Author: eejoseph

Some “Rocky” Advice

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The reason church leaders bring nothing redemptive to the glaring injustices that are grabbing attention is no secret. The Petrine admonition about the value of our redemption is fitting, because far too many are currying favour with one government or another.  Things – realities of life – are not merely running along as usual and the old stuff is, well, old.

The Christ and God

It does not take long when we are listening to the evangelists and bishops of our times before we realize that they are doing their best to sit on a fence and appear as if they have a unique view of the world that was and the world that is. To be brutally frank, only John the Baptist owns that experience. If we cannot pin the nonsense web we are spinning out to the Man from Nazareth we say “God”. We know how dangerous it is when we cannot see the divine justice in a given matter. That is why so many debates just go on and on. We need to step out of our comfort zone and ask “What does that have to do with Messianic atonement?” The answer to this question either silences the lupine agents or gives an opportunity for the bloodwashed to explain the hope.

Firm and true foundation

Hear what Peter says about traditions and old traditions. The man was not called rock[y] to portray a pebble.

1 Peter 1:18-21

18. Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; 19. But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: 20. Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, 21. Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.

The “therefore” of this caution is earnest love.  It is none of the numerous weights with which the deceivers have been loading us up.

Many of us think our ethnic or national traditions make safe places for our feet but none of us will get very far putting an “A” beside our cultural or national heritage. Since that is true of the Jewish people our waywardness gets the “A”.

Ships going to and fro between graceless nowheres

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Every day there is convincing evidence that the faith of Christ has been shaped to imitate the Israelite experience.

The essential grace ID card

For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.

John 1:17

It is true that God’s people have similar experiences to the Exodus, the encampment at Sinai, and the entry into Canaan, but there is neither wilderness wandering, death in the desert, nor wholesale desertion of the covenant in the experience of the great salvation. The saints are on high with Christ.

Seedsowing realities

And the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil, this is the man who hears the word and understands it; who indeed bears fruit and brings forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.”

Matthew 13:23

No longer nefarious

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The reasoning one uses to say that the Saviour of the world saves people and loses them earns the label corrupt and deceitful.  It is a popular and widespread conclusion that the wolfish use to create fear, paint a picture of themselves as conscientious cooperators with God, and make confidence in God’s ability to finish what he started a waste of time.

Race and religion: the muddy waters of the age

If you think grace is limited to success and victories over unemployment and sickness then perhaps you have not seen any signs of Israelite treachery spanning thousands of years and the typical chosen land and people propaganda.

Where are God’s lovers

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The truth is no longer hiding in a secret room.  When it comes to doing God’s will it is not humans who carry the torch.   The death angel seems to have penetrated the great walls of corporate and civic greatness as well as the pews of evangelical ignorance. Spoiled brats and silent watchdogs are the heritage of a nation that thought it could set up lamb-like powers (kind and gracious) and speak like a dragon (slanderous and destructive) and not pay the price.  Loving a country more than one’s life is ridiculously stupid and the things we do not allow – those forbidden attitudes and behaviours –  are no sign of love.

Blinded by white clouds



11) Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb and he spoke as a dragon. 12) He exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence. And he makes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose fatal wound was healed. 13) He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down out of heaven to the earth in the presence of men. 14) And he deceives those who dwell on the earth because of the signs which it was given him to perform in the presence of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who had the wound of the sword and has come to life.

Revelation of John 13:11-14

This beast that is  like both dragon and lamb is not fairy tale secret apocalyptic.  This is an end-of-days nation that will rip to shreds every precious framework for human success and longevity, all the while publishing its love for God and country, and its admiration of despots, and bigots.

People who love God in this age should not think they can get away with dissing the people for whom Christ died.  The love that Christian faith exhibits will shred the barriers of race and culture.  We can make the same mistake of passing on the other side – too holy to be seen with – like the priest and Levite (Luke 10:30-37) sinners, the sick, the wounded and outsiders.  Man, “Go and do likewise” is a rebuke in very gentle language that still needs to be heeded.

Love misplaced again

Despite the many pleas by the apostles to love in sincerity and without pretence we still find ourselves chained to a “chosen people” status as if the treasures of heaven that  can bring purity to people.   I suppose that the presence of that love in our earthen vessel that sends us to the lost, sick and dying is too surprising (new!) to be real.  In reality, one has to ignore  the fact  that a holy and spotless Lamb did really hang out with humans,  each one lost and sinful).

Money traps the saint

That saying about money “answering to everything”  is deadly accurate but also equally ineffective.  Its accuracy comes from the writer’s use of a participle to describe the preparation as pretty much the status quo.  The idolatry is all too evident.  They get laughter from food  (bread), joy from wine, and they fall back  on the “fix-all” silver.


Men prepare a meal for enjoyment, and wine makes life merry, and money is the answer to everything.

Ecclesiastes 10:19

It is not surprising that in New Testament times and our times the people who claim to be most ardent followers of truth are lovers of money and themselves.   Even a popular thing like the Law becomes an idol, a mere distraction from God himself.  If we do not draw a firm line between Creator and creature, between Saviour and the perishing, we show ourselves to be spiritual adulterers.  God is not an object like the law, temple, Bible, the church, prophecy or the priesthood.  He alone is able to save.   Our love needs to be more than lipservice and include caring sincerely about people who are different from us. Love that is optimally defined as obedience to the law simply does not cut it and is highly suspect as a tool of the devil.