Wrap Your Mind Around This:

       I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.


13 If we are “out of our mind,” as some say, it is it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you.

5 Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

     There is never a time like the present or so goes the saying.  Paul is equipping his fledgling church of Corinthians with an exhortation to continue in good works and reminding them of the promises of God.  Having poured out his Spirit (God) on the Corinthians he now encourages them to look up and see there is more...than what you are experiencing now.  There is a place pre-pared for us in the heavenlys.  And as proof, Paul uses the phrase "deposit" to get their attention. This Spirit they have received is not earthly as Jesus was not earthly as he had pointed out numerous times.  ("My kingdom is not of this world!") 
     The Corinthians had just repented as a Church because of Paul's first letter to them as correction in their bad behaviors. Now however he points heavenward to fill them with a sense of awe in the God they serve.  There is more! So much more! Look, we've been beaten, shipwrecked, hungry, poor and imprisoned and on the verge of death...why? all for your sakes.  You have become like me, (saved) and so I want you all to know that I no longer regard you from a "worldly" point of view!"  In other words he was saying you are no longer just mortal but immortal in Christ and there is a place prepared for those of you who now have come to believe.  There has been reconcilliation between you and God so rejoice!  

     So we now have no time like the present to experience the selfsame things as Paul and his Corintians did so many thousands of years ago.  It is covenant and is unbroken and it will one day end and there will be no more chances.  Salvation is and always will be by faith and by grace.  And grace comes by "hearing the good news."  So transition your self and wrap your mind around the possibilities you have not yet tried!...and remember salvation is not found in religion or it's practices...it is personal revelation of a true God indwelling in a new creation. You will be the temple. 

The World Suffers Violence and the Violent Take it by Force: There is another way:

30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 31 Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”[d]
     
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. 19 For it is written:

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
    the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”

([c but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, 5 so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.)

     The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.12 What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.13

     These words are from Paul's written letters to the Corinthians.  Having birthed their Church and labored for their understanding he now writes to set them straight and correct them in proper understanding of their faith.   

    Their church in a short time has become infected with incest, lawsuits, leadership errors and arrogance.  In short their faith has been perverted.  "The kingdom of God is not one in talk but of power."  Paul warns them he will discipline them when he comes.  

     Quite quickly the people reverted to old ways of sinfulness and left the Spirit behind, violence threatened to wreck what Paul birthed in grace.

     Our world is suffering violence every day and I think rapidly increasing because we have left God out of it.  Daily we are bombarded with horrendous  stories of violence, bombings, kidnappings and suffering unustly at the hands of governments that rule with tryanny and fear.  Blackouts of facebook and media outlets are the first to be utilized in controling free thought. In Crimea power stations and news outlets were seized first so that a stealthy coup could be staged with minimal media coverage in that country.  

     In Iran women are arrested for uncovering their hair in displays of freedom that  we take for granted.  China imprisons their young intellectuals for "free thought and subversive ways." Nigeria desolates the young women, the hope of their future, and the list is so much longer.

     THERE IS ANOTHER WAY!  And it has to be a paradigm shift in thinking! 

Go back to the first opening sentences of this blog....righteousness, holiness, and redemption.   These are God's ways of replacing all of our shortcommings and changing from the inside out. A complete and total new creation and a destruction of the "OLD Man."  New wine has to be put into a new wine skin as Jesus said.  Only in this way will change be complete and then it has to be worked at...as the Corintians found out.

     The tears will not cease and the suffering will not end but perhaps in the midst of a world without peace and joy there can be renewal within...by Christ in you.  

The Truth be Known

Water into wine
Fruit of the vine

Healing is better
than stealing and
truth better than ignorance

There is no regret
when when we know that
the things we have done
no longer remain

Washed in crimson and
born anew with minds
reclaimed and forward aimed

Walking on water is
a feat to admire
he pulls us out of all quagmire

He looks for the one
who's heart is undone
restoring to hope
once and for all

Our Saviour come
blessed is the Lord who is One

He Said what he said and he meant what he said!

     Ever take a moment and wonder at the words of Jesus?  He had many things to say some hard and some down right confusing. But he said what he said and he meant what he said. All of  his teachings simple to the point and all of his sterness towards those who resisted and those who tried to pervert his words were rebuked quickly! Why? Let's look at what he said about sin itself.  He said, Truly I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter, 29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin.”  
     There is then an eternal sin! Why is this not a forgivable sin?  It is because the Spirit itself is God, invisible, all powerful,omnipresent and now given and living in those who believe in this present day that our body is now the temple of the living God.  Cleansed and rooted out of our sins by the blood of Christ now housing the very presence of God himself, up close and working to perform  his will in a "new wineskin."  Did you wonder at the change in Peter, so dramatic so different from the man he was before,a denier and afraid for his life.  Now bold and preaching the same message of his teacher.  What about Paul? The murderous man now blinded and changed given a new heart and one that was remarkable.  Infused with understanding by the Holy Spirit he was responslbe for 2/3 'rds of the written New Testament.  How is this so? Because Jesus told each of those he picked to "wait for the comforter."  The very Spirit poured out on Pentecost and poured like wine into a vessel that was ready to receive it.  You see we have to be open to the words of Jesus first and foremost. We have to believe that he is (God) before we can receive what he has for each and every man woman and child on the earth.  Change....New, heart, new eyes, new ears and willing to do and say what the teacher wants.
     Along the way remember there will temptation to forget the words of Jesus, temptation to stop doing what it is we are supposed to  do because of peer pressure or giving in to unbelief itself.  
     We are in the dispensation and time of the working of the Holy Spirit if you are looking for something more there is no more this is it and it is now.  All of the other imposters vying for attention will burn up and come to nothing. Only the words of God spoke will be lasting and his words never return without accomplishing what he wants it too.  So the ones who deny or make fun of that which they do not understand are in a fearful place.  Remember Jesus also said that those who mislead (children or prevent those from entering in the kingdom, " it would be better that a millstone be tied around their necks."  Scary!  So all of those who preach "a different Jesus", as Paul warned, be forewarned.  Their can be no different Jesus or Holy Spirit than the one we read about in the Word.   

Eternity In The "Heart of Man"

 What do workers gain from their toil? 10 I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time..He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet[a] no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. 
     
     King Solomon penned these words in the  book entitled Ecclesiates. He sought to understand the way of life and moreover the way of his own life.  Son of David, he inherited the Kingdom David fought for and estblished.  Richer than those around him and embued with wisom far greater than those before him or even those after him he was nevertheless empty of a sort!  Reading these words of his it does not seem that he actually believed with  his whole heart that there was a place for him after his life ended.  Resurrection seemed distant in this thoughts.  Perhaps they were.  Maybe even alien to him altogether. Everything he said that was going to be done was done before and nothing was new. Toil was wearisone, wealth gained  was left to those who did not toil for it and true happiness was to enjoy the day at hand and eating to be done with the joy of the moment.  So why did he say eternity was in the heart?  Did he have a longing or a great chasm that was unfulfilled even with all his wealth and wisdom?  I think he knew he did and it troubled him greatly. 
The "end of the matter he said, was this:  

                  Now all has been heard;
                 here is the conclusion of the matter:
           Fear God and keep his commandments,
                    for this is the duty of all mankind.
14       For God will bring every deed into judgment,
                        including every hidden thing,
                       whether it is good or evil.

     I think he found that even with all he had the best that he could do, was to fear God...to be right with him and make sure that his deeds would be of a worthy nature. For we all will be dust and there is no escape so it is much  better to be before the God of heaven with a clean slate and that only happens with the Son of God (Jesus), entering in and making us righteous by his  blood.

     

"Until There Is NO Remedy"

     How much are you willing to tolerate?  Can you tolerate the liar? Can you tolerate the thief? Or how about One who murders?  These are pretty common examples of things that people do that a healthy society normally would not tolerate and we reject them.  These are pretty clear cut and there are laws to deal with these types of things.  But what about all the other things that are rapidly increasing?  Where once the norms of society would shun things and not even openly talk of them suddenly there is no more shame.  Our entertainment industry goes a long way in moving the morals of this country to the far left and then openly embracing things that 70 years ago would be thought of as shameful.  What am I talking about?  Many behaviors of a rudderless society, free to roam the waters of democracy where if I proclaim my conservatism in morals then I can be attacked for them and be made a mockery of.  Yet if  I proclain the same right of liberalism then many would embrace me as open minded and tolerant.
     But what of this tolerance, just whose is it anyway? OURs! Not God's.........Yet in all things in Christianity we are taught not to judge....others because of what judgement we judge...we will be judged. In other words of Jesus..be careful and let God's judgement reign so that you are off the hook!  It would be a better proposition for God to mete out his justice rather than ours which can be at best rise and fall with the emotions we feel at any given moment.

     If we are to be a moral society, then whose morals do we follow?  And where do morals come from?  Certainly not from within the human heart.".for the heart is desperately wicked who can know it?" It had to originate from someone ( some being not human) so as corruption would not even be near to the one who dispenses it?  When the rich young ruler came to Jesus he called him "good" and saw Jesus's ministry of good works, healing, teaching, feeding the poor, visiting the sick etc, etc. Yet Jesus replied as he had too and as a( Son of God and a man)... should. He said, "Why do you call me good? Only God is Good." Knowing that only his father in heaven was truly good he replied honestly even though he being without sin and also the Son Of God.
     Repentance was the message by John the Baptist and it opened up the ministry of Jesus.  So it was important to know what to repent of? Our own works and our obvliousness to our sin. Far away from what God intended for us.  Reconciliation was his ministry and returning us to be in the good graces of God his mission.
     In the book of Ezekiel he a prophet, is granted extraordinary visions and sees the sins of the Priests and the people that have opened up themselves to things just like we do when without guidance.  Many Gods, immorality, many beliefs, in any respect (liberalism) and open to believe anything. Leaving behind what God commanded in the first place. So Ezekiel sees the Glory of God depart from the sanctuary and Israel itself and hover a mountain in the East.  The people did not even flinch, that is until judgement fell on them.  A short while later another nation overtook Israel and Judah  took all the people and scattered them throughout their kingdom.  A nation that was to adhere to principles and codes of morality threw them away and as a result received a jealous God's judgement.  So where are we in this 21 century with our enlightened ways of thought?
     Will we also as a nation receive in us a judgement from a God who is jealous for right living and or worshiping him and him alone?  Is our climate change, polluted rivers, decaying cities (Detroit) financial corruption and deadlocked government all resulting from being too far away from God?  And are the decisions we make erroneous when so? Do we invite the curses instead of the blessings?
 Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord God: and not that he should return from his ways, and live?    Ezekiel knew first hand.   Do we?  
   

Mind Games:

    Let's not play mind games with our God:  We all know what it is our God wants, it is already written of and pased down to us in the form of the Word:  Letters and stories of men and women who long before us asked the same questions we do: What is it that we are here for?  Why are the things the way they are?  Those who are saved and have taken on the mantle of Christ need no longer have questions in their mind: what is God saying and it is really God?  These are mind games that interfere with our sense of God.  Wasn't it crystal clear when you first received the Spirit?  Did you not feel the intense love of God's forgiveness when you received the Spirit?  Then as the scipture says" Quit yourselves like men.....and fight" (The Philistines won the battle over the Israelites that day>) Samuel 8. Why muddy the waters trying trying to find the mind of God?  It is already within you.  Why ask Does God really love me? Does he want this or that?  How do I know if this is what God really wants? Sitting in meeting after meeting I hear these questions raised and it is disturbing.  These are the doubts, and they are not of the Spirit of God. They are of the Devil, They are the thoughts and questions that are as old as the Garden of Eden story itself. Did God really say.....  so ignore these doubts they go nowhere and are a pointless direction leading to not to a destination but leading to confusion. Weren't the disciples full of confusion at the death of their Lord?  Yes they were and acted upon that state of mind. But later were filled with the spirit and changed forever.  Thanks be to God....we have their testimony and the testimony of the Lord himself.
      Therefore have this mind in you......The mind of Christ.