Out of place and right on time

Tell us about a time when you felt out of place.

This pairing of time and place is a good reason to explore the vital connection between time and place, two things that imprison us.  I have to imagine that for some creatures neither time or place are not as traumatic as for humans. I have felt out of place for four years, and the geographic disorientation I experienced during that time – the points of the compass were out of place – cements my appreciation of being out of place and being right on time. For more see my https://eejoseph.com/2023/10/06/out-of-place-and-right-on-time/

Out of place and right on time

On my way, literally on a train cross country, to college, I made discoveries that made me realize that the place I was traveling to could not possibly be right.  With no reason to doubt the advice that sparked the decision to be formally educated, I journeyed on.  The experience turned out to be beneficial even though every class proved to be more evidence that time and place do not have to be right for truly monumental things to happen.


Saul of Tarsus was a guy who was convinced that he was doing the right thing, and that “he had arrived” at the destination chosen for him by God.  I can imagine his surprise when he left Jesus of Nazareth, and when the disciples of Jesus of Nazareth met him in their places of gathering. Paul was always out of place and out of time until he landed in prison in Rome facing execution. 


The man we know as Paul the apostle was first zealous rabbi, then humbled supplicant to Jesus, then teacher of the Way, then missionary to the Gentiles, then church-planting pastor (bishop, elder) and until his death, preacher and teacher.

Paul, the Christian gentleman, was welcome almost nowhere, as he journeyed across Asia.  He spent his last years in Rome living in a rented house “preaching the kingdom of God and teaching concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all openness, unhindered.” (Acts 28:31, NASB)

I can relate to being out of place almost all the time but being perfectly on time.

Scratch until there’s no head

Humanity loves a lie because we have loved lies when confronted with the truth. We live in a stream of falsehoods, even at the expense of defining ourselves as something wholesome and especially as people who treasure the light shining on our deeds.  We set up commentary that contains contradictions then we revel in the fact that people will scratch their heads, and it just happens that heads scratched will eventually disappear.

Nobody’s ever seen what we see

Nobody’s ever seen what we  in the 21st century are observing gets said often and it is a white lie, partially true but a lie nonetheless.  Every second in the whole of human history is unique, so we all see something unique to us.  People still like to label our times as unprecedented and public media is fond of reporting first occurrences and broken records. The bottom of the barrel has been reached at the point where murdering innocent people became essential for the fox and the hen in the coop.

In camera without lights

But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.

John 3:21, NASB

All sorts of powerbrokers retreat to the backrooms, privy councils, and scuffs when accountability is in demand. Judges do it in plain sight with sidebars and sometimes in their chambers.

But a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the Law, respected by all the people, stood up in the Council and gave orders to put the men outside for a short time.

Acts 5:34

Delusions, illusions, and virtual reality will be the death of us.  Hiding the truth and choosing to scratch our heads won’t get past the followers of the Way. They cannot be deceived even though we frequently see large numbers of people gathered in “churches” who are obviously being led down the garden path. We are not scratching our heads.

Vibrant, victim no more

Why are we going crazy about walls, land and loot? Could it be we’ve given up loving the truth? Your life without a computer: what does it look like?

Pushing Through. Song by Kyu and Ganjy

I have enough years on this planet to remember life before Microsoft, Dell, Acer, Google and Apple and mobile telephones. I also have enough sobriety to take strategic breaks from personal computing power, and I am acquainted with how to use books to gather information and do the kind of research that matters in my life. I will not be wringing my hands over life without a computer, even when the demand for all citizens to be computer literate and connected is universal. It will be a good thing to have nothing to sell or buy when the vast majority of humans will be identified as salespersons.

Life is vibrant today without computing power. To be a participant in the marketplace of the future is to be a victim of the lords of rapacious merchandising.

Christians are preparing to dump Yeshua

Some Christians are preparing to dump Yeshua. It is not a farfetched idea, nor is it mere opinion. Let us face the facts. Which version of Abraham on Moriah will we accept? How many times do we hear that Jesus is not God or that there is no Trinity. The idea that the buck does not stop at Messiah’s desk is preposterous. Counterfeit christs and prophets with “Christ” on their lips are not fictional, and they are preparing millions of people who say they are believers to dump Christ.

Psalms 45:6-7 records love talk in the godhead.

Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness; you have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions;

This love conversation, leaves no room for Jews, Muslims or any other thoughtful people to dispute that Mary’s child is God. People do not seem to mind at all having holy food, holy cities and holy lands. They have a major objection to a perfectly holy man. Go figure!

Isaiah’s emphatic saying (43:11) is more than clear, with its double “I” and only Saviour.

I, even I, am the Lord; and beside me there is no saviour.

People can name Yeshua as ‘lord’ and ‘saviour’ and still be pushing him out of the spotlight, giving priority to other authority figures, from Moses to contemporary leaders. The 21st century is particularly deception-prone in this regard, because the era remains in the grip of 18th and 19th century religious movements, all of which descend into cults and death row associations.

Nobody but Mohammed, anybody but Jesus or Moses

  • The Muslims are breathing down our necks about monotheism
  • The Jews are ignoring the inescapable meaning of their history and language in order to make Moses the sole biblical authority
  • Christians do not seem courageous enough to embrace the validity of the Hebrew Bible without antisemitic diatribes (cutting off the nose to spite the face?)
  • In the area of ancient texts we should recognize that the Quran is an infant

The devil knows that the preacher from Nazareth has destroyed his hold on human minds because demons immediately recognize Yeshua. In his presence and at the informed mention of his name demons tremble. The influence of demons over eastern religions is well known. Unlike some other revelations the Way is not mediated by angels and is therefore not vulnerable to manipulation by demons (fallen angels).

Headlong into the arms of messengers: prophets and angels

He said to him, “I also am a prophet like you, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the Lord, saying, ‘Bring him back with you to your house, that he may eat bread and drink water.’” But he lied to him.

1 Kings 13:18, NASB

One can see from this narrative in the book of Kings that people would seek validation by appealing to the fact that an angel had spoken to them. Stephen, in his defense before the Sanhedrin, asserted that the Mosaic economy and all of its instruction came through angels.

“I said, “You are gods, And all of you are sons of the Most High.”

(Psalms 82:6, NASB)

It should not be strange that God would have a person to speak for him: someone more than human, someone more than sons who die like humans, and someone higher than angels. The speech is emphatic. Anî amartî elohîm attem, I myself say “you are angels”. Ordinary Jewish people were called elohim.  The Hebrew term elohîm, when specifically plural and not a reference to God, means angels. It is truly a breathtaking plunge to have prophets whose speeches cannot be reviewed, because any human who is not uniquely endowed deserves no reverence, but we dare not tell that to the disciples of those prophets and messengers with millions of disciples worldwide. It is from these worldwide groups that the catalyst for de-messianizing will come. The least common denominator for spiritual life will be a mix of the same meaningless social standards that have been around the camp for hundreds of years with the sword as incentive.

Where are grace and mercy in the civic entity?

Most people claiming to be enlightened or spiritual have little to show.  The connection to sanity that people claim in the natural realms is equally meagre.  That reality does not restrain people from confusing the endowments of the primary realms of life. A lot of talk has dominated the media and the back rooms of evangelical Christianity as well as the extreme and controversial corners about Christian government, or to be more precise, Christian nations and countries. In the countries that used to be majority Christian people have turned to pseudo science and outright fascist tyranny. The iconic Christian graces and powers such as compassion, forgiveness, and love are admittedly absent from civic life.

The sources and strongholds of racism and injustice

Away from the cameras and just out of reach of the probing questions of reporters many countries continue predatory practices against their populations by means of unequal housing policy, deliberate financial mazes, and specialized clubs. Typically, faith in God has become stereotypical craziness while self-help books, technology solutions and denial of known facts are king.

Who would have thought that in the 21st century people would be hooked on believing that telling yourself something over and over again actually causes it to happen. That kind of power is a caricature of the divine power to create, the kind of power indicated in God’s “Let there be”. If it is true that all humans have the power to create the conditions they want by thinking about them we must carefully distinguish between spontaneous outcomes such as wounds healing and bogus atonement for physical healing, such as we hear repeatedly in the uninformed mantra “by his stripes we are healed”.

Justice is mercy and grace

There is no government offering to forgive trespassers seventy times seven trespasses. Neither right wing irreligious nor extremist religious governments have risen to the cause of caring for all citizens without regard to rank, kindred or wealth. Not one! The so-called Christian morality of European nations is a thirteen dollar bill, and the Islamic republics can keep returning to the dried up well of Arab jurisprudence as often as they wish. The primary interests of God and kings diverge without ambiguity.

“It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, But the glory of kings is to search out a matter.”

Proverbs 25:2, NASB

Now that we have popularized the notion that civic governments carry a sword to punish wrongdoing there is no backtracking to protect people, both the innocent and the guilty from public exposure and from the highly probable miscarriages of justice. If people could only see the wheels of justice in the direction of government officials who misuse their powers and oppress citizens we might begin to see the first rays of the sunlight of grace. That, sadly, is not the priority of any government on the planet.

Ready and happy when he comes

And the Lord said, “Who then is the faithful and sensible steward, whom his master will put in charge of his servants, to give them their rations at the proper time? “Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes.” (Luke 12:42-43, NASB)

People who do not believe that God has finished his atoning work and guarantees a safe arrival in glory will agitate for a host of things believers need to achieve in order to be ready when the Lord Christ comes in glory. This includes being sinless. Most Christians will tell you that they are trying to be without sin, and that they can achieve a sinless condition by avoiding sin, especially as sin is defined in the Sinai Covenant. They will never acknowledge five incontrovertible facts, and will never be happy and ready when the Lord comes.

Christ’s righteousness cannot be measured by check mark

  • Sinless status is achieved by God’s gift of pardon
  • The blood that makes sin remission possible was shed once for all
  • The Helper – the Holy Spirit – does not fail to guide into all truth
  • Since the Helper also seals the elect loss of eternal life is unconscionable
  • SINLESS STATUS is the same as RIGHTEOUSNESS, and an irrevocable gift, like the predestination, the call, the justification, the glorification.

Who dares bring a charge?

“Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.”

Romans 8:33-34

No one is justified on the basis of how many laws they have complied with. People are not justified because they complied with any set of moral or ritual demands. Let us face the fact that believers pass from judgment to life, and they cannot be the subject of an indictment because of the force of the justification.

“Ready when he comes” focuses on the way people relate to those in their care: giving (their peers and charges) rations at the proper time. This is the basis of the BLESSEDNESS in which that slave will be found when his master comes.” (Luke 12:42-43)