Month: November 2024

Able Beyond Comprehension

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Able-ness, Ability, Can-doitition

Divine Able-ness: DEFINED

There should be no surprise that Infinity properly defines God. Raw and infinite power defines God. This is the significance of the MYSTERY OF GODLINESS, that God gives life to the dead.  Even in the incarnation where the majesty of the Godhead is somewhat veiled, raw power and ability are on display. The Word becoming flesh  is called a humiliation and an emptying (Phil. 2:7-8) and even then God’s ability to have his way plays out with amazing outcomes.  The entire experience of the believer is a down payment on the coming glory, and that future remains our hope.  The Spirit of God at work in us is a measured enterprise.  Only of Christ can it be said that his endowments are without or beyond measure. God’s ability does not define us, it saved us; it gave life to the dead. Our new status and our lifestyle are the outcome of extreme – great – love, and think we can agree that it is the greatest thing. In any galaxy and forever people will be singing the praises of the Lamb, and that praise and joyful recognition begin with our conversion. Paul calls us God’s poiema, a finished work started and guaranteed (Ephesians 2:10).

34. “For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for He gives the Spirit without measure. 35. “The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand. (John 3:34-35, NASB)

It is exciting that discussions of God’s power and of the life of believers in the Holy Spirit typically revolves around faith’s victory.  Believing in Christ made us new children of God, and that faith works by love, in service  into triumphalism; that idea that people can do all things because Christ is strengthening them. Triumphalism denies the fact that God allows some things  to come into being only when faith is present, and in the vast majority of cases, the fantastic things, such as a man receiving an amputated arm or leg back or funerals interrupted with any regularity have not been observed, even when the minutest amount of vape is required to move the mountain.

Divine Ableness: UNDERSTOOD

Believers are endowed with many things that were on display in the incarnation, however our finite understanding does not allow us to predict, decree and execute the divine will with CHRIST’s unique integrity.  One mistake, or one misspeak, or one speculation shows our understanding to fall short. In the wider view, if our understanding of DA does not align with or fit into the redemptive scheme of the now revealed things of the Godhead then all we have is the witness of the heavens and the firmament. 

Faith itself provides our understanding of divine being and power

When we say “… can do …” or ask “Could you?” we are addressing power.  It is important to separate fact from fiction. God’s not about to be shown as a false witness or a failure at any level. The Testimony we bring must include gratitude for divine ability and for the pattern of Yeshua’s life, not in the life he has  in glory, but the life he showed in preparation for the cross, and the life at the cross.  All authority and power end at Christ’s throne and his distribution of gifts, whether by interventions or permanent endowments, prospers us.  But we never acquire all power or authority. Salvation does not place us beyond in permanent aseity.  Christ is the Only-Begotten.  We will never be. Christ had life in himself and we do not. In all the circumstances of life we found ourselves supremely conquering.   We do not get to Zion by checking off a list of victories.

A. The act of salvation in the Exodus did not trickle down into the journey to Canaan

B. The act of confirming popular desire did not trickle down into an empire

📜 Because God is able does not mean he acts

📜 God’s spiritual blessings are non-consumable and beyond the mundane needs

📜 His view most always exceeds and supercedes our view. 

Our security is not to be measured by blessing. Food, drink, and shelter, all common blessings, are God’s gifts to all humanity. Christians are not saved from hunger, thirst, and homelessness.

Unbelief, Testimony, Reporting Progress

God turns unbelief  into faith to declare his righteousness.  Wand People Posting Progress are the iconic images of power abuse, because miracles and all kinds of signs and wonders are not the means of saving people, and if there is one unforgettable and lasting exercise of power it is the righteousness of God declared in the cross. On the other hand God’s power is so distinct from our helplessness that wanting to have divine attributes becomes sinful. Under no circumstance or promise do humans become the Eternal God: we partake of divine nature, that is the Spirit, acquire immortal bodies, but we do not ever become omniscient, omnipresent, ineffable, infinite and sovereign potentate. Humility ought to sober us up and heal us of a kind of can-do-all-things aspiration. No-one has ever seen a human grow an amputated limb, but the salamander does several times. Birds have no middle man when they need a house or a meal, but we do.

Gifts from God’s able-ness and great gain

Healing the whole body still leaves the person who prays for it and the one who gets it in need of something more to enter God’s kingdom.  The growth in grace is Exhibit A when God’s able-ness is the foundation of life.   Able-ness – power and ability ≠ intervention.  At its most satisfying level, divine able-ness makes us godly and content, with a river inside of us springing up into eternal Life.

The most famous rabbit has a hole

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When we speak of the sinless, flawless, ineffable, holy and awesome God we realize that he has attributes that are uniquely his. 

Blameless and beyond indictment

Since the elect of God are declared to be beyond being indicted, it must bring to mind the question “Who dares to bring a charge against God?” The picture of David eating the Bread of the Presence is not so eye-popping. The idea that God can sin is ridiculous.

Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; (Romans 8:33, NASB) 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 8:34, NASB)

What is going to do? Can he have another god, can he bear false witness, can he violate the sabbath, can he take somebody’s wife, can he steal a loaf of bread, or covet a donkey?  There are people who affirm that God’s standard for human beings is the law, applicable to him as to them.  You see the folly that swirls around the spiritual galaxy!

God’s people: lawless and rebellious

… realizing the fact that law is not made for a righteous person, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers (1 Timothy 1:9, NASB). and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching, (1 Timothy 1:10, NASB)

Law is not for God or holy people. Go down that rabbit hole, say that God and his people are to be defined by law, and you have sealed your destiny as a mere proverb and abomination.

Israel is a proverb

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The people of the Middle East never saw past the movie that evangelicals and Catholics have been packing and pushing for the last millennia.  If you want to know what good government, human nobility, and divine authority look like you will do yourself a favor by examining the Bible.  A book written long before the American Revolution, long before the Arab Emirates became a broker, and long before the United Nations rose to foster cooperation and justice.  As it turns out the nations with the most detailed set of laws are the most lawless.  The nation that gave us the wisest ruler in all of human history is the most brutish and foolish of all nations.  The people with the most amazing story of ancestry and high hopes are the people who most often trample on the ancestry and high hopes of others.  Israel’s proverb status is best understood as the reduction from substance to words, sometimes, mere words, and mere words is often the case for both Israel and its staunchest allies.  They are really just all talk, malicious programs, and trigger happy warriors, and big swords.

Missing the magical metre

3. When He broke the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, “Come.” 4. And another, a red horse, went out; and to him who sat on it, it was granted to take peace from the earth, and that men would slay one another; and a great sword was given to him. (Revelation of John 6:3-4, NASB)

Reading the Bible leaves no doubt that all the nations have failed to climb the little hills of justice and peace.  Governments and leaders are not going to be evaluated as loyal to religious doctrine.  Only three things will make their day of reckoning tolerable: peace, righteousness and relieving oppression.

3. Let the mountains bring peace to the people, And the hills, in righteousness. 4. May he vindicate the afflicted of the people, Save the children of the needy and crush the oppressor. (Psalms 72:3-4, from NASB)

Moses and the United Nations are waiting

While young Jewish men are taking over their neighbours’ lands, and the neighbours are hoping for a piece of the Arab pie, laws are flaunted, borders violated, hopes dashed and the history of annihilation comes around like clockwork.   Laws do not mean a thing outside of a person’s head, and they mean even less outside a person’s heart.  None of the evangelical think tanks and Catholic congregations for doctrine have a wholesome outcome for the world.  They all foster illegalities in the name of crisis and self defence.   Israel has always been an ungodly and unrighteous nation.  The fact that annihilation can be an Israeli policy is utterly abominable, but who can tell us who is really watching the fox in the coop?  “Nation of law” is a convenient cover, but laws are to be guides to doing better, not the same as the good old days.

Unbelief is written all over the various classes of government.  Whatever benefit people think they derive from heroic and authoritarian regimes is momentary.  All rulers, with rare exceptions, have one preoccupation.

Peter answers a taxman’s question about paying taxes. 

25. He said, “Yes.” And when he came into the house, Jesus spoke to him first, saying, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth collect customs or poll-tax, from their sons or from strangers?” 26. When Peter said, “From strangers,” Jesus said to him, “Then the sons are exempt. (Matthew 17:25-26, NASB)

42. Calling them to Himself, Jesus said to them, “You know that those who are recognized as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them; and their great men exercise authority over them. 43. “But it is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant; 44. and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all. 45. “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:42-45, NASB)

The kingdom of Judah, long gone, is a story like no other.  The pipedream of Mosaic legacy pervading the planet is not even a dry joke.  Even the prophets are broken vessels, but David’s great son has not even one bone broken.  The Israeli projector does not work when the pieces of Moses’ prediction are in full evidence.

Who is a hated, hateful, terror and terrorist

‘I will make them a terror and an evil for all the kingdoms of the earth, as a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse in all places where I will scatter them. (Jeremiah 24:9, NASB)

Ducking and Dodging the Deal

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Tell me you know that family matters.  In fact family seems to matter above all. The great love God has, the great salvation people devalue, and the expectations of covenants seem to resolve at the highest definition when the way we treat others comes to centre stage.  Avoiding sin has occupied people for a very long time and many people wear the questionable badge of commandment-keeper.  Even when people are the recipients of Holy Spirit help, the only command that is within reach of compliance is the one that simply asks for people to honour their parents. Tell me you need the Holy Spirit living in you to empower you to honour your parents and I will show you where ducking and dodging sin ends up.

The summary of righteousness in the Pentateuch is decisive

Pick a right standing. Going once…

The walking dead

People say they are many things and forget how they become so.  No one is ever vindicated before God on the basis of their compliance.  It never happened and never will.  You have to have a very low estimate of God to conclude that his pleasure comes from seeing people who have been asked to do.

Passing up the deal of the ages

“To the angel of the church in Sardis write:  He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars, says this: ‘I know your deeds, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. (Revelation of John 3:1, NASB)

Maybe there are people who never missed God’s mark in any way.

You who boast in the Law, through your breaking the Law, do you dishonor God? (Romans 2:23, NASB)

How about that deadly history repeating!

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It has become popular for people to see history as purely cyclic.  The increase of knowledge is not uniquely new: the ancients developed technology equal to and exceeding modern innovations.  Aircraft, factory machinery, gadgets and computers are simply the return of ancient wonders.  The notion in religious beliefs is especially abominable.  To think that God does not have a day of reckoning for all humanity, or to take a position that the annual cycle in Israel, Egypt, Cambodia, India, China, Africa or America keeps going is a pipe dream that denies justice and equity.  The virulent crimes of nations have a day of gloom and darkness just as surely as individual wickedness has a day for repentance and be salvation.

  • Genocide in the Caribbean, Asia, Africa, the Levant, North, South and Central America
  • Africans hauled across the ocean to become unpaid labourers
  • Jews expelled from Palestine by a worldruling power
  • Police mowing down hundreds of unarmed protesters
  • Superpower invades small island nation
  • Vile criminals elected to political and law enforcement office in North America
  • Massacre of protesting students in China
  • Pale skin men enshrining in their nation’s constitution that Africans are 3/5 human
  • Police fabricating crime in order to build the case for states of emergency
  • A man journeys westward to become a nation that terrorizes the neighborhood
  • A nation executes its king
  • World War II
  • Canaanites find themselves on the chopping block

Say after me “Abababa x y z x y z”