Wednesday, July 27, 2011
July 20, 2011
Trying to define Church is like trying to define Christianity; both words have had their meanings lost in translation. They do not even come close to describing what they truly are. Words like church & Christianity are almost gone to us, leaving many on the doorstep of apathy, this being a state of total indifference. Interesting note is the opposite of apathy is ‘flow’. Flow is the mental state of which a person is in an activity is fully involved; immersed in a feeling of energized focus!
The Body of Christ is suffering from information overload. Trying to define what is church is close to impossible. We have so much information nowadays. So much that we are unable to process, let alone try coming to a sensible conclusion.
We have outsmarted ourselves. Our definitions have become watered down, compromised, user friendly. They contain factual errors and are filled with inconsistencies.
This has become a virus to the Body of Christ, data overload.
We must spend more time on things we do know; Jesus is Lord, He heals & saves, less time on the how’s & whys, the yes & no. In other words focus on quality information, not quantity. We think because we know more, we will have more. Information is not truth.
At the bottom of this lays on the fact that your ordinary, average joe lacks training on how to effectively discern truth of what is and what isn’t.
We are over run by information; signs, billboards, TV, the World Wide Web, tweets, all filled with meaningless drivel. We binge on the web, over doing it, and just like when we over eat and feel sluggish & dull, so it is when we get over loaded with all this information we put on our plate, we become dull & sluggish.
We are data addicted. We are addicted to the Internet & to our i phones.
I heard it put this way; “paralysis by analysis”. We have become frozen information zombies. All that conflicting information leaves us confused & glazed over. We have become desensitized. Some of us are immobilized by fear & indecision. We end up doing nothing, believing nothing & just settle for a comfortable quite environment.
I Cor, 14.8 “If a trumpet makes an uncertain sound, who will prepare for battle”
There is no clear method for improving our way of defining things, so when we actual do put out the Truth, no body is equipped or ready to hear us. Gives a new meaning to the saying ‘those who have an ear to hear’, doesn’t it.
For so long we as the Church have made such an uncertain sound that we no longer have sway with people. So instead we have switched gears and turned onto the information highway. Information is not Truth. We seek information & rarely do we actually seek truth. The more information we receive the more difficult it is to decipher what is true& credible & useful; the harder it is to have faith. Faith in God is simple, but we have added so much more that it has become lost. We are drowning in a deluge of data. We have on the shelves at our ‘Christian bookstores’ hundreds of styles of bibles, along with thousands of teachers with their thousands of truths; jockeying for the ultimate Truth. Even on my computer, it auto corrects the word Christian with a capital c, why is that?
Do we communicate, or just throw at each other information, and facts. The body of Christ consumes & continues to adopt any & all latest revelation. We can not answer with dignity the question what is church? We can tell you how to grow what we think might be church, but what is it? Look at the word ‘Christianity’, what does that tell you? We are a ‘Christian nation’, what does that mean? That we are republicans, & tea partiers? How about being Jesusicans?
These two words in particular have lost its true meaning, if they even had true meanings. They have been over defined & twisted. I dare say I am a Pastor of a church, I don’t tell anybody that I am Christian anymore because of the stigmas’ that are so rudely attach to their meaning. They have become dirty words, probably rightly & sadly so. There is a great many of ‘Christians’ who do not go to church anymore, with as many reasons as there are definitions of church & Christianity. Most say that they are burned out on the whole church thing, the Sunday morning church in a box experience. Maybe so, but I think they should all shuffle their little behinds back to the ‘church’. They need to rise out of the ashes of their burned out lives and right the wrong. Church should be a place where Truth lives. Jesus said that He is the Head of the Church, well, where is this church?
So much junk to sort through, at the same time a deeper problem is that there is so much good stuff to sort through. Information does not equal truth. You have heard it said quite famously “You can’t handle the truth”, well; we can’t handle or even know how to handle all the info that has become so available to us either.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Began July 6, 2011
Subject: Selfishness
Decipher what it is
Untangle the mess of selfishness and get to the core reactor and deal with it!
Dictionary meaning: Concerned primarily with ones own self, interests, benefits, welfare regardless of others.
Interesting side note: Medical definition is being an actively replicating repetitive sequence of nucleic acid that serves no known function, selfish DNA
Now, the selfishness I am dealing with is not that easy to spot, the dictionary definition point to the obvious. The selfishness I am hunting down, comes in many disguises and wears many masks & cover ups. This is the selfishness that needs to be exposed & dealt with. Selfishness is more than seating on the seat of self, more than control & wanting your own way, & not sharing. This is the selfishness that belongs to the immature. You grow into to it and it is very hard to grow out of it, because it has weaved itself into every aspect of your being. It keeps you from growing up.
The word ‘decipher’ was given, decipher selfishness. This task means we must try to make out the meaning of selfishness and to discover it as if anything that is obscure or difficult to understand; the task is to unravel selfishness!
If you dig deep into selfishness, you will discover a treasure chest of rotting fruit, lost desires, misconceptions & ‘missing the mark’. There is a lot of regrets, and things remembered, that are best forgotten, resentments & let downs. These things end up driving you, they sit in the front seat of the car called selfishness.
Selfishness is a dangerous virus, dangerous unto death. It is a venomous snake and it is on top of the food chain. It attaches itself to a host & is relentless in its quest to take over!
Your heart is the bed where selfishness grows. Under this bed is where its roots thrive, its soil is fed by bitterness, resentments & entitlements, it is watered by greed.
Selfishness gives envy a run for its money, gives lust a leg up & its very best friend is addiction! Commitment turns off the selfish, they don’t know how to balance giving & taking!
Selfishness dresses its self up in carnal desires with materialistic designs. It looks good and has a seducing way about it; it lures you into its trap. Selfishness is neither rich nor poor. Its favorite outfit is ‘I have free will’ and its shoes ‘I have my freedom & liberty’; shoes with 6 inch heels
What does a selfish heart look like? It is a mirror of your actions. It wears a mask and plays the victim. When the mask comes off; the selfish heart shrivels up. Inside a selfish heart is the fear of losing control. Its focus is on the unpunished evil & uncompensated good, which leads to misconceptions and judgments.
A selfish heart has low self esteem; it is a characteristic displayed by a miserable person. They usually have a negative outlook; this makes it hard for community or fellowship. It is difficult to inspire or be inspiring! Selfishness appears on the scene when a person betrays there own sense of inner truth, betrays that still small voice that tries to steer them away from their own selfish ways. A selfish heart is a bad listener, they have itchy ears. It is put off by other peoples input, it is a picky eater! They are cagey at best & hard to pin down.
The selfish motto: “It’s not fair”
“Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live” Oscar Wilde
Selfishness breeds lies, it is a super virus that gets into your whole system & slowly causes breakdowns on all levels. Selfishness has an insatiable appetite. It craves self satisfaction. It lies to you; telling you that need, want and must have.
Time is selfishness’s money.
A selfish heart will spend time on itself. Motivations of our heart determine the level of selfishness we will rise up to.
Results of selfishness are the loss of proportional perspective, one strains at a gnat & swallows a camel (Matt.23.24). Selfishness lives on the taste buds on the tongue.
Selfishness butts heads with respect! It holds hands with bullies. It does not know how to honor.
It is an overused, overstated word; selfishness. It has become a catch all, for all our bad behavior. Selfish, brutish, mean people are obvious and their behavior is out there for all to see.
The call is to dig deeper, and if you look behind you’ll recognize the mess selfishness has left behind, and how it has distorted the road ahead of you. You must deal with it and clean it up.
There is a fine line between, whim fulfillment and total disregard of others!
I don’t want you to get confused; you are not to become a rug mat, a selfless push over. You must learn how to rule yourselves & have a sense of well being. I am dealing with selfishness on a new level; it has turned into a super virus and is growing out of control. It no longer responds to the urges to cease.
Selfishness doesn’t circulate; it is heavy & very dense.
It will take a mighty wind to blow it.
The place where selfishness is right now has caused a major instability, spilling over to disorder.
I want you to go deep, swim deeper. Go to the place where there are no waves, just swells. Look for the upwelling of My Spirit that stirs up. In this place you will savor the rich nutrients that come from the deep waters. I am bringing a current that is primarily driven by My Spirit; it is going to blow down & up.
I used the phrase ‘get to the core reactor’ for this purpose; it is the place that contains the fuel that drives. Typically it is a place when pressurized, the substance is so heated up it reacts. Where is your selfishness core reactor? How deep it is & what kind of fuel does it need to power up your selfishness. How much pressure does it take to heat up this reactor?
A simple rule is this; respond instead of react. Be respond (sable) in stead of react (able),
While responding seems like the prudent choice, you may be wondering how speed plays into this equation. Clearly in a crisis or emergency situation it may seem that you would logically need to react or operate in a split-second decision mode.
The reality is the best crisis managers (ER doctors, emergency management officials, firefighters as some examples) actually are trained and practice a variety of scenarios precisely so they can respond rather than react. Your trials come for this purpose, to train you to respond to faith & the reality of God’s Word in your lives. Not to react as orphans, but to respond as Sons!
In other words, response (versus reaction) doesn’t mean you will be slow, just thoughtful.
Our varied reactions, whether it is a quick verbal jab; a shout of_____fill in the blank; or panic and a rush of unnecessary words come flooding out; is not the reaction, rather it is our inability to handle the disturbance that is being dealt with.
Selfishness buddies up with fear and when these two travel it creates reactors.
Recognize the choices, reacting comes from a place of thinking we have no other option! The call is to rule yourselves, pull out the selfishness that hides in your heart, pull off its mask and uncover its disguises. Ground yourselves, herein your responses will kick in; this is what it means to be sober & vigilant. Give yourself quick mental breaks, discipline yourselves.
Deal with it deeply, just don’t give more in the offering or share your meal with somebody that is putting a band aide on your selfish heart. Go to the core reactor & deal with it. Don’t wait until it is to late and tsunami hits and destroys you completely.
Subject: Selfishness
Decipher what it is
Untangle the mess of selfishness and get to the core reactor and deal with it!
Dictionary meaning: Concerned primarily with ones own self, interests, benefits, welfare regardless of others.
Interesting side note: Medical definition is being an actively replicating repetitive sequence of nucleic acid that serves no known function, selfish DNA
Now, the selfishness I am dealing with is not that easy to spot, the dictionary definition point to the obvious. The selfishness I am hunting down, comes in many disguises and wears many masks & cover ups. This is the selfishness that needs to be exposed & dealt with. Selfishness is more than seating on the seat of self, more than control & wanting your own way, & not sharing. This is the selfishness that belongs to the immature. You grow into to it and it is very hard to grow out of it, because it has weaved itself into every aspect of your being. It keeps you from growing up.
The word ‘decipher’ was given, decipher selfishness. This task means we must try to make out the meaning of selfishness and to discover it as if anything that is obscure or difficult to understand; the task is to unravel selfishness!
If you dig deep into selfishness, you will discover a treasure chest of rotting fruit, lost desires, misconceptions & ‘missing the mark’. There is a lot of regrets, and things remembered, that are best forgotten, resentments & let downs. These things end up driving you, they sit in the front seat of the car called selfishness.
Selfishness is a dangerous virus, dangerous unto death. It is a venomous snake and it is on top of the food chain. It attaches itself to a host & is relentless in its quest to take over!
Your heart is the bed where selfishness grows. Under this bed is where its roots thrive, its soil is fed by bitterness, resentments & entitlements, it is watered by greed.
Selfishness gives envy a run for its money, gives lust a leg up & its very best friend is addiction! Commitment turns off the selfish, they don’t know how to balance giving & taking!
Selfishness dresses its self up in carnal desires with materialistic designs. It looks good and has a seducing way about it; it lures you into its trap. Selfishness is neither rich nor poor. Its favorite outfit is ‘I have free will’ and its shoes ‘I have my freedom & liberty’; shoes with 6 inch heels
What does a selfish heart look like? It is a mirror of your actions. It wears a mask and plays the victim. When the mask comes off; the selfish heart shrivels up. Inside a selfish heart is the fear of losing control. Its focus is on the unpunished evil & uncompensated good, which leads to misconceptions and judgments.
A selfish heart has low self esteem; it is a characteristic displayed by a miserable person. They usually have a negative outlook; this makes it hard for community or fellowship. It is difficult to inspire or be inspiring! Selfishness appears on the scene when a person betrays there own sense of inner truth, betrays that still small voice that tries to steer them away from their own selfish ways. A selfish heart is a bad listener, they have itchy ears. It is put off by other peoples input, it is a picky eater! They are cagey at best & hard to pin down.
The selfish motto: “It’s not fair”
“Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live” Oscar Wilde
Selfishness breeds lies, it is a super virus that gets into your whole system & slowly causes breakdowns on all levels. Selfishness has an insatiable appetite. It craves self satisfaction. It lies to you; telling you that need, want and must have.
Time is selfishness’s money.
A selfish heart will spend time on itself. Motivations of our heart determine the level of selfishness we will rise up to.
Results of selfishness are the loss of proportional perspective, one strains at a gnat & swallows a camel (Matt.23.24). Selfishness lives on the taste buds on the tongue.
Selfishness butts heads with respect! It holds hands with bullies. It does not know how to honor.
It is an overused, overstated word; selfishness. It has become a catch all, for all our bad behavior. Selfish, brutish, mean people are obvious and their behavior is out there for all to see.
The call is to dig deeper, and if you look behind you’ll recognize the mess selfishness has left behind, and how it has distorted the road ahead of you. You must deal with it and clean it up.
There is a fine line between, whim fulfillment and total disregard of others!
I don’t want you to get confused; you are not to become a rug mat, a selfless push over. You must learn how to rule yourselves & have a sense of well being. I am dealing with selfishness on a new level; it has turned into a super virus and is growing out of control. It no longer responds to the urges to cease.
Selfishness doesn’t circulate; it is heavy & very dense.
It will take a mighty wind to blow it.
The place where selfishness is right now has caused a major instability, spilling over to disorder.
I want you to go deep, swim deeper. Go to the place where there are no waves, just swells. Look for the upwelling of My Spirit that stirs up. In this place you will savor the rich nutrients that come from the deep waters. I am bringing a current that is primarily driven by My Spirit; it is going to blow down & up.
I used the phrase ‘get to the core reactor’ for this purpose; it is the place that contains the fuel that drives. Typically it is a place when pressurized, the substance is so heated up it reacts. Where is your selfishness core reactor? How deep it is & what kind of fuel does it need to power up your selfishness. How much pressure does it take to heat up this reactor?
A simple rule is this; respond instead of react. Be respond (sable) in stead of react (able),
While responding seems like the prudent choice, you may be wondering how speed plays into this equation. Clearly in a crisis or emergency situation it may seem that you would logically need to react or operate in a split-second decision mode.
The reality is the best crisis managers (ER doctors, emergency management officials, firefighters as some examples) actually are trained and practice a variety of scenarios precisely so they can respond rather than react. Your trials come for this purpose, to train you to respond to faith & the reality of God’s Word in your lives. Not to react as orphans, but to respond as Sons!
In other words, response (versus reaction) doesn’t mean you will be slow, just thoughtful.
Our varied reactions, whether it is a quick verbal jab; a shout of_____fill in the blank; or panic and a rush of unnecessary words come flooding out; is not the reaction, rather it is our inability to handle the disturbance that is being dealt with.
Selfishness buddies up with fear and when these two travel it creates reactors.
Recognize the choices, reacting comes from a place of thinking we have no other option! The call is to rule yourselves, pull out the selfishness that hides in your heart, pull off its mask and uncover its disguises. Ground yourselves, herein your responses will kick in; this is what it means to be sober & vigilant. Give yourself quick mental breaks, discipline yourselves.
Deal with it deeply, just don’t give more in the offering or share your meal with somebody that is putting a band aide on your selfish heart. Go to the core reactor & deal with it. Don’t wait until it is to late and tsunami hits and destroys you completely.
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Stay in the Eye of the Storm Part II
Hear me on my explanation of ‘court is in session’:
There are 3 meanings at hand: First off I am going to ‘court’ the world one last time, seeking its affection and attempting to woo their hearts. Trying to get their attention! When I say ‘world’ I mean those who are not in the Kingdom atmosphere and influence! Pay close attention, have ears to hear what the Spirit of the Lord is conveying
Second: Court is in session, I am calling all the royal house hold attendees! My royal priesthood, chosen generation, Sons of the Most High! Court is in session, Meet with me, and take council & counsel. Here we will have a judicial assembly, giving advice, exchanging information; a tribunal of sorts! This goes way beyond what you have titled five fold gifting; it involves relationship, confidence & commitment! It involves knowing whom you belong to! Court is in session, do not miss it merely because of your ignorance & insecurity & your sense of entitlement or the need for ‘a position’. My court is not like the world, with a king & queen hierarchy. When you bow the knee to me, it is not to be knighted & set in the royal courts; rather you become ignited as Sons of the Most High!
Third: Court is in session; this is where justice will be administered! Where the hearing of cases will be and the determination will take place. Take care; this is not as legal as it sounds. There is no judgment passed, this is not the judgment seat.
It is more of a place that you will come to by the heart; a spiritual convergence. A place both natural (however super) and it involves matters of the Kingdom and it will done by intimate connection with the Trinity. Another way a looking at is it will be like a courtyard setting, a gathering to the Kings court, no jury. Come to the residence of the sovereign! When you get here see the mystery unfold. How to get here? Use your heart as a compass, My Word as the map, it is not a lonesome route, a one man trip, so take care to come as many. It is not exclusive to the gifted ones, however being skillful will speed up the journey. I am in no big hurry, but time is of great importance. Remember stay in the eye of the storm, tact against the wind, court is in session!
Hear me on my explanation of ‘court is in session’:
There are 3 meanings at hand: First off I am going to ‘court’ the world one last time, seeking its affection and attempting to woo their hearts. Trying to get their attention! When I say ‘world’ I mean those who are not in the Kingdom atmosphere and influence! Pay close attention, have ears to hear what the Spirit of the Lord is conveying
Second: Court is in session, I am calling all the royal house hold attendees! My royal priesthood, chosen generation, Sons of the Most High! Court is in session, Meet with me, and take council & counsel. Here we will have a judicial assembly, giving advice, exchanging information; a tribunal of sorts! This goes way beyond what you have titled five fold gifting; it involves relationship, confidence & commitment! It involves knowing whom you belong to! Court is in session, do not miss it merely because of your ignorance & insecurity & your sense of entitlement or the need for ‘a position’. My court is not like the world, with a king & queen hierarchy. When you bow the knee to me, it is not to be knighted & set in the royal courts; rather you become ignited as Sons of the Most High!
Third: Court is in session; this is where justice will be administered! Where the hearing of cases will be and the determination will take place. Take care; this is not as legal as it sounds. There is no judgment passed, this is not the judgment seat.
It is more of a place that you will come to by the heart; a spiritual convergence. A place both natural (however super) and it involves matters of the Kingdom and it will done by intimate connection with the Trinity. Another way a looking at is it will be like a courtyard setting, a gathering to the Kings court, no jury. Come to the residence of the sovereign! When you get here see the mystery unfold. How to get here? Use your heart as a compass, My Word as the map, it is not a lonesome route, a one man trip, so take care to come as many. It is not exclusive to the gifted ones, however being skillful will speed up the journey. I am in no big hurry, but time is of great importance. Remember stay in the eye of the storm, tact against the wind, court is in session!
Friday, July 1, 2011
June 30th 2011
The 'false' sits in the front row. False has the ear of many, mostly because of its front row seats and its VIP placement and it is well dressed. It looks and sounds like Truth, however it can not smell like Truth.. So, where is Truth in this situation? Where does Truth sit? How is it dressed?
There are many false teachers who have the ears of the seekers & they are gaining momentum. How is it that these false teachers garner such large classrooms? Where are my Professors of Truth? I don't hear them, oh I hear the prophets and they barely are prophesying truth.
Court indeed is in session. I need my court recorders and scribes! I do not need anymore futuristic; sci-sfi; over dramatic prophetic sayings and observations!
Justice, I cry out; where is justice?
Distractions; they are things sent out in bulk! Sent to distract; confuse; hinder and to throw you off track! I need my spiritual hound dogs to catch the scent of the move of the Spirit & to keep you on track! Track the Truth!
I need my prophets; seers; gifted Sons to fine tune their 'gifts' and to have the words they speak to be filled with Truth & substance.
Court is in session: Nail down doctrines; nail down the Truth. Have your testimonies hammered out & fine tuned. Get your covenant rights detailed. Get the words you use redefined & zero in on the exact.
Stay in the Eye of the Storm! Court is in Session
The 'false' sits in the front row. False has the ear of many, mostly because of its front row seats and its VIP placement and it is well dressed. It looks and sounds like Truth, however it can not smell like Truth.. So, where is Truth in this situation? Where does Truth sit? How is it dressed?
There are many false teachers who have the ears of the seekers & they are gaining momentum. How is it that these false teachers garner such large classrooms? Where are my Professors of Truth? I don't hear them, oh I hear the prophets and they barely are prophesying truth.
Court indeed is in session. I need my court recorders and scribes! I do not need anymore futuristic; sci-sfi; over dramatic prophetic sayings and observations!
Justice, I cry out; where is justice?
Distractions; they are things sent out in bulk! Sent to distract; confuse; hinder and to throw you off track! I need my spiritual hound dogs to catch the scent of the move of the Spirit & to keep you on track! Track the Truth!
I need my prophets; seers; gifted Sons to fine tune their 'gifts' and to have the words they speak to be filled with Truth & substance.
Court is in session: Nail down doctrines; nail down the Truth. Have your testimonies hammered out & fine tuned. Get your covenant rights detailed. Get the words you use redefined & zero in on the exact.
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