The God, The LORD, says "Israel has sinned"

The God whose love as husband for straying but beloved wife has been expressed by prophets of old, says again "Israel has sinned" and He says that the eagle of war and mass surveillance has been overhead as a sign of this with wars and rumours of wars on the agenda as indeed we have seen the past two decades. So He lets me preach this 'from the mountain top' "Love the LORD your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind" and I have to shout it loud "all your voice".

Good news - oh but not such great news

Revelation 21:8 New International Version - UK (NIVUK)

But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practise magic arts, the idolaters and all liars – they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulphur. This is the second death.’

Good news - yes great news!

Revelation 21:6-7 New International Version - UK (NIVUK)

He said to me: ‘It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children.

The Truth of God sets Free

Although God requires none of the Gentiles to think they are law-bound to keep the Law of Moses found in old testament scriptures like Deuteronomy or Leviticus or Exodus, He does require that those He has ransomed by the blood of Jesus Christ His Son keep the command to love Him with heart and soul and mind. His commands are to Gentiles given through Jesus Christ to all who believe and those who do love Him will listen to learn from Jesus the commands relevant to them. The Holy Spirit is come now to meet with believers so they can learn all that is from Jesus even beyond the beginning of His teachings found in new testament scripture. These teachings include commands and truth but also marvellous promises of personal neighbourliness toward believers who obey by God and Jesus along with partnership by Jesus who is Lord over Creation that is Nature. The truth sets them free.

Keep it Real

Let's keep it real. We need to let the Lord Jesus guide our feet into that right path and He starts with the worse failings first and rewards progress there with Spirit given for s little faith and repentance then He and we as a body of believers together can build on that. This is His promises at work.

Life of the Inner Man

It is the inner man that is either still of Satan or of God. The inner man that loves doing hateful or dishonest things is still of Satan. People might have to do things at times that are evil but the inner man that is of God hates to do that. The person who loves to lie and loves to feel they have made a believer lie or hate or harm another is still devlish. The person reborn by the transformation of the inner man by words of life and spirit from Jesus the Christ and by action of the Holy Spirit sent in Lord Jesus' name is of God. This person has fellowship with those who are transformed the same way and some have fellowship with God Himself. They can choose to leave their fellowship with each other and with God or be drawn away from this fellowship. To God it is then as if they have died but they can be brought back to life by making a decision to stop straying like this and seek fellowship again with God. God can make that happen. He can do so in answer to the prayers of their brothers - the others born of spirit of God too. The person who sees it and prays for them is answered by God giving the one born of God life again. They were a child of God but they became as if they were a dead son or daughter by leaving fellowship with the Father. This need not be a permanent 'death' because God can bring them 'back to life' by granting them to repent and decide to stop straying in their actions and have a change of inner man again and seek to regain fellowship with God. God sonship is therefore permanent but death is possible yet temporary. And what if nobody interceded? Jesus too intercedes. He ever lives to do so, thankfully. Only in the extreme when all measures by God to bring back to fellowship a very persistent and  stubborn wanderer are exhausted does a person permanently leave fellowship.

When was the Book of Enoch really written?

Some say the Book of Enoch was not written by Enoch around 3000 to 2500 BC but by a pretender around 300 BC. So how, if the writer of the Book of Enoch was born a few hundred years BC, would he have known that the emergence of these things happened in 3000 or thereabouts BC? Face painting, idol making, magic arts, divination, writing, weaponry such as maces, alloys using copper and antimony, warfare, worship of angels and demons and demi-gods (half human, half god - or half human, half angel), sorcery, etc. These appear in archaeology of the time. How would he know it appeared first in the Hermon area and spread out from there throughout the next few hundred years? How would he know it happened just before the time of the Flood recorded in the Sumerian King List? How would he know there were seven kings up to the time of Enoch starting with Adam (Alulim)?

First Aid Good Samaritan

To those new to religion, I recommend focusing on the concept of good samaritan, known the world over, and getting first aid training helps build confidence to help - say when there has been a road accident - even if it is just to help guide traffic around the injured person if they are in the road, say. I find first aid training along agreed lines encourages people to read the situation and prevent further harm and get help or get involved with others helping - it helps make you what Jesus - and the god who he called his father - wants you to be - or perhaps you are already. Not an expert in religion but a good samaritan.

Jesus is The Lord

The Lord Jesus - He could overwhelm you with power and awe. Knock you too the floor as if dead. Keep you prostate like that till He was ready to let you get up. Get into a depth in your mind you never knew you had and overcome - override - your will. Lord - that He is. Lord over the fabric of the space and time that your body and mind occupy. Your heart beats because He lets it beat. 

What Sorts of Things The Spirit Says

This is a quote from the Book of Enoch which Jude said is Enoch's genuine prophecy

 The Book of Enoch Chapter 2

"Behold, he comes with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon them, and destroy the wicked, and reprove all the carnal for everything which the sinful and ungodly have done, and committed against him. "

When I heard tongues and received interpretation of it the same as the speaker of tonguesxalso received it said "Look at the trees how they produce their buds and leaves: They do so by the authority of the Name of the Lord Jesus..."

Enoch went on (Chapters 3 and following):  Observe ye everything that takes place in the heaven, how they do not change their orbits, and the luminaries which are in the heaven, how they all rise and set in order each in its season, and transgress not against their appointed order. Behold ye the earth, and give heed to the things which take place upon it from first to last, how steadfast they are, how none of the things upon earth change, but all the works of God appear to you. Behold the summer and the winter, how the whole earth is filled with water, and clouds and dew and rain lie upon it.  Observe and see how (in the winter) all the trees seem as though they had withered and shed all their leaves, except fourteen trees, which do not lose their foliage but retain the old foliage from two to three years till the new comes.  And again, observe ye the days of summer how the sun is above the earth over against it. And you seek shade and shelter by reason of the heat of the sun, and the earth also burns with growing heat, and so you cannot tread on the earth, or on a rock by reason of its heat.  Observe ye how the trees cover themselves with green leaves and bear fruit: wherefore give ye heed and know with regard to all His works, and recognize how He that liveth for ever hath made them so. And all His works go on thus from year to year for ever, and all the tasks which they accomplish for Him, and their tasks change not, but according as God hath ordained so is it done. And behold how the sea and the rivers in like manner accomplish and change not their tasks from His commandments'.    

Few Saw Jesus Die

There were only a few at the cross' foot to see Jesus die and mainly John gave testimony. So how reliable is the testimony of John? A fair question given the import and the many who say He never died. The testimony of John is surely as reliable on what we cannot personally attest to - like Jesus actually dying in front of human eyes - as it is about things we can attest to. Think of the promises Jesus gave that are fulfilled as people love Him and serve Him. The promise of being honored by God. Of God and Jesus making themselves known and dwelling among such disciples - Emanuel - God with us. Of answers to prayer in His name. Of miracles greater than those He did. To those who receive the fulfillments of these promises and live real life by Jesus the testimony is verified so yes, we believe Jesus did die and died for you too.

Critical View of Living by Mosaic Law

This is to cast a critical eye on living by the Law of the Old Testament, thinking that it will result in success and the kind of righteousness the commands in the Law portray: the NewTestament scriptures paint a picture of that being a failed approach and in fact the way to end up with a righteous life like the Law portrays is to first keep the sayings and commands Jesus preached (albeit He included some of the Law commands in that but went beyond others like replacing 'eye for eye' with 'turn the other cheek') resulting in birth of spirit, then keeping His commands still and His truth that you come to know during the rebirth by Spirit. The result is you protect yourself from wrong doing as empowered by the Spirit to do so. This is a successful approach and tesults in a righteousness which fulfills that seen in the Law.

God Raised Jesus and Now I Have an Eternally Living Saviour

When God raised Lord Jesus from the dead it wasn't just in love for Jesus, His Son, but in love for me  too who needs a Saviour. An eternal ever living Saviour. You too?

His Glory with God from the Beginning

Does an age of archaeological discovery of the Chalcolithic Age combined with ancient texts mentioning a Son of Man throw light on the identity of the Christ?
How does modern archaeology of the Sumerian Levant combined with ancient texts related to that time throw light on the mystery of the person of the Christ? The texts of ancient Sumeria are constantly being translated and throw up new insights into religion of the time. One text not among them but similar to some has accurate details of the Chalcolithic period not known until recently so perhaps warrants review. This is called the Book of Enoch. This text records that a prophet and king of the period saw a person with God called the Son of Man. Could this be the heavenly person with whom Lord Jesus Christ thousands of years later identified Himself?

In my personal research looked at places and times of emergence from 3500 BC onwards of human dolls and magic-related objects. They appear later in time the further you get from a single place. They appear in finds earliest near the region of the border between Lebanon and Israel. They appear latest in Egypt to the south (Pre-Dynastic) and Cyprus to the north. They are abundant in finds near the coastlands and lowlands of east Israel and Gaza. The focus is Hermon between Israel and Lebanon. How would anyone late in Israel's history know this pattern lay hidden to be discovered recently? They would not. So how would a writer if pseudepygrphal of the book know to say the angels that introduced magic and the like started out from Hebron targeting women of the vicinity and their teachings spread out from there to malign the world? It suggests that this was what Enoch in Sumeria truly taught at that time. So the Son of Man was with God at that time too. Look too at metallurgy. It is in Enoch's book that it spread along with the magic arts and artefacts, and along with face painting for beautification. This is the case in the finds. As Enoch said the adding of antimony to make alloys of greater strength than copper were spread having been introduced at the same time. This is found in places like described here https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonferrous_Archaeometallurgy_in_the_Southern_Levant . Face painting objects appear in Predynastic Egypt with mirror-like shiny polished decorated pallettes for it and we all know they painted the edges of their eyes from that time. Modern archaeology attests it but it would not be known long after it happened in such detail, surely, to have caused this book to be so accurate if written late in Jewish history.

Experience versus Stance

Experience versus Stance. 

Most or all of the scriptures are experiences of others recorded for our learning. If you can have the experiences yourself then have them. Compare them with scriptures to help you learn from them but be wary about how you use those scriptures cos you can misunderstand them. God is greater than our hearts and knows everything. Stances are for manekins, experiences are for the living. Experience tells me Jesus is alive somewhere and reaches me - and I need experience to understand and cement that faith, no stance. Stances cause divisions into parties.

Here is what Apostle Paul said -

"My goal is to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead."

Charles Wesley's hymn:

 "Jesus, lover of my soul,  let me to thy bosom fly,  while the nearer waters roll,  while the tempest still is high;  hide me, O my Savior, hide,  till the storm of life is past;  safe into the haven guide,  O receive my soul at last!   

Other refuge have I none;  hangs my helpless soul on thee;  leave, ah! leave me not alone,  still support and comfort me.  All my trust on thee is stayed,  all my help from thee I bring;  cover my defenseless head  with the shadow of thy wing.   

Plenteous grace with thee is found,  grace to cover all my sin;  let the healing streams abound;  make and keep me pure within.  Thou of life the fountain art;  freely let me take of thee;  spring thou up within my heart,  rise to all eternity." 

Experience of tongues with interpretation teaches me: 

In the winter the deciduous trees have just a stance and look dead but each spring they come alive with buds and how? By the power of the Lordship of Jesus Christ! Tongues taught me that!

Blessed is the Father who is God and gave resurrection and eternal life through His Son Jesus Christ the Lord.

Christians Beware

Beware a belief it is possible for humans joining together to combine their powers and human spirit to go it alone without any god or spirit of a god? This might become a powerful enemy of Christians all over the World and might be headquartered in Europe, and Britain in particular.

Have Faith in God

Almost two thousand years ago disciples of Lord Jesus Christ recorded His teaching that faith can move mountains. So disciples today are still faced with this challenge; are they exercising such faith and moving mountains by it? You have to flex faith like a muscle. You can do it - you just put doubts out of your head. It takes a struggle to dismiss all those people saying 'it won't work' and take it on trust from Jesus 'God will work'. Try it. You might fail a few times but that is no crime. It is a good fight. Helps when you start with certainty - something you can be certain God will do. Then say it. Tell that thing which you believe God will make happen for you 'Happen!' and dispell all doubt against it until it has happened. If you start with something you have word of God and perhaps also Spirit of God within urging you to believe God is willing to do it helps. Years ago I told someone who knew my struggle that I was convicted that my discipleship was only partial because I hadn't learned the miraculous side of Jesus' teachings. I read books and one helped a lot with short passages of what Jesus promised written out big so you could sit and meditate on each promise. I let them fill my psyche and it made me a new person really - positive in hope and faith in Jesus. Then I heard preaching about telling the mountain to move as Jesus taught. I had terrible pain from a burn on my finger with a nasty burn blister and I couldn't concentrate as he preached yet I knew this was a message I should hear from God so here was the opportunity to show faith as Jesus said. I shut my eyes as I took in the teaching of what Jesus said and then in certainty without doubt told the pain and burn "Go". The pain went instantl and I carried on listening to a great preacher preach God's word as Jesus gave it. The struggle was fierce against thoughts people would tell me 'it will come back - you are imagining the pain has gone' but I succeeded putting the thoughts away and believing still. After the sermon I looked and the blister was gone. The pain had never come back. A physical change like that struck me as power of the Creator by which He made all things. I used this faith over the years and saw wonders.

What is God Like?

To know God it is best, it seems to me, to let Him show me what He is like. All true. I know that much. He never lies. His Spirit supports truth and truthfulness in a pure way. Light with no darkness in Him: So John wrote in his first epistle. That is consistent with what He shows me of Himself. I might not know Him brilliantly but just a little but He is very kind - I find that - very powerful - nothing can be impossible for the God who does what He does - He really 'digs' His Son Jesus and wants me to do so too. In my book that makes Him a seriously good father to Jesus and One willing to be father to feeble idiots like me. I know He gets down and dirty cleaning our lives up by revealing Himself to us before we are clean all over and before He has granted Jesus righteousness to take us over. We just need to repent of lying and badly hating and believe His true teachings enough to do so. He promises to clean us when we cannot clean ourselves and He did that to my lying habit. The rest is promised. This all makes Him good. Jesus is just like Him in ways He behaves. Yet scary is what He is too. But He protects fearsomely too. Who but He can defeat and contain the evil of one of the greatest of the powers He created. He has invested all this scariness of power in the Man who became a child having been Lord over the Highest Angels - Jesus. They control the future as Revelation says and that includes the immense scariness of the deepest Universe. Of course scary. Resurrection is scary. Eternal service to Him as Eternal Master is scary but thrilling and immensely comforting to know a Master can be over me for all eternity so I never need lose my dearest Boss. Yes He is awesomely authoritative and kind and lives forever and is very dear to me especially as He biticed me individually and showed Himself and His Son to me directly. How dear that makes Him - God and the Son of God

Faith to Move Mountains

Almost two thousand years ago disciples of Lord Jesus Christ recorded His teaching that faith can move mountains. So disciples today are still faced with this challenge; are they exercising such faith and moving mountains by it?

 Jesus replied to them, “Have faith in God. I assure you: If anyone says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, all the things you pray and ask for—believe that you have received them, and you will have them."

You have to flex faith like a muscle. You can do it - you just put doubts out of your head. It takes a struggle to dismiss all those people saying 'it won't work' and take it on trust from Jesus 'God will work'. Try it. You might fail a few times but that is no crime. It is a good fight. Helps when you start with certainty - something you can be certain God will do. Then say it. Tell that thing which you believe God will make happen for you 'Happen!' and dispell all doubt against it until it has happened. If you start with something you have word of God and perhaps also Spirit of God within urging you to believe God is willing to do it helps. Years ago I told someone who knew my struggle that I was convicted that my discipleship was only partial because I hadn't learned the miraculous side of Jesus' teachings. I read books and one helped a lot with short passages of what Jesus promised written out big so you could sit and meditate on each promise. I let them fill my psyche and it made me a new person really - positive in hope and faith in Jesus. Then I heard preaching about telling the mountain to move as Jesus taught. I had terrible pain from a burn on my finger with a nasty burn blister and I couldn't concentrate as he preached yet I knew this was a message I should hear from God so here was the opportunity to show faith as Jesus said. I shut my eyes as I took in the teaching of what Jesus said and then in certainty without doubt told the pain and burn "Go". The pain went instantl and I carried on listening to a great preacher preach God's word as Jesus gave it. The struggle was fierce against thoughts people would tell me 'it will come back - you are imagining the pain has gone' but I succeeded putting the thoughts away and believing still. After the sermon I looked and the blister was gone. The pain had never come back. A physical change like that struck me as power of the Creator by which He made all things. I used this faith over the years and saw wonders.

An Old Command and a New Command

We have it from God that there is Israel by descent from Abraham and then there are children of Abraham by virtue of being children of God's promise. John 8 shows these are distinct. Jesus has the same command to both: to love God and thus to love Him. John's epistles show a new command too: to obey the truth. I submit that the truth to obey is this: that the Abrahamic promise relates to children of the promise and to bless the children of the promise is to bless Jesus and the Abrahamic promise is then that those who do so will be blessed.

The Way

Love The Lord, Jesus and therefore keep His commands. Receive what He promises those who do so. Know Him and The Father because of His promises being fulfilled (Him showing Himself to those who love and obey Him and His commands). Know the truth that doing good to those who do these things is doing good to Jesus and returns back in blessing on the blesser (The Abrahamic Blessing). Live by this truth and obey it as a command (this truth itself is a new command). Receive knowledge you / we are knowing Him in the fact we keep His commands. And so it continues as we continue in Him with eachother in this love and promise and knowledge and obedience He teaches.

A Key to Knowledge

'Speaking in tongues' is the most objective of the spiritual gifts and signs of God's new covenant in Christ because it requires interpretation and the possibility exists of multiple people receiving the interpretations which can corroborate each other. So very strong certainty is possible when this happens. It still needs faith but can introduce to us truths objectively as strongly as scripture. Scripture passages too can corroborate one another and this too gives the possibility of strong revelation. In my experience without these corroborations it could not be known that Jesus was with God creating the Universe of nature with Him since the very beginning of Creation. Just a few scriptures tell it - too few to be unambiguous enough for certainty. Tongues allows me personally to bridge the last gap in faith to understand this truth. That shows it provides very strong revelation on a par with science in its objectivity. Of course, if you happen to be blessed enough to be one of the recievers of the interpretation it gives additional secret possibility of certainty. You have an additional objective and subjective source of truth. You have an additional objective and subjective source of truth. With this power comes responsibility to believe the truth or you might be stealing the keys by being given the key to enter and not entering and so preventing others from entering. By believing the truth the receiver of the secret key needs to use it to enter then help others to enter. 

Testimony of Proof of God: Objective and Subjective

Some ask for objective testimony of events I have received that gave me both subjective and objective proofs of the existence of firstly God, who the one we know as Jesus Christ called The Father, then secondly Jesus Christ my living Lord and Master, then thirdly the Holy Spirit. It all started when I was a child and kept asking in prayer to see God. I read the Bible a lot so I heard about God and the Son of God and the Spirit of God. I got prayers answered all the time so I knew He loved me but my father was a pastor and my grandparents missionaries and I was under pressure to preach. Even when I received the Holy Spirit it was in a vision telling me to 'build the Temple' or as I regard building the new covenant temple or Body of Christ - to preach and prophesy. So I took it on as a calling to preach. Yet I complained to God a verse in scripture shamed me by the phrase "they do not know what ... they so confidently affirm" and over and over I prayed to God to show Himself to me and since I believed in there being Father and Son and Spirit I asked to see Father and Son and Spirit enough to preach with true knowledge. I did add that seeing Jesus with my eyes would reduce my blessing because Jesus had said "You believe because you have seen me; blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe" so I wanted to not see with eyes but be shown without actual physical seeing. John taught in the Gospel of John that Jesus promised to those who obey His commands and teachings that He Himself and the Father too would show themselves to those people so I audited my life against His teachings to check I obeyed. Then I kept asking God for these revelations and from the Spirit too who I knew could be manifested in gifts like speaking in tongues and interpreting tongues. Eventually I think it was the end of 1994 or the start of 1995. Before the second Gulf War. I was earnestly asking to find the right wife too. One night after praying for this I had a vivid dream more vision than dream. One like a man or like one of those ancient Greek gods you see in films stood there before me in a long robe to His feet and said "I am God". He told me the next day at work a document of sorts with many names on it would be put on my desk in front of me (this would never normally happen because I simply dealt with invoices and they were put in my intray not on my desk)    "Look at it!". The feeling of certainty it was God the Father was great so this was subjective proof to me of His existence and knowledge of Him but objective proof came in the day. At the end of the day around 4pm with few left in the office a girl brought a card and circulation envelope with many names on the card signing it as a greetings card and on the envelope to go around all the people in the office. I knew it was the dream fulifilled. I barely remembered to look at it closely but when I did I saw a note saying it had to be back to Janet so-and-so by 4pm. I remembered the dream somehow had mentioned her name too but I didn't know her. ai rushed it to her. Last minute! she said. It had to be back so she could get it to the man (a marvelous prophetically gifted man who worked next door and wowed us with poetry from time to time) who was getting married and the bank holiday was next day. It saved the day that I got it to her. God saved the day. Then a couple of weeks later I was reading a Psalm about going out and seeing the works of God, the destructions He has wrought. There were floods of the nearby River Severn (UK - I lived in Bristol). The River Avon went near my house and I thought it my be flooded too. I had read God "Presides over the floods" so to obey the psalm I went out in torrential rain to look at the river to see it in flood and think of God. A large golfing umbrella held off the torrential rain. Yes it was in full flood. I marvelled at the power to affect ordinary lives and judge and thought Jesus is now judge over all and presides over judgments of God. As I walked back up a hill from the river - Blackswarth Road I think it's called - a powerful voice of authority spoke clearly in my mind (not audibly) "Put down your umbrella!". So I did as commanded and as I put it down (cars driving past me in torrential rain on s busy street) the rain stopped so quickly it was like not a drop would have touched me. I just knew, subjectively, it was Jesus Christ, thinking immediately how the Gospel of John says after His resurrection He did something just like that to show Himself, risen and well and still the same with all the more confident power, to His disciples as they fished and He stood on the shore and commanded them from the shore. This was Him! I knew it. I wanted objective certainty because it might to others and to me questions later be an angel and not a humdred percent certainly Jesus Himself so I said later as I went to bed that night I wanted proof confirmation objectively. There was a dressing gown hung on a nail in the wall and nothing else in the room. I had moved into the house quite poor with few possessions. The dressing gown had always been on that nail and never off it to use it. If it was Jesus may it be off the wall by the morning. I went to sleep in peace assured He could do it to prove it was Him who had spoken to me. In the night I suddenly awoke with utter compulsion deep in my deepest psyche to get up immediately. I got up and started leaving the room and for the first time since moving into that house took the dressing gown off the nail in the wall. As soon as I did it I remembered the sign I had requested. I knew not only was it Jesus I had encountered but His power to awaken me like that was what made people call Him Master and Lord - He certainly is. I had utter certainty inside. Objectively I know all this happened too. Now weeks went by and I was occassionally going to church but didn't like the hypocrisy and lack of faith. I repeatedly told people I was seeking greater power of the Spirit in a church I might find as the epistles of Paul demonstrated to me. Then a visiting leader of both churches and local governments in the area visited and maybe was told what I was saying but he ended up telling me I should come with him to a church where I would certainly find the Holy Spirit. He took me out of Bristol to a Pentecostal church. As he drove me there a heaviness was filling me with seriousness. I reckon the Spirit was upon me. I the service a leader spoke into a mic. It was other worldly how he spoke during the worship time after singing led by a music group. It was tongues. It was clear words but of angels not men. Unlike earthly languages but real sentences easily distinct and miraculous sounding. As I listened it welled up in me as spirit within. I started to see a vision. I heard English words within. Not words I ever heard before but in line with the vision running across my mind. Words of mystery and power from heaven and God it seemed. Objectively there was proof. The speaker switched to English and his words were a perfect match in meaning to the words and vision within me. Further proof was needed - spirit yes, miraculous yes, but certainly of God? The proof was in the words - they were didactic. Teaching a mystery not in the Bible per se. This was not cribbed from a Bible passage I knew coming back to me and to the speaker simultaneously. It was new truth to me but scripture proved it true by saying a spirit telling people Jesus is Lord is a spirit from God. The words were along these lines (vision of trees budding) "Look at the trees how they bud and put forth their leaves: They do so by the power and authority of the Name of the Lord Jesus" It went on with a bit more I forgot in my wonder. Now I was assured of Father and of Son and of Holy Spirit. Around that time I started courting the lady who would become my wife too. God had answered all my prayers. Now I must proclaim Him and His truth - subjective and objective.

What is Truth?

What is truth? Although not a rhetorical question and often asked cynically, here is what truth is in a Gospel context. Truth is primarily the testimony of God who does not lie. Secondarily it is the testimony of those who because of God's truthful testimony and truthfulness have determined to only be truthful too. 

God

Consider when God appears to people in dreams. It is really Him. He may look clearly like God. He says the words of God. But is God ever seen? God has a way of appearing without it being the kind of appearing He told Moses could kill someone "you cannot see my face and live". I reckon it must be a kind of avatar thing. I wonder if that is what the 'Angel of God' means. Like at Jesus' baptism - Peter said it was the Angel of God which spoke such that it sounded to many like thunder. Yet it was God speaking God's words. Clearly when you awake from seeing God in a dream like Ananias did who was sent to Saul of Tarsus (Paul), you know God exists outside the dream and the dream is an instrument like a TV broadcast to let you hear God but God does outside the dream what He says in the dream - He is real. So it IS God but not such that we could die. Maybe this can happen physically in form like a human and maybe that happened to Jacob. Jacob wrestled with a man all night and then found he had been wrestling with God. It does happen. I reckon Jesus is always involved but it is not necessarily Jesus who is seen.

Reading and The Truth

To get to know truth we have to follow Christ (adhere to His teachings) so He will give it to us. This might come through reading but not much use reading without following Christ for learning the truth.

Abrahamic Children of Promise

The Abrahamic Promise and Abrahamic Blessing is misunderstood. People think God meant biological descendants would receive it. Jesus refuted that (see John 8) and so did His Apostle Paul (see Galatians 3). It is His teaching from God that by becoming the true property of Jesus you become a descendant of Abraham by Spirit, not biology. You then inherit the promises God gave Him and those who bless you God blesses and those who curse you are accursed. There are whole nations who have missed this and have formed mistaken policies in my opinion.

The Name that is Mightier than the Sword

The blood of Jesus the Lamb of God is so powerful to plead with God for His interventions to end the worse evils. Any attack is addressed by invoking (calling on, crying out even quietly) the Name 'Lord Jesus'. His name is mightier than any evil. Some evils might need prayer and fasting too He said. Doing this instead of resorting to anything violent or aggressive can keep a gospel worker functioning effectively at peace without blood guilt. King David was not allowed to build the Temple because he had been a champion and then king who had shed blood of God's enemies. We need to be kept from this is we are to help build the Temple with Christ.

Overcoming Fear of Death

Let's not underestimate the hindrance fear of loss and death is to doing good. People do not want to commit to courses of doing good to others when it might put their own lives in danger. This might be because of love of family but even those without close family ties can find risking their lives or major loss to help others impossible due to insecurity about death. The resurrection when certainty of it is inspired by the Holy Spirit based on the truth He leads to of the resurrection already of Jesus now alive from the dead has power to give the security such people need to do more to more fearlessly help others in serious need.

Nationality as Religion?

If a nation tries to have a national religion and identify with it as if it is reason enough for individual eternal life, what they could end up with is national hypocrisy - the yeast of the Pharisees and Scribes, as Lord Jesus Christ put it. Every person needs to find their eternal life the right Way, not through their nationality.

Do unto others as you would they do to you. Treat them like they were you. The Golden Rule is God's (the Father's who Jesus preached) and those who make God their one God are the ones who will keep it in a special way - they will keep it because they love the Father who commands it. The true Christians will keep it in the name of the one whose ministry led to their ability to keep it and to make the Father their one God: the name of the one they make their one Lord, Jesus the Christ. The Holy Spirit will lead them to do so.

The God

It seems a person adhering to the fame of a god through narratives told about that god plus experience of that god has a duty to do the will of the god unless the narratives are false or overrated. If the narratives are true and the experience of the deliverances by the god real then the will of the god is done if the fame is due it. In the case of the God of Christians and Jews and Muslims the boxes are all rightly ticked and the will of God should be done by His adherents in loyal devoted service. This particular God's will is kindness and holiness together first and foremost with love towards Himself and those who are His family. This extends to Jesus His Son but mainly Christians accept this. Those who make a god The God are accepting that the god's reputation warrants it. In the case of the God of Christ and Israel and Muslims He warrants it by His reputation in powerfully saving His servants. In the case of Christians who make God the Father for themselves The God, it is their place to admit they do so because of Jesus and all they know of the truthfulness of this God's narrative through Jesus. They bow the knee to this Father as for them The God in the name of this Jesus in whom is known the salvation of the Father and worthiness to be The God for them. It is irrespective of existence of any other gods. For them it becomes all about one God, the Father. This happens through the Son of God helped by the Spirit of God. The works the Son has done in coming and showing the Father in all He did and said then starting a new covenant of God with His disciples by dying on a cross by crucifixion then rising from the dead and ascending back to the Father and working with those He sent to tell and show the world - all this accomplished a believer having the ability to put a face to the name God the Father then make this Father for them The God.

The Holy Spirit

I wanted spiritual gifts all my life and eventually God heard my prayers and a local leader took me to an AoG church where he said I would receive what I so earnestly sought. At the meeting we went to a leader gave a message at the mic in tongues. So beautiful the words and not babble but real angelic sentences in a definite language but out of this world. I had a feeling of pressure on me which was the Holy Spirit and as each sentence was spoken it inspired pictures and  English words in my mind which were a glorious prophesy about the glory of the power of the Lord Jesus' name and authority and how trees bud and produce leaves by it. I'd never heard such things. Then the speaker stopped and started speaking n English and his words were the very words I heard. I reckon this was interpretation of tongues. It is a gift. It is not itself tongues but was great and certainly the Holy Spirit. Since then I heard Him speak to me too and prove to me it was Him. I never spoke in tonges but it sure is the Holy Spirit God gave me.

Song

Christ is Lord. Christ will come. Over the mountains and the deep blue sea. 

Up through the valleys. Over the mountains. Over the mountains and the deep blue sea. 

Christ is Lord. Christ will come. Over the mountains and the deep blue sea. 

Conviction

We may be missing the obvious because it is neglected in dogma and creeds. Law's ability to convict and cut to the heart concerns how it interacts with sinful behavior - it affects a potential sinner or a person after sinning to think an innocent (even cuddly) animal like a lamb will die because of sin. This is its power. The deterrent and convicter of innocent pure sacrifice. The pageant too of noses being rubbed in sin by rituals like children today being told Father Christmas only gives nice gifts if they have been good - yet in the Law it is in truth not invented stories. Now roll forward and a greater innocent life is shed for the acts that make it necessary - this convicts the guilty doesn't it. Genuine love for Jesus and His loving Father adds to that conviction and cutting to the heart more than a dying lamb. Now this conviction is so great to the one living God and His Son that ritual on top of the sacrifice is unnecessary. Truth about it does enough convicting. Now the convicting added to by a Spirit of truth coming from God and applying that truth to convict too all has so mcg power that sin can be wiped iut and slavery to it broken as chains fall off. But one ritual remains to remind and reconvict - the bread and wine - the command to partake in rememberance of Him.

God's Truth

The Son of Man was a real person reigning over Heaven and Earth with God. He had been with God before ceation was created. This person came and shed His blood in sacrifice and was given the prophesied name Jesus. This made a new covenant since the old covenant was based on laws of Moses commanded when no such sacrifice was known to man. Now an efficacious sacrifice had (has) been made a new order came to be. This testimony is a version of events we are all familiar with but might disagree with having happened this way with these people - the Son of Man and His Father God. Yet there is The Faith which agrees this version of events and calls it The Truth. 

The Shepherd

Righteousness was set in stone before Jesus came. It pointed to Jesus but Jesus made a huge change to the relevance of Law because He gave a greater sacrifice and shed His own holy blood. The Law was righteousness set in stone but could not make an adherent righteous the way Jesus's blood could. So it all changed and a new sacrifice took first place. The commands needed reissuing now there was a new covenant. But true that faith was always a way of righteousness - even before the Law. Noah, Enoch, Abraham, Sarah - all lived righteously by a faith that had nothing set in stone. Jesus did not replace this - He completed it in a way these righteous treasures longed for. He introduced a new birth to make a child of Satan into a child of God. Even people of faith like John the Baptist needed this. Apostle Paul started as Saul of Tarsus a leading light of Law but not a true light until the risen Jesus cut him to the heart.

Deep Cleaning

In Jesus' teaching it seems He was leading us to a deeper understanding of Old Testament commands than you get just by reading them and obedience to their spiritual meaning. but not going as far as He allowed Paul to eventaully take it once there was a church. I get the understanding that church is key - being part in truth of a body of Christ united with Christ puts onto us a whole new requirement to be holy and remove the worldly part of ourselves. But we have to get there first - to be united with Christ and part of His body. We have to not just be in church but be so in truth - for it to be truth that we are part of the body of Christ Himself. To get there takes basic cleansing. The focus on Christ's commands gets us there and keeps us there once there. Here is where we learn Christ's truthful testimony about Old Testament commands He brings into the New Testament. Here is where we enter the New Testament whether from the Israel Old Testament side or the Gentile side - He is gateway for both groups although Paul took His teachings to Gentiles yet with Christ's commands included. So the initial induction into Christ and staying in Christ is the first washing or as Christ put it to Peter - having a bath. Then truth sets in. Then body of Christ becomes a reality in our own lives.   At this point a new dimension opens to us - there are others in this body and this brings a new possibility (and duty) for holiness to go deeper. Deep cleaning. Cleaning where the bath could not reach because it needs others to reach our feet. Here is what Jesus meant - you will not understand this now but later you will understand. Foot washing by each other. Another person can make us holier and deeper in obedience than we can make ourselves. Peter and brothers would 'get it' once they were in the church. After the Spirit came perhaps. Much of the commands of the epistles is this new deeper level of cleansing. For it we need eachother. Praise God for the Body of Christ.

A place of obedience (from LinkedIn thread today)

From a LinkedIn thread today


We are getting close to the place we need to be - to really loving God as dearly loved children. The Spirit brings it about. The Spirit does uphold the Law even though the blood of Jesus requires a new covenant as the old one becomes (though still intact and preserved) a pre-Christ covenant requiring sacrifices no longer necessary because Christ has been sacrificed (and raised).

Paul wrote in Romans: "For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is one; and he will justify the circumcised on the ground of faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law."

So the Spirit leads to the righteousness described in the Law and some commands continue into the new covenant commands from God as God dictates. It is a richly promise-driven covenant. We want to obey its commands if we love God. We need to seek and find His commands. But we need the Spirit poured out on us like the fire on Elijah's sacrifice. Then we will be led to the commands God wants us in the new covenant to obey according to true testimony God gives us. The fire is not just tongues of fire of Spirit on us but trouble coming to test us a prove us in this obedience of faith. War might come. Firey trials, He, our Christ Jesus, baptises with Spirit and with fire and winnows out the chaff. Glory to God through Him. God have mercy on us.

Literal Miracles

My grandparents were Pentecostal missionaries living soon after the revivals when people like Wigglesworth were working miracles everywhere in Wales and England and similar things were happening in USA in the 20s last century. They went to work most of their lives as missionaries in Nigeria. They came back to the UK a couple of times as I grew up telling of all the miracles that accompanied their work there. Yes. But I went on to study at UCL in London - an Atheist college (so they told us - traditionally as per Jeremy Bentham's philosophies). So I was bombarded by atheistic biology as I studied biochemistry there. But I attended a church with a great preacher who taught clearly from the gospels (Dr R T Kendall) and one day he preached a great long sermon on Jesus' teaching 'Say to this mountain "move" without doubting and God will move it for you because of that faith'. I did what Jesus said the first time then and it was just like He said. I told an excruciating burn to "Go" so I could concentrate on the sermon. The pain went immediately and I fended off doubtful thoughts from atheists and unbelievers 'oh it is just in your mind - the pain will come back' as enlightened westerners love to say. I had my eyes shut concentrating and believing as RT preached on such faith. After the sermon there was still no pain as I had struggled to keep believing. I looked down to the finger I had burnt badly on a toaster that morning. The nasty burn blister which was there before the sermon had vanished completely and of course the pain never came back. Like a faithful steward I went on to do greater things. Very great. Jesus even met me once and did the same as I had been doing to affirm this faith (I must add I never saw Him physically but He proved it was Him) but did it better with kindness triumphing over judgment. Like He does. Like God the Father is, who lovingly does it all in response to our faith (to Jesus' faith even - this same Jesus who was crucified and lives).

Believe God Exists

Quote: From the start of the Gospel of Mark

The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

As it is written in the prophet Isaiah,

“See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,
    who will prepare your way;

the voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
    ‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
    make his paths straight,’”

John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with[ water; but he will baptize you with[g] the Holy Spirit."

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

-- end quote


How better for a valley to be lifted and a mountain made low than by economic equalising by people with two coats giving to those with none. What better way to make way for Jesus. When there are no bumps and all is level as a plain then light travels further and all can see it. The glory of God was seen far and wide when oppulence and wealth was replaced by charitable giving to create a level field and then when that way is made the Son of Man from heaven appears to all in first century AD Judea - to Israel and then to Gentiles and then the ends of the Earth. As prophesies had foretold. Put in some deliberate fight to fend off doubt and believe.

Here is that quoted prophesy of Isaiah centuries before John the Baptist's preaching

3 A voice cries out:
“In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord,
    make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
4 Every valley shall be lifted up,
    and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level,
    and the rough places a plain.
5 Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
    and all people shall see it together,
    for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

Luke's gospel wrote of John the Baptist's preaching

Luke 3:10-12New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

And the crowds asked him, “What then should we do?” 11 In reply he said to them, “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.”

The Resurrected Christ in a Scientific Age

Just how powerful is the resurrection of Christ today? The personal resurrected Jesus in a modern world where real miracles are considered implausible but science and natural man's achievements alone allowed to be the modern miracle. How does an awareness that there really is right now a risen Christ affect modern people? If it teaches one thing it is that despite the odds there is a resurrection possible for people today. It shows society can still be completely wrong about what is feasible, even in an age of human achievement and scientific wisdom. There is more than what meets the eye and it can be a great future indeed. Is modern man capable of believing this resurrected Christ really lives and taking in what that means for us? Can schools teach children it is still a possibility in an age of scientific enligtenment?

Accomplishments of God through Christ Jesus

Christ Jesus has been crucified and the accomplishment of His shed blood is in the making a new group of people out of two. The two groups of Israel under the old covenant on one hand and alienated Gentiles disconected from God on the other. The new group has been formed. It is formed by Jesus' shed blood. Who is in this new group? The thing that strikes me is that this same Lord Jesus now stands with God and gurantees the standing of people in this new group. How did someone like me find myself in Christ though? What happened? Well yes Christ died - that happened - and yet Christ rose and the risen Christ did things and some directly and some through others like those He sent. What things? Things that resulted in preaching. Things like His praying resulting in the Holy Spirit coming near. Things that resulted then in power surging to show me holiness and make me want to share in it and benefit from it as a calling. Things that result in people like us encouraging and urging each other on towards a goal of ultimate salvation in the resurrection when He comes to raise the dead who are worthy. Things like revealing Himself. Things that help the publishing and spreading of various scriptures. Things working in others bringing about connections between those who find themselves in this new group. Things like repentance in obedience to Christ and those He sends and gives His commands so that an example is set to follow in not just sticking to what is said but doing what is said then getting visited by the Spirit as a sign of God accepting this because we believe what is said and hold to it to the realisation of it ultimately in obedience and blessing.

The New Freedom

Freedom from condemnation in the new covenant of God takes a lot to understand it but it all comes down to this (some will disagree of course): being prepared to not just learn the commands of Christ but obey them when you realise the truth that He died on that cross for you. If that truth produces in your heart righteousness involving obedience to His commands then there are wonderful promises of God given to disciples of Christ by Christ to be fulfilled in those who don't just learn the truth about His commands but obey them too. See - no curse. There is nothing added that curses you if you don't do what Jesus commands. The new covenant is without the kind of curses Jews had in the old covenant that meant they had to keep obeying it like slaves (many Jews and Gentiles are still allowing itvto dominate them today). The only condemnation is what exists outside the new covenant. The new way frees you from condemning clauses that enslave and do not make the slave righteous or a child of God.

Spiritual Suffering

Spiritual suffering of disciples of Jesus stems from disciples being taught by the Spirit who is God and this makes us spiritually foreign to those not taught by Him. This strangeness to others makes each vulnerable to oppression, persecution and sometimes danger of harm from those in power - as Jesus too took endangerment from Pontius Pilate. But spirit help is at hand from the Angel of The Lord who encamps around those who fear Him and this is seen seldom better, as the Spirit testifies, than there in Daniel 3. Praise God.

God Spreads Truth

God ispreading truth - His testimony and that of His Son and His Spirit - is what matters most but He tells disciples to testify too so they do. It's like spreading free food - not much interest to someone who has no appetite for it but great for the hungry.

Many called gods but just one who is The God

I reckon for ages people without deep personal knowledge of Christian faith have misunderstood the faith to be that no god exists except God (The God) but that was never the real faith. The real faith of the Apostles and disciples of Jesus is that the Father is for us The God and He is worshipped as being unique in that regard with Jesus being The Lord, yet that has never been to deny the actual existence of beings people can regard as gods - even Jesus reminded people of a psalm in scripture calling rulers gods: 'Ye are gods'. So there are indeed many gods yet for a Christian only one who is The God - the One Jesus spoke of as The Father who sent Him. This The God with Jesus The Lord created all things gaving been before all things and will be as long as time exists and beyond if that were possible. This distinguishes the Christian's (and other people of such faith) The God from all the many gods.

Quoting 1 Corinthians 8:5-6 New American Bible (Revised Edition) (NABRE)

Indeed, even though there are so-called gods in heaven and on earth (there are, to be sure, many “gods” and many “lords”), yet for us there is

one God, the Father,
    from whom all things are and for whom we exist,
and one Lord, Jesus Christ,
    through whom all things are and through whom we exist.

Promises of the New Covenant of God

Some of the promises of Jesus, author of the new covenant who paid for it and founded it with His blood on the cross. A covenant without curse.

“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never live in darkness. They will have the light that gives life.”

“If you continue to accept and obey my teaching, you are really my followers. You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

"...But a son belongs to the family forever. So if the Son makes you free, you are really free"

"I can assure you that whoever believes in me will do the same things I have done. And they will do even greater things than I have done, because I am going to the Father. And if you ask for anything in my name, I will do it for you. Then the Father’s glory will be shown through the Son. If you ask me for anything in my name, I will do it."

“If you love me, you will do what I command. I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper to be with you forever. The Helper is the Spirit of truth. The people of the world cannot accept him, because they don’t see him or know him. But you know him. He lives with you, and he will be in you."

"...the people in the world will not see me anymore. But you will see me. You will live because I live. On that day you will know that I am in the Father. You will know that you are in me and I am in you. Those who really love me are the ones who not only know my commands but also obey them. My Father will love such people, and I will love them. I will make myself known to them.”

“All who love me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them. My Father and I will come to them and live with them. But anyone who does not love me does not obey my teaching. This teaching that you hear is not really mine. It is from my Father who sent me."

The Covenant without the Curse

Mainly, it seems to me, Lord Jesus the Christ died so there could be a covenant without the curse, just the promises for if you obey the commands - no curse if you don't. Isn't that glorious. Just His commands and the eternal life promises if you obey them. 

Promise or Doom

Those who ignore and persistently disobey the commands of the old covenant (the Law and the Old Testament Prophets) but yet are under it, following it and relying on it - what happens is they fall foul of its curses. What about with those following the new covenant but not obeying its commands - what does the new covenant say to them about that? Does it have curses too? If it did it would be no better than the old perhaps. I submit that there is no curse on such people like there was under the old covenant (and for some still following the old, still is). They will still for this life have a door before them even if they do not enter. The things of judgment are just as they were if there was no new covenant."Condemned already." They will just keep missing out on the new covenant promises until they obey its commands and enter the door. The new adds no condemnation in addition to any that already existed. No curse. In my view it is like a 'parable' ('illustration') people used to tell when I was young - the new is like a lifebelt thrown out you might refuse to grab when drowning. I would add that it is like the old had the accompanying shout "grab this and be rescued but if not you deserve to die!" and as soon as God says "you deserve to die" the person flounders and drowns. Now God has a better way. A new improved life belt based a lot on the first but this time just lots of encouraging promises are shouted to the person drowning which have the effect of saving them because of the faith instead of doom they inspire, Better. Jesus guarantees it, having contributed His blood to make it work.

The New is not like the Old

It is not commandments in the Law that are the problem. They are similar to commandments from the same God in the new testament. It is the things that God gave with those commandments especially the curse - the curse if you didn't keep all of them. In the new testament it is still the same God and the same righteousness contained in similar commands but instead of a curse accompanying then to motivate obedience it is promises. In particular, there is the promise of God that Jesus will give knowledge of truthful testimony, along with His revelation of Himself. There is the promise of God and Himself always, eternally, abiding with the keepers and obeyers of the commands. A promise to those who do so in love for Him and for God. It is not to say there were no promises in the old covenant. What accompanied commands of God in the old testament Law is different. It was (is, for those following it) a curse for not obeying - this is its part of its motivation. In the new covenant the curse is done away and what accompanies the commands is promises to those who obey which include eternal life. So the promises are better and the curse is abolished. The old covenant of Law is not abolished but it is made obsolete by the new covenant but the new covenant does include commands - but with just promise, unlike the old which has promises and curses on those who don't always obey it all.

Commandments from Lord Jesus via St Paul

The Apostle Paul was sent as an apostle to the Gentiles by Lord Jesus Christ after Jesus rose from the dead and ascended into heaven in the first century AD. Paul told the believing Gentiles that the Old Testament Law is not over them but the Lord Jesus gave Paul commmandments to give these believers, some of which were also in the Law. This shows it is the same God but a new way of righteousness from this God.

Christian Hospitality

Two scriptural moral considerations when giving hospitality we have to weigh, I think

1. who is it wrong to welcome?

2 John 1:7-11

"I say this because many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist. Watch out that you do not lose what we[a] have worked for, but that you may be rewarded fully. Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take them into your house or welcome them. Anyone who welcomes them shares in their wicked work."

 2. who is it wrong not to welcome?

 3 John 1:5-8

 "Dear friend, you are faithful in what you are doing for the brothers and sisters,[a] even though they are strangers to you. They have told the church about your love. Please send them on their way in a manner that honors God. It was for the sake of the Name that they went out, receiving no help from the pagans. We ought therefore to show hospitality to such people so that we may work together for the truth."

The Talent

Take the Parable of the Talents. The one who buried the talent was like one who merely adheres to the old covenant which describes a Good Samaritan but does not to produce one - that talent of the old covenant needs to be seen as a description of what God wants people to be like then combined with the teachings of Jesus in the new covenant of truth to get to being a Good Samaritan - else if you just keep the old covenant and say to the Master you kept it He will say you buried it in the sand and didn't put it to work. That won't be good at all.

Good Samaritans

I sometimes wonder whether a whole lot of what passes as Christian teaching is no better and no more effective at producing Good Samaritans than the Old Covenant and teachings like the Talmud that have followed after the Old Covenant. It is essential I too wake up to the realisation just believing is not enough until you learn to actually adhere to Christ's teachings and even that needs to progress persistently until grace and truth which Christ shares turns the person around and eventually Good Samaritan acts result (like Jamie Foxx's in the news today, God give more of that and bless it in those who have it).

What is Truth?

Truth in Nine Steps

Step 1 -  start with the truth of the testimony of the gospel
              Jesus Christ has given true testimony
              His Apostles too have testified truthfully
              especially that He is the Christ and He died for you
              God Himself testified in a voice thundering from
               the sky at the baptism of Jesus that this is His Son
               and He is a Son well pleasing to Him

Step 2 - believing this truth, reach outside yourself for life from God

Step 3 - appreciate that truthfulness is precious to God and reason:
              if God is all about truthfulness when giving testimony and
              Jesus well pleased Him, so Jesus too must be all about truth

Step 4 - receive the Spirit in answer to your reaching for life if you
              completed Step 2 in believing and discover in support of
              Step 3 that the Spirit too coming now from God is all about
              you testifying truthfully as He too testifies truthfully

Step 5 - learn partnership with God and Jesus and the Spirit of Truth
              by giving truthful testimony whenever you can regarding
              yourself and all this truth

Step 6 - set aside lies as they are unworthy of God and all this truth

Step 7 - following the truth you learn by keeping God-given truth and teachings
              receive more truth to transform you into a child of truth free to live
              according to it.

Step 8 - continue to live according to the truth as you learn it from the
              testimonies of God, Jesus and Apostles of His, Spirit and friends

Step 9 - keep all this truth to the end so that you remain in Jesus and He in you

Inspiration

The living Holy Spirit speaks words coming from the vast time Jesus Christ the Lord and God the Father have been in fellowship and Jesus has learned from God. We cannot use the existence of a canon, the Bible, as reason to refuse the Spirit's words as somehow inferior. God has breathed some things personally and inspired records of other things (like the decree of King Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 3) to be preserved and the words spoken or breathed by the very Father Himself from His mouth are the greatest words of all far outweighing the words of Nebuchadnezzar. So there are degrees of inspiration and authority even among the words of scripture whereas words actually spoken by God like "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased" and "Listen to Him" spoken of Lord Jesus Christ outweigh the words of men even those recorded in scripture. Jesus words are, He said, learned by Him from the Father and since it is the Son who delivered them and since He is Faithful and True they carry most weight. The Holy Spirit directly inspires words like interpreted tongues which are from the truth of Jesus received by Him directly from the Father so the weight they carry is commensurate and need to be treated by ourselves as such, not rejected on the basis they are not from a preferred canon of scripture (though they will be entirely consistent with His prophesies of scripture).

The Message that Cuts to the Heart

O what it is to be cut to the heart. The message that Christ was crucified and that it was for you should cut you to the heart and make you trust for more for your need to be made worthy of it.

Faith That Works Miracles

I have tried to set aside unbelief and adhere to messages of the Gospel like the gospel of John. Then by God's grace and the faith I have from that grace I perceive it when God, Jesus and the Spirit of Truth do things to show themselves to me so I then believe all the more but I have to bolster it because I forget what happens that made me believe. I know I have a commitment of love to keep believing so I deliberately reinforce my belief by reminding myself of the things that made me certain and I fight off silly thinking that crept in since. If silly thinking contradictory to what I experienced with certainty is wisdom it doesn't seem so to me. With doubts I tend to entertain them normally like many do - like you do. It might be delusional to think it improves wisdom to entertain doubts but I have a tendency or habit I suppose. In some cases of religious action of making something God's business in obedience to Him - then I do fight doubt, as Jesus taught. It is such a battle sometimes I keep it for special situations - I think they are predetermined sometimes by God because special faith sometimes kicks in like nitro in a 'Fast and Furious' modified street racing car.  So here is something. As social creatures wanting to fit in we do wicked things (seen TV program on this). Now I know I could be wicked by associations of day to day life influencing me. I really don't want to be wicked so I try to have association as much as I can with Jesus Christ (believing He is) so I seek to do miracles of faith and things like this writing which might lend itself to His association with me as I do it. This is to maximise influence His righteousness has on me so I am less likely to be wicked in other parts of my life - like coming across a needy migrant as we've discussed. It is faith allowing this (without it I would think I was mad and stop but then probably be as wicked as the world around me).

Having Good Spirit

Society misses the importance of good spirit. It takes goid spirit when faced with needy people in our daily lives so we do not shrink from helping those in dire need. Trainng like First Aid helps but there is this preparation of spirit which gives good grace to help a stranger in dire need without asking inappropriately who they are. The Good Samaritan teaching is well known and we should follow it but to do it takes grace. Jesus Christ is alive and able to give such grace.

The Way, The Truth, The Life

"I am the way and the truth and the life; no person comes to the Father except by Me." - Jesus Christ, first century AD. This is most in contrast with the way major religions allow people to believe God directly connects with people - that no mediator is required. Whether those who say everyone is already connected to God and therefore to each other. Or those who say observance of the Law connects people to God. Or those who say belief and adherence to teachings connect you to God. Jesus said people need to become connected to Himself. He is the One man connected to the Father. Abiding in Jesus is what connects anyone to God for eternity because only God's true children have a true connection to their Father and thus had to be eternal because (John 8) there are no temporary children of God so true connection requires to be eternally united and only Jesus can make it so, and power is His to do it because He Himself is eternal (even though He died, because God raised Him). So He is the nevessary mediator who makes and keeps a person righteous so they remain connected to Jesus and Jesus connected to God.

Two Certainties

Irrespective of the state of Christianity two mysterious certainties remain - a sacrfice has been made and a resurrection life has appeared. This sacrificed, resurrected one is ever living and able to fix His own.

Horror - no be all and end all

Horror is not the be all and end all. The horror affliction thrown at Lord Jesus Christ when they crucified Him on a cross 2000 years ago killing Him so horrifically, wasn't the end. Now it is done and He lives and always lives. Why? Because God is powerful and God is love - and if we live in love we live in God. Jesus does. He has overcome.

Believe

Belief is necessary for anyone. Belief that God is. Belief that Lord Jesus is. Belief that the Holy Spirit is. Is and was and will be. Living life in time a huge scale of magnitude longer than our mortal life time. Belief is certainty. Belief is being certain because each of us by each one being certain it is true. Not merely orthodox or conservative or progressive. True. On the way to acquiring certainty we might try to learn by adhering to doctrines we are taught. We might adhere to an understanding of the meanings of scriptures. We might adhere to the literal words of Jesus, trying not to make false or risky assumptions about their meaning, hoping the Spirit will inspire us with understanding (and to me this is prudent). Eventually obedience grows till God fulfills the promise to be found by us, by our searching, and till Jesus fulfills the promise that He and the Father, God, will show themselves to the obedient, and the promise to dwell with them. The promise of the Holy Spirit being given to those who God sees are believing His word. Then we really start to live. Then God, Jesus, the Spirit are our very great reward.

Intelligence Involved in Origins

Given our recent technological advances and how that extrapolates and how we can assume so much more of life hugely more advanced still, why argue at all for creation without intelligence? This is now an obsolete notion given how much intelligence there must be in the Universe quite capable of creating. Now though we can even start to realise the likelihood of intelligence having been involved in the appearance of the Universe and Time themselves. A Time non-existent before the Universe and intelligence likely involved in it starting adds hints at the possibility of there being no such thing as 'before' the original creator. If time started with creation then there was no 'before' its creator as such but that creator just is. This could tie in to apparent communications received from such a creator (creators it seems - Father and Son together with Spirit).

Origins

It baffles me when so many say science is their reason for believing what they believe but they never speak of this planet having been created the way it is and all the life on it including us. Evolution could happen, science tells us, on any suitable planet at any time in the whole Universe during all the time it has been cool enough. Statistics tells us the chances of no life anywhere else in the Universe having evolved, if science has evolution and life origins correct, the chance of no other life is negligible - pretty much zero. The chance of much of that life NOT exceeding our state of advancement is zero - much of it will have achieved what we will achieve in thousands of years or millions of years and will by statistics have achieved it before Earth supported life - just statistics and scientific fact must predict that. The humanities and science and technology tell us our accelerating rate of progress in science and technology over past centuries is pretty much exponential - consider nuclear science growth since the splitting of a uranium atom. Extrapolation using science and statistics would give us huge ability in hundreds of years so we get closer to being able to take our technilogy into the cosmos and terraform and even release energy on unimaginabke scale from physics such as dark energy and dark matter or negative energy physics or effects yet unknown so as to be able to do what people have  struggled to believe a god or gods have done in creating things. The ability by then to turn elements into other elements and make living organisms from their components or from starting chaibs of events parallelling what we consider led to life here. Given millions of years of progress we could do most things we are told God did in making earth. In the time it took from the cooling of the Universe. in current science terms, to the start of Earth being formed, there would be ample time for another or very many other species in the Universe to reach such abilities and much more besides. We are talking billions of years if science is correct. So if people really think science has it right the whole thing adds up to what? By Ocham's razor the most likely should be the preferred theory so it is surely most likely to a believer in science that it adds up to a very high probability Earth and life and us were created. The chance against it is too small. So why do people not add the numbers and get this answer and speak about it all the time. Are people stuck in the thinking from before science gave us all this, incapable of deducing where it is leading?