• All day talk about God dnmoc
• Calling Jesus “Lord” dnmoc
• Calling Jesus “king” dnmoc.
• Joining a carefully chosen church dnmoc.
• Using Jesus’ name – to perform miracles, to exercise demons, and to do wonders – dnmoc.
• Pledging obedience dnmoc

We should not be surprised to find that many Christian communities are estranged from Christ. There are things that unequivocally disqualify followers, of which eminently are:

• Bigotry
• Nepotism
• More Moses than Jesus doctrine
• Secondhand witnesses (vs apostolic witnesses)

Sin – one hundred or one, committed – does not make a person of less or more value to God. In fact, the “one lost sheep” swamps the Shepherd’s attention!

Good works do not make a person of less or more value to God. There are no kudos for doing our duty.

And so with you–when you have done all that you have been told, still say ‘We are but useless servants; we have done no more than we ought to have done.'”

Luke 17:10

All that we can add to “BELIEVE AND CONFESS the death and resurrection of Christ” is pollution and mutilation. Like the attempt to sneak circumcision into the Way, pronouncements about salvation over and above Believe and Confess are oppressive, deceptive, and damnable. We know that nothing saves but Lamb’s blood.

The thought that one of the people exercising authority in your faith community and shaping lives may be unconverted should terrify us and comfort us because of the benefits to victims of demon-possession and medical illness.

And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease.

In Matthew 10:1 we learn that authority over demons, sickness and disease can be a phenomenon outside of Christian conviction.

At the end of Luke’s gospel Peter is still unconverted and it must be acknowledged that this is the case for all of them since conversion requires Christ to give the Holy Spirit so that one can become a child of God.

But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.

Luke 22:32

One does not even need to be in the group of Christ followers. The case of the strange exorcist illustrates this.

And John answered him, saying, Master,we saw one casting out devils in thy name, and he followeth not us: and we forbad him, because he followeth not us. But Jesus said, Forbid him not: for there is no man which shall do a miracle in my name, that can lightly speak evil of me.

Mark 9:38-39

We can expect unconverted people to be a part of this phenomenon in the 2nd millennium after Pentecost. Sobering and highly and disturbing.

Imagine processing at the same time the glow of your last kiss, now hours old, and along with that, the four appointments later today, the five questions you are hoping God will answer, the pain in your knee, and the latest murder of innocents using fully automatic weapons. As we are imagining ourselves thinking through these life slices would we not wake up to our limited vision and inability to multitask? That pizza of things past, present, and future is not real, and does not happen.

When we get led into all truth we had better not consider ourselves in possession of anything more than a drop in the ocean of intimate knowledge of the Son of God, even though he did clothe himself with humanity and left a fourfold view of his time in the flesh.

Of all the things or persons we know only one thing/person drags us out of death into life. With that life in town comes a full database of “need to know”, as a Samaritan woman expected.

The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things.

John 4:25

That delivery of knowledge is affirmed by Christ. He holds back nothing.

Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.

John 15:15

It is good to remind ourselves that a conflict is raging around us.  My war will always be on the side of oppressed people. Joining the people who are losing their grip on robbery and bribery is just not in the cards. Caesar’s moves are in service of idolatry. We know that. So we are not drawing new lines between sacred and secular authority, and are committed to being harmless as doves and wise as serpents.

We only mess up character by putting the things we want out front at the wrong time or too often. Desires – lusts – war against life. We know the joyful sound. Dying daily, wrestling our passions over to Christ’s example is we will find ourselves victoriously on the offensive.

Dear friends, I urge you, as pilgrims and strangers upon earth, to refrain from indulging the cravings of your earthly nature, for they make war upon the soul.

1 Peter 2:11

The church has no secret agenda. Much of what goes on is public. While the official gatherings are designed for both vested and other interests they are of optimum benefit only to the member and any initiate to the faith.

Honest conduct (with food and drink, clothing and circumspection, other people and prayer) with Christ as star of the show, is what we envision as vibrant and abundant life. We cannot dump that “prosperity is abundance” idea soon enough.

When the gospel is toyed with – not accepted- we cannot use it when we run into trouble.

I love the gospel’s thrust and plunge: this piece of armor, the shoes, 👞👠, covers everywhere we go. We travel with good news shoes.

And with the readiness to serve the Good News of Peace as shoes for your feet.

Ephesians 6:15

A post-Resurrection episode involving Stephen

Then there arose certain of the synagogue, which is called the synagogue of the Libertines, and Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia and of Asia, disputing with Stephen.

Like Master, like servant

And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake. Then they suborned men, which said, We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses, and against God.

This pattern of attack began with the Lord Jesus himself as these three encounters (below) illustrate.

About Resurrection

Have we gone offscript and are unfamiliar with God’s power.

After our Lord silenced the Sadducees on the question of resurrection the Pharisees decided that they would try to see if their attacks would fare any better. The Sadducees had thought they could muddy the hope of resurrection with ordinary marital developments. Their question was “who gets a many-times married woman to be his wife in the resurrection age?” This was probably a first rate silly question out in the open for the first time.

“Your mistake,” replied Jesus, “is due to your ignorance of the Scriptures, and of the power of God.

Matthew 22:29

What are the law’s priorities?

Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law?

Matthew 22:35-36

Though they did not know it at the time monotheism had so little to do with loving people that no neighbour of Israel was excited about become Israelite or imitating her religion. We now know that loving God wholeheartedly can quickly become a convenient cover for malice and apathy.

Identifying Messiah with a descendant of David.

Knowing that ultimately the question about Israelite destiny would come around to what authority our Lord had. The winds and waves were subject, the thoughts of men were open to him, so Yeshua did not wait for them to pose the question. He brought it up.

While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, Saying, What think ye of Christ? whose son is he? They say unto him, The Son of David. He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool? If David then call him Lord, how is he his son? And no man was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions.

Matthew 22:41-46

Let us pose questions to the text. As we also learn from the birds and field lilies, let us live in one-eyed attraction to Christ. Failure to do so will result in angel worship, food and marriage barriers, and making the creature more influential than the Creator.

The satisfaction we have from getting our needs and desires met does not justify the wisdom that comes with the indwelling Christ. As long as the proceeds of prophecy, exorcism and wonderful works are still around the wisdom of God will take a back seat, being justified by her children apart from law and prophets and hirelings of all kinds.

The personal focus of writers and speakers cannot be nebulous. A hard line of reality separates “I” from “we”, “you” from “us”, and “him” from “them”. Realizing that expressions can be reports or questions, demands, or commands, or speculations, we pay attention to the type of expression we find ourselves reluctant to confront.

As a teacher of the gospel (=Christian theology) I find that one needs to pick carefully from the growing list of red herrings and non-sequitors in order to be most effective. Constantly going after students’ oneliners and supposedly faith building slogans is more destructive than helpful. One has to notice that many things called Christian have no explicit reference to :

• CHRIST- Messiah the Anointed One (lamb, king, saviour, door, shepherd, lover-supreme)
• Christ’s work – dying, rising, interceding on high
• Christ’s words – sayings from the apostolic witnesses (4 gospels, the letters, the prophecy of Revelation and Acts)

Why is that?

We need to be reminded that we are not our neighbour, and that our names matter because identity matters. We know we cannot insert any name – least of all our names – where the Bible has a personal name. Jesus is not Isaiah, nor will Moses ever be John the son of Zebedee.

Scoffers have no legs

The chances of anyone who turns away from dealing soberly with Yeshua’s words and actions contributing to anything besides mockery and ignorance are small indeed.

We buy a great many catastrophic scenarios if we insert ourselves into the text without asking “What time is it?”

Of all those sayings in Psalms and Proverbs which can we say have brought us back from death?

God said both “let there be” and “I am sorry I let there be”. God said both “let us make” and “I am sorry I made”. So we can spare ourselves a lot of misery and embarrassment by filtering the notion that all God-spoken words are relevant all the time for all people.

And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; … for it repenteth me that I have made them.

Genesis 6:7

Why did the Sinai covenant not include “angry with a brother is murder”? Where are the priests who work on the Sabbath and are innocent? Are there any people partaking of sacred things – as David did – illicitly that we might want to execute.

Du-ped indeed

Walking in two camps at the same time has never been attractive and is mostly destructive.

• Declaring righteousness
• Being just
• Justifying people who believe
• Justify people apart from their performance

Whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believes in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.

Romans 3:25-28