Author: eejoseph

Bogus activists: no, nope, and dope

eejoseph

There is a guy who is so eager to be seen as conquering hero,  so committed to his own self-evaluation, is so positive that he sees “no” when the King of Truth says “yes” and “amen”.  No to God’s offer leads to a “nope” attitude and eventually to being drunk with the social concoctions of our times.

Deadly drink from a doomed giant

And another angel, a second one, followed, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who has made all the nations drink of the wine of the passion of her immorality.”

Revelation 14:8

Earth’s population intoxicated

with whom the kings of the earth committed acts of immorality, and those who dwell on the earth were made drunk with the wine of her immorality.”

Revelation of John 17:2

A thoroughly detailed warning

1) But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. 2) Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned; 3) and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

2 Peter 2:1-3

Peter is not being negative.  If the pastors of the modern era spent any time learning the fundamental concepts of church and pastoral work they would stand in contrast to the growing mass of hucksters and marketers, posing as the repairers of broken human lives.

“Nope” is the main street of empty religion

Great, swelling, and passionate words may not only be based on selfish pride, they also tend to be deceitful. Maybe the speakers have forgotten to be examples of their message. What to do and not to do in order to be free is not the lube of the spiritual life. Christians are not freed beings because of their performance. Who though can believe that a messenger in the grip of the common ups and downs of life is a liberated soul? Peter said “Do not buy it”. Corruption is their companion.

18) For speaking out arrogant words of vanity they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality, those who barely escape from the ones who live in error, 19) promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved.

2 Peter 2:18-19

Observation not accusation: capitalism sinks the ship

14) having eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, having a heart trained in greed, accursed children; 15) forsaking the right way, they have gone astray, having followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;

2 Peter 2:14-15

Having shrunk from accepting what God has to say about his creatures we should expect to end up drunk with the wine of prostitution.  Whatever concepts we can cobble together serve as our safe places.  Man, are we intoxicated!

The gospel makes no cowards.  The Spirit may be heard saying “Shush” but we are authorized to speak and act as liberated people, warriors whose Commander has defeated death, defanged the Devil (destroyed his works), and assured us peace with God.

An admonition from the extreme

Ezra was a great scribe and preacher (7:6, 10, 11), but an activist for the causes of justice and philanthropy he was not (9:14). The gospels mention scribes 60 times but Acts contains 3 references. They may look like a dying breed, but Christ assures us that He will raise up scribes too for the church. Scribes can tell you what the Bible says but way too many, like Ezra, fall off the truck in their zeal to defend the past without checkimg the full range of history.

Our possessions in the messianic stream

eejoseph

You would go crazy if you ever stepped back from the fast and furious lists of moral imperatives and stared Christ right in the face, even briefly. The number of people calling themselves believers and distancing themselves from the gospel and the more sure prophetic word is being revealed as the huge multitude on the broad road.

We have a high priest

We do not read the book of Hebrews and come away telling ourselves that God sent his own Son in order to establish the conventions of the levitical system. As surely as David’s lord – the expected priest-king – belongs to an order outside the Jewish tradition, the glory and benefits of which fade into irrelevance for the human family.

High Priest #1
Hebrews 4:14
Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.

High Priest #2
Hebrews 8:1
Now the main point in what has been said is this: we have such a high priest, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,

High Priest #3
Hebrews 10:21-22
21. and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22. let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.


A Soul Anchor
Hebrews 6:19
This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil,

Confidence
Hebrews 10:19-20
19. Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, 20. by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh,

No single operative can demand our undivided attention!

A cloud of witnesses
Hebrews 12:1
Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

An Altar
Hebrews 13:10
We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat.

A Good Conscience
Hebrews 13:18
Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a good conscience, desiring to conduct ourselves honorably in all things.

Read, Study, House

eejoseph

I have always believed that diligence yields remarkable results.   It is true that there is a happy benefit in reading the important things, just as there is for hearing and heeding them.  So building on the assurance that a truly diligent experience cannot be equated with the mere reading and reciting of what the Bible has to say we can conclude that a notable outcome is in the making when God’s word – message to humanity – receives the due diligence.  Beyond storytelling, incredible tales of triumph, and confessions of loyalty and obedience is the rich housing of Christ’s message and business in the believer.

Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near.

Revelation of John 1:3

Riches housed in the believer!

Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

Colossians 3:16

It would  be a serious error to argue that the blessings that accrue from hearing and heeding are of the same value as the benefit that comes from simply reading or reciting.  The word of Christ comes to us from a single source: apostolic witness. There is no evidence that anyone can heed (hear, akouo, ακούω) and keep a grip on what the Lord’s witnesses had to say, and particularly what the only prophetic and summative writing contains.   The Book of Hebrews does for the Mosaic legacy and Christ what the Book  of Revelation does for Christ and history.

Read the words, heed and grasp the contents

The content of scripture is not just words. The kingdom business addressed are the things to be heard and kept. What we read can lead to a curiosity about what was said and on to the contents of the book(s). It is only the diligent who realize that reading is not diligence, and that searching for the bottom line cannot be performed by means of the sometimes accurate commentaries on the too often inaccurate translations and paraphrases.

We allow ourselves to be distracted by people who have no intention of getting to the business of Christ’s word, the richness of which is not a ton of commands, but is comprised of total wisdom, teaching and admonition, and grateful singing in the heart to God.

The double-edged gaze

eejoseph, , , , , ,

The effect of staring at someone or something is not far from actually socially mixing with that person or thing.  Gazing is an iconic activity from the desert experience of the Hebrew people narrated in Numbers 21:4-8.  Gazing becomes deadly when the accompanying mental juices are covetousness,  jealousy and envy.

Gazing gone offscript

No one can ever become all that God is. The prospect would destroy divine unity and bring a profound cheapness to divine majesty.  We become Christlike to full and mature levels without ever becoming all that he is. Managing the excellent gift of a sinless record has no human contribution.  We have no blood to shed as payment for sin.

If willpower could achieve our wishes we know where we would be, what we would be doing, and who we would be with, but willpower is not designed to bring success in temporal or eternal matters.  Certainly in the fantasy world there is that deadly gaze: lots of people gazing at the stars of business and entertainment and changing their lives to mirror the stars’.

17) Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18) But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.

2 Corinthians 3:17-18

Prolonged gazing at our peers is deadly and comes close to being similar to mingling with dogs and wondering where fleas came from. One look at the bronze serpent in the Numbers 21 episode saved lives; kept people from dying. One look at the Son of Man brings the dead to life.

Up in arms, smoke and mirrors

eejoseph, ,

God might have made a covenant with one stipulation if simplicity was his goal, but neither he nor human beings are simple in any way. With water everywhere, influenced by the moon, not Jupiter, humans are constantly phishing for holy grail, that one key that will unlock the mysteries of life and death, infertility and productivity. Much of what we have actually unleashed is armed conflict, ritual smoke, and a maze of deceptive mirrors.

Neither us nor them

It is rare to find ourselves in the company of people who have a moral standard that exceeds the popular and familiar. Pharisee righteousness, believed to be a strict adherence to the Mosaic legacy, is discredited beyond repair. Xenophobia and misogyny have no attraction to an enlightened mind because they represent the juvenile stage of discovering God’s global agenda. You are barking up the wrong tree if you thought that God’s revelation had to do with a small group of people in a small nation in the middle East. God has shown that he is no bigot. Neither Israel, Judah, Syria, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, or any of the world-ruling powers have gotten away with fudging the roadmap of civic society. For many of these entities the national treasures are utter abominations. The closest thing to a competitor is the field of worship was the Samaritan tradition, the study of which reveals that God has no preference for either a Samaritan or a Jewish mountain.

Mountain talk is cheap

Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.

John 4:21

Teach us to read, do not tell us what to believe

We know full well who cannot be trusted. All all of the prophets were persecuted and assaulted by the people who say they know God. The the people who say they are God’s people are worse than farm animals when it comes to recognizing who is the master and owner. We also know who it is that we need to trust. Trusting in human beings has never worked out, so let the pastor, the rabbi, the imam, the guru and the cardinal be very silent when we begin to talk about reliability and trustworthiness.

Did God ever say “Let the women do without”? How much progress can the human race make without women?

The use of force to silence and control others is an affront to the essential ability with which God has endowed humanity. If our children have no choice in what to believe there is no personal integrity in sight. If morality has to be inspired by laws and punishment then we must conclude that grace is the neglected jewel. Rituals and festivals are mere shadows of the real goods that are in place for the human race. Things that go up in smoke are obviously not the basis for a relationship with the Lord of the Ages.

Mirrors that show bogus images

Is it the food and drink that turns you on? Is it the confession of obedience that gives seekers of God confidence? Who is so self-absorbed as to conclude that his ancestral lifestyle meets with God’s approval? Hopefully fewer and fewer of the rulers of the present age. These are the people who are always learning and never passing a test, who always have a byway into some mysterious alley. The age of revelation has never arrived for them despite 30+ books and dozens of bona fide witnesses. Anything they say is sure to be tainted with bogus information and self-righteousness.

6) Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away; 7) but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory; 8) the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory;

1 Corinthians 2:6-8

One quarter of believers are in no relationship with God or Christ. They are merely going through the motions of organized religion. Looking at one another for comfort and fulfillment they find nothing but deeper waterless pits. The mirrors they use are doctored to deny divine judgment and salvation.

More from the dark web

eejoseph
Death and its forgettable medium

Complete with basement grammar and threats

There will come a time when all who supported the New World Order of Globalist and Capitalist will have buyers remorse. Owners of Freedom now has to buy it back with a price; their life, their dignity and their respect.

I remember a saying “freedom comes with a price”, “there is a price to pay for freedom ” and “nothing in this world is for free”. Well the Capitalist and the Globalist are making sure humanity walk that talk.

Be careful what you keep repeating, you will end up living.

BREAKING: From September 13, New South Whales residents that are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 will be given new freedoms.

Residents of hotspots can leave home for an hour of recreation on top of their exercise hour, while people in other areas can meet five others outdoors.

People, especially semiliterate Christians, who have never stood up for any cause beside personal worldly benefit and who have done nothing but repeat stupid slogans and asinine soundbytes about a Judeo-Christian civilization should listen to themselves.

Intellectual Minds is a Trumpist evangelical social media group

Father, master, lord

eejoseph, ,

If in a court case you called an advocate a prosecutor you might well destroy the proceedings, yet this very thing is a prominent feature of not a few faith communities.  The essential shift in the nature of the relationship between God and humanity is that strangers and aliens become intimate and family.   In addressing God as anything other than “Father” one risks misdirecting ones affections, despises the costly provisions put in place by heaven’s commander.  The actual terms used may not precisely follow Yeshua’s guide to prayer, but when the framework of prayer is not God’s unique fatherhood we pour a whole lot of water on the fire.

Father-God is uniquely Christian

Just so there is no amount of speculation about God’s vested interest in being understood and treated as father even Christ in the Isaiah 9 prediction is called “The everlasting Father”.  The full extent of father-son unity is on display here.  The Father assigns all of his business –  creation, redemption, revelation,  and maintaining the universe –  to the Son.  Everlasting father is a role assumed to be exclusively source and progenitor.

The Tutor-Spirit keeps crying

As essential to the new relationship in which the convert finds himself or herself the Holy Spirit utters the term by which the new child of God needs to relate to the divine benefactor. How difficult can it be to hear the Spirit, who just happens to be always praying for us, crying “ABBA” and address God as Father? Even if one does not use the term father in prayer the attitude and mindset need to be domestic and ancestral.

Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”

Galatians 4:6

God is king but he relates to his children as distinctly as their identity and inheritance differ from those of servants (angels and ministering entities).

I suppose these pictures of the intimacy between God and his Son, God and his human children are a massive challenge to many. We have become so estranged from emulating the divine pattern of interpersonal relationships and communication that it seems strange for God to give his Son a name above all names and exalted him above the heavens. Who does that? I conclude that fatherhood in the spiritual DNA of converts to Christ. You, male or female, will have difficulty living in God’s family if you ignore the fatherly influence of the Spirit crying ABBA.

Jammed 45s and other fecal matter disturbances

eejoseph

When we look at what the leaders of our various faith communities are saying is important to us we sometimes wish they’d taken a look at what faith is supposed to accomplish. There are extremists, fundamentalists, and ultra orthodox operatives who make us think about our place in the community.  Rushing to leave a faith community is not a priority is some communities.  A wall of negative affect deters many.  In every case, however, leaders are guilty of overstating and understating what the original message was. Many do not even care what the patriarchs wrote or bequeathed.  In the Christian community we have apostles, who are quite literally the foundation of what we are and believe, who wrote the things we cannot afford to ignore or not know.  The lines of communication run straight from from Christ, to them, to us.  Miss that connection and you will end up dabbling in fecal matters and arm yourself with dull blades and malfunctioning weapons.

Jammed and useless weapons

Who would have thought that a religious leader would be proudly incapable of handling the clear, simple and lifegiving words  of the apostles?  Who would trust an imam who has no expertise in the original language of the Qur’an?

Who would have thought that a legislator, supposedly an expert in the law, would devote his energies to circumventing the law.  Isn’t that what “smart” politicians do?

Who would have thought that a head of state and commander in chief could be so cowardly as to sit sheepishly beside an avowed enemy of his and deny the facts of  foreign interference in American politics?

It is not surprising that many standing in places of leadership have no clue about the revolutionary nature of their functions.  We find them “holding the fort”, toeing the line, being radical fundamentalists, gimmick processors, isolationists, merchandisers , and preservers of ancient things. Serving people eludes too many.  They reduce God’s call and care to childish pep talks about what God can do.  The Christian faith is not a lottery of miracles,  because the benefit of faith in God’s son are not  outcomes of what is possible.  Christian faith rests on the fact of what God has done that changes everything. No whataboutism fecal  matter stands a chance.

This is war

Make no mistake.  The spiritual life is drenched in conflict and combat language.  David reported his hands as trained for war (Psalms 144:1-2) saying “Blessed be the Lord, my rock, Who trains my hands for war, And my fingers for battle; My lovingkindness and my fortress, My stronghold and my deliverer, My shield and He in whom I take refuge, Who subdues my people under me.

We are certain his bloodletting is neither lovingkindness nor fortress.  We must remember that this dude was gracious to enemies, bold to love and respect his neighbours. When the solutions are always miracles there is little gratitude for God’s design of work and rest. The world is seeing a rash of aborted projects, amid calls for revolutionary solutions, snd we know that God has confounded the wise and the powerful because they have paid little attention to the poor and needy.