. So they waited and were blessed with the power and new life and again were witness to the actual event of that time.   We ,today, who belive are also witnesses and stand juxtaposed to the now and the then ; and give contrast to the past and the present for a reason.  We can vigorously defend the faith, because we are the "joint heirs of Christ" partaking in his likness in everything he was though after his resurrection , because the impartation of the Holy Spirit is not debateable for us.  It is an actuality, not a dream, not distant or a hazy recollection unable to bring into focus.  That is the reason Paul suffered so much and was willing to continue on, because he was not to far removed from the actual event, and he had seen the Lord in a bright and blinding light that took his sight.   He was filled the same Spirit as Christ when pictured as a Dove alighting on his being.  It was gentle, but powerful, and it is real.  Once this dispensation commenced, it has continued to this day bearing witness of of a truth not to be ignored and brushed aside as one of many truths ,or should I say (Gods).  

Matthew

     I sat at my table this morning again, waiting for the crowds to form into distinct lines.  Men and women from all over the provinces will come shortly and lay almost all that they had into the trunks lined up on my table and behind be.  Soldiers stand at my right and at my left at the request of Caesar and the Temple Guards stand at my sides to make sure all goes into the correct places for their temple.   Three times today I will do this all while looking at my countrymen while they harshly return their looks at me.  By now they disdain me know my name and have summed up their judgement of me in their minds.  If they only knew how I really felt about this, then perhaps I could bear it.
     Today was and especially hot day, the palm and olive trees I am accustomed to their shade have shed their leaves in a wind that came on suddenly without warning.  My table, my records blew to the ground and I went for them quickly before they could get away from me.  If I lost these, then I would have no proof of the days register or of the people I had already taken census of. I did not want riot or calamity from this as I knew what my people were capable of. Tax was the way this empire grew, on the backs of those they conquered. By Roman decree I was chosen because I just happend to be in the right place at the right time and it had nothing to do with my standing.
     Something stirred within me as I bent over to retrieve the papers blown to the ground.  A hand reached out under mine and retrieved the very papers I was about to grab.  As I rose I looked into a man's face who had gently placed the records onto the table and place a rock on top of them.  He stood their quietly and then said.....Levi.....follow me.   With those words said I was anchored in place unable to move, unable to think, but with the strangest compunction to toss everything and go with him.   I didn't know why it was just as if suddenly everything made sense in a way I could not entirely fathom.  But I went anyway.
     All eyes were on me as I left under the watchful stares of both the Temple guards and the Roman soldiers who stood away as the man who called me made his way through the crowd.  We walked until sunset, he talked with me and those that were with him welcomed me into their little band.  His words were magnetic, what he said captivating my soul and refreshing me in a way I had not known before. I had forgotten all about the fears of my day and of my countrymen and what they thought of me.   This man I knew was different and so began my journey.  I invited him to my house that night and all of others I could think of that stood in line that day and I gave a great dinner to all of them in honor of the one I now follow.  This was just the beginning of something.....I just knew it!               Levi
    
 

Rubbing Shoulders With The Devil

     Take a stand- hold a position-defend your ground- argue your point.............and then reason it away!




     Isn't that what we are doing and doing it on a rampant and exeedingly fast pace? With the advent of the 21 century of which we are all apart of things are changing at a pace not seen in our recent history.  The pendulum swings again! (Ireland)
     Like a reed bending in the wind (not a pro stance) and unable to withstand the force I think we have bent because of an underlying case of fatigue. What I mean is, the fight has gone out of us. Hasn't it become easier to "go with the crowd" these days? 
    Case in point:  Within the Christian Church, and especially the denomination of the Episcop[al Church, it has endured a  split because of one major issue, the sexual one.  Why?  Why along those lines was it so fierce so as to cause major disagreement? And say not along, racial, or other issues of money, position or even doctrinal stance on other issues of the Church?  I think it is because it strikes at the very point of "personal" choice and a stance that is fiercly protected by those who have taken it.  In a democracy we allow for thinking along lines that are flexible and so our country is reflective of the times we live in.  But within the Church Government it is an altogether different ball game.  The rules and morality given and adhered to are from a Divine source, and if we are those who embrace  and believe it then we cannot rub shoulders with the Devil and think we are an enlightened people.  Again, those who take on the mantle of the Lord and follow his teachings must do so rightly and not deceive themselves and fall into another frame of mind and thinking if they want to remain a Holy people.  This is not a haughty stance, merely one that was acceptable by the Early Apostles, Christians, and those who were washed in the Blood of the Lamb, Jesus because of  our sinful state.   It was repentance from "dead works" that we became what we are....a new creation in Christ.   As a new creation and one that has all of the benefits of the promises of life from the Gospel we cannot turn away from truth and that truth stands on a higher plain than our reasoning does.  And because of these promises we more than most show compassion, mercy and love from a point of perspective given by Jesus to be not condemnatory of those without the Church>I make this point because our scriptures say "judgement begins in the house of the Lord" and so we must make a distinction between what is Caesars and what is God's.  Democracy while I think is one of the best forms we have of a government as opposed to monarchy's and or dictatorships is still not the government of the Church.   Christ was head over all, and instituted another way.  Though denominized and traditionalized into another form still it aheres "mostly" to it's original doctrines but is now undergoing a morphing into a weakend state reflective of the democray that surrounds it.  The things Paul was beaten nearly to death for numerous times was a preaching of the Gospel with signs of power....inotherwords, it had something other than just words backing it and if it did where did it originate?  And who originated it?  If we can believe Paul's conversion story ( and I think we can) it was a dramatic reversal of all of what he believed in.  An encounter with the Holy. And so one of the tenets was Holiness towards the Lord (be ye holy because I am Holy) and separating those things that were yes, lustful in all it's- forms. 26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error. (Romans)

 This topic was chosen because, of the nature of our sinful state in general.  It does not have to be weighted with other forms of a sinful state.  However it goes to the point of our will over God's will and because of that it is a force to be reckoned with and because the Devil knows this and has used this as an entrance point in our democracy  and the Church to erode and weaken a stance that was once known and was strong and now rubs shoulders with acceptable thinking of "our times."  This will always be a tactic of the devil, change the thinking of the masses the rest will follow.  

Once Upon a Time in a Land called Normal

     Once upon a time long, long, ago, and far,far, away lived a people in a land called normal.  Their soul purpose in life was to live in contentment with what they had and with what they did and bring joy to the one who caused them to live as they were.  They lived thousands upon thousands of years that way and none were the wiser to anything different at all, that is until the one who carried corruption came in and introduced all manner of detestable things to them and vexed and changed their thinking.  Suddenly things began to look different and slowly but surely their nature changed. Things that were unheard of now became the "new normal" and any one who disagreed with it were suddenly outcasts and barred from participation in the new town of normal.  This new town was dark, but they thought it light.  This people were wise but actually were blind.  Those who claimed to see became the leaders of those who could not.  And all those who remembered the old ways of normal became a separate people unto themselves.  They met together, fed each other looked after each other and even to those who were less fortunate then they.  As they did this their numbers grew and they spread out across the town and eventually left normal and carried with them the old ways.  Those that remained in normal became darkened, unaware of the danger that lurked in the near future.  Corruption had won in the major parts of normal.  The people lost vitality, sat for hours upon hours, fulfilling every desire but that which brought health. Their skin became pale, their eyes became hollow, their bodies, weak and flabby unable to bear the extra weight they now carried.  Their thoughts were turned, one to another, unnaturally opposed, exalted above all things.  The one who they lived for no longer relevant, no longer remembered, a distant echo in their ears, and their minds unable to remember.
     The ones, the normal of old carried on, waiting for the return of that which was lost>>>>>

What If? The Hand of God:

    Occassionally, once in a while, not very often I look up n the sky and see a shooting star.  At that moment it is a wondorous site.  The heavenly has suddenly become earthly.  The bright shooting star that has streaked just for seconds, burns out in our atmosphere.   But.....WHAT IF

     What if like in the Perseids meteor storms that appear somewhat annually, they suddenly did not burn up but landed on our lovely Earth and wreaked a havoc unlike anything we had ever seen before?   A few years ago we got a taste of just one that streaked across a Russian landscape and city and with a sonic boom, uleashed a force that shattered many buildings glass fronts and many took pictures of the phenomenom.  Multiply that and you have.....Revelations the Book of John.   At some point in his time spent on exile on Patmos, he was privy to certain Revelations that are downright weird and scary but are posssible.   Mountains and Islands that were removed from their place, and a third of stars that fell to Earth are perhaps a natural event we will see though we expect that a benevolent God could not do such a thing?   He can and he will because of us.  Not him.  "His will is that none should perish."  In otherwords he has a will that supercedes such an event, but will recant of it to have his way because of us.
     Recently also we were spared and event of collision of an Asteroid as big as "something" I forget maybe a small moon from hitting our Earth.   Scientists said that it's course was "close" in that 100,000 miles from us was a near miss !!!  Wow.  Now I consider that on our scale to be far, far way, but scientists do not think like that.  They think cosmicly.    And so Does our God.    Cosmicly we are a creation that exists along with gazillions of other worlds we look at and marvel about that warps our minds if we think about it too much.  Revelations warps my mind.  And so it did with John, the disciple "Jesus loved" who was  allowed to stay longer and not see death as did the other disciples (Peter wanted to know who)  and who could not exactly express the heavenly visions he saw and tranlated to the best of his ability.  And we get a picture of a heavenly battle and an earthly phenomenoms that are hard to believe.    Or are they?
     The ring of fire has been active lately.......Katmandu? Too?

"Faith" A value of obedience

     Faith it is said is that which is unseen a substance that is tangible in another dimension.  Not necessarily ours.  Why?  The Israelites found out when after forty years of wandering in the desert some were left behind to die because of unbelief.  Those who heard the message of Moses lived and inherited the land that was generationally promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.   The miracles in the forty years should have been enough.  What about today?  What about the 2000 + years of  preaching the Kingdom of God?  Is the message being wasted and like Paul said in Hebrews, "Of no value?" ( Heb. 4:2). Do we, when we hear the word of God being preached, close our ears to it and say "nah" that's not for me!"  Is it because we cannot discern the truth or is it because after all these years we have heard everything.....like the forty years that must have seemed like an eternity wandering in desolate places with no end in site.  So I think we have been hardened by the "deceitfulness of sin", again a quotation from Paul in his letters to the Hebrews.
     The danger to us in our modern world is to disavow this type of thinking of even the possibility that we can receive a kingdom of eternal purpose.  Though that purpose is cloudy and removed from our everyday lives.  It nevertheless is still true.  It all comes down to choice, a right heart, (one that is softened) and one that is spiritually atuned to spiritual things.  Not the spiritual wooo, woooo! as in mystical, far off untouchable place. but one that is very much a part of our world and calls out to us in a time of peril, or searching, or questioning, or anything that will enter in to our hearts and let us consider the possibility of other things.
      Jesus, to some is just as much a mystery today as he was in his own time.  He was a man out of time.  God in flesh, making known to us the mysteries that need not be mysteries any longer, if we accepted his teachings then the lights would begin to come on in our hearts and our minds.
     The teachings of Jesus were not meant ot be oscure or hard to understand. If it were the thousands of unschooled untaught men and women would have turned away at first hearing.  But, those who were the wise.....just couldn't get it.  Their minds prohibited their hearts form entering in.   Faith was blocked and unbelief sat at their door.
       So will you enter in at the hearing of a true gospel, hopefully preached in a way to receive?  Not the programed, Americanized versions we know so much about, but the simple unadulterated word that cuts to the marrow of the bone, and reveals the thoughts and intents of the heart?  That's the message the Apostles preached, and all those who were witness to the life of Christ.  The power of that message  transcended thought and cut through unbelief at the core of their beings.  Satan has no power against such a place.
                 The entrance of Your word gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.
Psalm 119:130 NKJV

Identity-re-identity.....focus...unfocus....

     In a few short months nine men and women will decide for a nation of 200 + million in this country what will be legal between men and men and women and women. The issue of legalized marriage will be all over the media and in our faces.  Why then does this issue raise such hackles in me as a Christian ?
    While I believe this issue is really cloaked in issues that will not be raised, still there will be a flood of people who will race to the altar in their newly found  and "legal" freedom that will ultimately be granted.  While as a Christian I make no judgements of those outside of the Church of Christ as I take a stand much like Paul before me and as (Pope Francis) recently did. I make a decision to focus on   "A" truth once known to the masses in general.     Jesus spoke of John the Baptist as great, and that there was none born of women greater than he, speaking of a certain righteousness.  He heralded the coming of the Lord and of his kingdom, a kingdom not of this world.  And of course a kingdom that came with his righteousness and not ours. So why did he lose his head?  It was because he pointed out the Sinful state of King Herod in taking his brother's wife as his own.  It was not done in that culture. And so in an opportune moment he had his daughter who pleased him ask anything of him, and guess what?  John was silenced, beheaded.  Herod silenced the opposition.
   While we do not commit murder to get our way, we can cloak the issue and even lie to ourselves and commit sin and have a Supreme court be the judge and scapegoat the issue for us instead.
    Do the words " Thou shalt not lie with a man as with a women" have any weight today?  Do the words, "Thou shalt not lie with you father's wife have any weight today?  What about adultery?  In any form?
     What about gender identity?  If you are born with all of the parts to be a man or a women then you are what you were born.  At least until our society came along and had the ability to change that with surgery.
Re-identiity is taking place as well.  When our minds can no longer focus on clear lines of a morality we can do what we want, like Herod.   Let's make a distinction though of "civil rights" and the Gay issue. If one stays with someone and bequeaths their entire wealth and estate to that particular person, what business is that of anyones?  Is that an issue of sex or of business or of love?  Even a rich married man can give his entire estate to his mistress instead of his wife if he so desired. Is that as issue of sex? Or of a bequeath?   So the issues must stand as they are on their own merit.  Can same sex couples raise and promote family values  (such as kindness and so forth, as well as heteros?  Probably so.  We can create what we want.  That again is not the issue.  The issue is what are we?  Whose morality are we changing? And where did it come from?  And are we standing in a place of judgement?  I believe we are.  As a Christian I say this, because there was one who came before me and gave moral teachings that are not outmoded. And as far as I know has not come back yet to change anything he said and said go ahead, it's ok, make a new law.   


     17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill  them. 18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished