Heaven and Hell: Transforming Suffering

Sharing a bit of what the Lord is teaching me concerning, transforming suffering and His healing:

In the Hebrew understanding, and in the understanding of the Biblical Christian, ‘hell’ is the absence of other people, solitary confinement in the prison of the self. It is through separation from others that we are separated from God. As it is written,

‘For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.’

and again

‘you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh (self-centered nature), so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.’

Can you imagine a persons self-centeredness, their spiritual/physical violence towards others being so arrogantly established and blinded by pride that even after their physical death, the Lord has no compassion on them…the Body and Spirit still retracts even from their very memory? They have lost all image-bearing qualities…their humanity is eternally destroyed. Let us pray, 'God, keep us from the evil one!'

As it is written,

‘I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after your body has been killed, has authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.’

and again

‘You have rebuked the nations and destroyed the wicked;
you have blotted out their name for ever and ever.
Endless ruin has overtaken my enemies,
you have uprooted their cities;
even the memory of them has perished.
The LORD reigns forever;
he has established his throne for judgment. ‘

But this is about healing…about transforming suffering…what happens when those we love pass away and we are attacked by grief? Death is a hard thing to deal with. Bereavement forces us in on ourselves. This is why Jesus commands his disciples to mourn with those who mourn. He doesn’t say sugar coat it, pretend its ok, that it’s not painful…death is an enemy.

Now is a good time to talk about the spirit behind the week of ‘shiva’ (means seven- as in days), ‘during which covenant people are visited by neighbors and friends and rarely left alone. This forces us out of ourselves and back into the land of the living. It helps mend the broken bonds of relationship. ‘Shiva’ is a form of reintegration of resurrection (in a metaphorical sense), a radical insistence that it is not in and by ourselves that we are able to restore life, but in the company of others as the Lord himself changes us through the suffering and we find upon the eighth day that our loved one has found a place in the very presence of the King who comes…who was and is and is to come, with Christ…within us and in our midst. We have all been caught up together in the Life. Therefore it is written,

‘we do not mourn as those without hope’

and again

‘Led in with joy and gladness,
they enter the palace of the king.
Your sons will take the place of your fathers;
you will make them princes throughout the land.
I will perpetuate your memory through all generations;
therefore the nations will praise you for ever and ever.’

and again

‘Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?’

Proper mourning in Christianity, as in Judaism, is a process of ‘tikkun’, healing the fractures caused by suffering and loss, evil and injustice…healing in the name of Jesus for the glory of our Father.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Tikkun Olam

It was the Jewish hope and it is the Christian hope to be used, as God's elect, "to perfect the world under God's sovereignty." In other words, when all people of the world abandon false gods and recognize YHWY, the world will have been perfected. YHWY is the Alpha and the Omega. The Beginning and the End. The purpose of it all. As Paul says we have been given grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith. To get to Him, there is a Way one must walk, a Life one must lead, a Truth one must manifest in word and deed. We must grow up into the fullness of Messiah. So we answer the call, we submit to His will, we receive His Spirit and we go where he sends us. We bring the good news that God's Kingdom is coming, it has been inaugurated, in Spirit and in Truth, the veil between Heaven and Earth, Creator and Creation has been torn and the two are becoming one. YHWY has summed up his plan for the whole cosmos in Jesus. Fully man, fully God. And so as John says, 'We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know YHWY. And we are in YHWY by being in his Son Jesus the Messiah. YHWY is the true God and eternal life. Dear children, keep yourselves from idols." YHWY is the Supreme King of Kings, the one from whom all authority is derived; this is the good testimony that our precious Lamb gave before Pilate, this is what we, as Christians have been grafted into, by the atonement offered to us by YHWY's anointed one, His Messiah, Jesus, whose advent we celebrate in jubilant wonder this Christmas season. Him who came into the world to preach the good news of the Kingdom,to destroy the works of the devil and to do so in and through those who believe in the name of the Father's only begotten Son.


So we exhort one another with the 'Aleinu' celebrating our Father and the privilege we have been afforded by His great love and grace, to serve in beautiful relationship with Him, through Jesus Christ our Lord.



It is our duty to worship the Master of all,

to ascribe greatness to the author of creation,

who has not made us like the nations of the lands

nor placed us like the families of the earth;

who has not made our portion like theirs,

nor our destiny like all their multitudes.

For they worship vanity and emptiness,

and pray to a god who cannot save.

But we bow in worship

and thank the Supreme King of Kings,

the Holy One, Blessed be He,

Who extends the Heavens and establishes the Earth

Whose throne of glory is in the heavens above

and whose power's Presence is in the highest of heights.

He is our God and there is no other,

Truly He is our King and there is none else

as His Word testifies, "You shall know and take to heart this day

that YHWY is God,

in the heavens above

and the earth below, there is no other."


Finally, we remind one another that the righteousness that is by faith says: “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven or ‘Who will descend into the deep?’ No! That completely misses the point. What we declare is that 'The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,' that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim. Or do you not know that you are God's temple, the place where He dwells in the midst of His people. That by the grace shown you a stream has been placed within you bubbling up to eternal life as the scriptures say 'There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells.' and again, 'Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.' and again, 'Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.'

The LORD comes

A woman was asked one time, "Are you secure in your salvation?"

To which she responded..."Well, I wouldn't be much of a Kingdom person if I didn't trust my King."

She got a bit of a blank stare and apparently the response indicated that she needed some clarification as to what was asked. "What I mean is, do you know you are going to heaven when you die?" To which she responded. "I've already died. It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me."

The evangelist, clearly not getting the answer he was looking for, tried again. "When you stand before God and he asks "Why should I let you into Heaven, what will your response be?"...to which the woman stated, "Well, that's a strange question... I stand before God every day and ask Him to let me in on what He's up to...He never says "Why should I let you"...I'm his Child and I've come to Him to hang out, to listen to Him, to learn from Him, to walk with Him in the good works he has prepared for me" and she finished by saying “Haven’t you read in your scriptures that in Him we live and move and have our being?”

In a last ditch effort to get the answer he wanted out of her, He said, “When your body physically dies, what is going to happen to your soul?”

“Well, assuming the Lord doesn’t appear before then…I guess it will do the same thing my body does…it will be at rest with Messiah until the End comes, you know…1 Corinthians 15, Romans 8, Revelation 21 and 22. Or like Peter says of our blessed hope, in the power of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost in Acts 3…ummm, how does it go…New Heavens and New Earth…oh yeah, ‘Heaven must receive him until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago…’

Then the evangelist says, “All I am really interested in is if you believe in the name of Jesus or not, our Immanuel?”

“I just told you I do. I trust that YHWY saves…that He is with us. How is it that you think I was able to completely walk away from my own identity to continuously lay my rights down, to look after the poor and widow, to bring healing to the sick and dying?”

The evangelist was frustrated, his peace had left him, “That’s just it, salvation is not based on works! You just say ‘I accept Jesus so I can go to heaven when I die.’ That’s all you have to do! It’s much more simple than you are making it!”

The woman became concerned for her friend and she was filled with the Spirit, placing her hand gently on his shoulder she spoke, “Brother, it’s ok, don’t be afraid.”

“I just don’t know about you.” He said.

Speaking in the Spirit, she said, “Neither did they, but I AM with you and you are known.”

And as she placed her other hand on his other shoulder their eyes met, and there, face to face, the Holy Spirit fell upon him with great power, the demons fled and he saw for the first time… all things had become new, there is a new creation. The Lord comes.

Ooooh that smell, Can't you smell that smell...

But thanks be to YHWY - the God who always leads us in his triumphal procession in the Messiah, and through us reveals everywhere the sweet smell of knowing him. We are the Messiah's fragrance before YHWY, you see to those who are being saved and to those who are being lost. To the latter, it's the smell that comes from death and leads to death; but to the former it's the smell of life which leads to life.

Who can rise to this challenge? We aren't mere pedlars of God's word, as so many people are. We speak with sincerity; we speak from God; we speak in God's presence; we speak in the Messiah.

What would theocracy look like if, rather than a bully who was waiting to come and beat you up or blow you up if you didn't agree with him, you reshaped your idea of what God is like around the poor, suffering servant who looked after the poor, partied with the prostitutes and tax collectors and all the wrong people, cast out demons, healed the sick and restored sight to the blind and ultimately gave up his life that all might have life in His name, promising to ultimately restore all things, to make all things new and that you could participate with God in this, not as a slave, but as a Son or Daughter? What if someone told you that Gospel? What would it look like if that God had become King? What might your response be?

...if you were poor? ...if you were a prostitute? …if you were the least of these? …if you were the blind or lame? ...if you are a rich young ruler? ...if you are 'righteous' in your own eyes? ...if you are in power and already had your rights? ...if you were conservative? ...if you were liberal? ...if you were American? ...if you were African? ...if you were Asian or Mideastern? How would you respond?...does a scenario like that sound like 'good news' to you or does it smell like death?

Oh, the Christian hope of the coming judgment! Come Lord, come!

Sing to YHWY a new song,
for he has done marvelous things;
his right hand and his holy arm
have worked salvation for him.
YHWY has made his salvation known
and revealed his righteousness to the nations.
He has remembered his love
and his faithfulness to Israel;
all the ends of the earth have seen
the salvation of our God.

Shout for joy to YHWY, all the earth,
burst into jubilant song with music;
make music to YHWY with the harp,
with the harp and the sound of singing,
with trumpets and the blast of the ram’s horn—
shout for joy before YHWY, the King.

Let the sea resound, and everything in it,
the world, and all who live in it.
Let the rivers clap their hands,
let the mountains sing together for joy;
let them sing before YHWY,
for he comes to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness
and the peoples with equity.

...For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.

For you Missy!

Daniel 9:27

"Seventy weeks(years – there were 70 years from the birth of Jesus until the destruction of the Second Temple) are decreed about your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place (the Third Temple – the Body of Messiah). Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. Then for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed. And he shall confirm a strong covenant (New Covenant is confirmed vividly to believers by the fulfillment of Jesus prophecy that the Jerusalem temple would be thrown down) with many for one week, and for half of the week. He shall put an end to sacrifice and offering. (Sacrificial system is finished– New Covenant the blood of Jesus is sufficient) And on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator." (Rome/Caesar falls after God is done using them to pour out His wrath on corrupt and unrepentant Jerusalem…greater is the sin of the one who delivered me over to you said Jesus to Pilate)

Mathew 24: 1-14

Jesus left the temple and went away. As he did so, his disciples came and pointed out the Temple buildings to him. ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘and you see all these things? I’m telling you the truth: not one stone will be left standing upon another. All of them will be thrown down.’

As he was sitting on the Mount of Olives, his disciples came to him privately.

‘Tell us,’ they said, ‘when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that you are going to appear as king, and that the end of the age is upon us?’

‘Watch out,’ replied Jesus. ‘Don’t let anyone deceive you. You see, there will be several who come along, using my name, telling you “I’m the Messiah!” They will fool lots of people. You’re going to hear about wars, actual wars and rumored ones; make sure you don’t get alarmed. This has got to happen, but it doesn’t mean the end is coming yet. Nations will rise against one another, and kingdoms against each other. There will be famines and earthquakes here and there. All this is just the start of the birthpangs.

‘Then they will hand you over to be tortured, and they will kill you. You will be hated by all nations because of my name. Then several will find the going too hard, and they will betray each other and hate each other. Many false prophets will arise, and they will deceive plenty of people. And because lawlessness will be on the increase, many will find their love growing cold. But the one who lasts out to the end will be delivered. And this gospel of the kingdom must be announced to the whole world, as a witness to all the nations. Then the end will come.

This whole section of scripture is related to the time between Jesus’ ministry and the destruction of Jerusalem (see notes on Daniel 9 above)…in order to see just how accurate Jesus was read Josephus and study up on the first Roman Jewish War = 66ad (Beginning) – 70ad (Temple Destroyed) – 73ad (End) = 7 yrs…all within a generation (40 yrs) of Jesus death as He said without trying to explain ‘generation’ away as many do. Note also the 40 years (wilderness wandering, battling the Accuser) of the Church’s struggle until the final affirmation of the New Covenant by the destruction of the idolatrous Temple, proving Jesus was actually on the Throne in Heaven running things on Earth, that He and His Body are the true Temple where God dwells in the midst of His people. This is not to say that echoes of this time period have not impressed themselves on contemporary events through the ages…there is certainly much to be informed by, but that is not what the disciples were asking about and it’s not what Jesus was referring to.


1 Corinthians 15:50-58

This is what I’m saying, my dear family. Flesh and blood can’t inherit God’s kingdom; decay can’t inherit undecaying life. Look! I’m telling you a mystery. We won’t all sleep; we’re all going to be changed – in a flash, at the blink of an eye, at the last trumpet. This is how it will be, you see: the trumpet’s going to sound, the death will be raised undecaying, and we’re going to be changed. This decaying body must put on deathlessness.

When the decaying puts on the undecaying, and the dying puts on the undying, then the saying that has been written will come true:

Death is swallowed up in victory!
Death, where’s your victory gone?
Death, where’s your sting gone?

The ‘sting’ of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
But thank God! He gives us the victory, through our Lord Jesus the Messiah.

So, dear family, be firmly fixed, unshakable, always full to overflowing with the Lord’s work. In the Lord, as you know, the work you’re doing will not be worthless.

This section of scripture is referring to the general resurrection not a ‘rapture’, a bodily resurrection and a swallowing up of the corruptible in the incorruptible, not that we will be less clothed (just spirits or souls floating around), but more clothed says Paul…think of the Messiah as a covering without which creation is subject to decay and corruption. Think about what happened in the Garden, when they suddenly knew their ‘nakedness’ and were consumed with guilt and shame, think about creation subjected to futility without the covering, thorns and thistles coming up in our hearts as well as in creation itself…now imagine those ‘shakable’ things being consumed and everything else changed, transformed, restored, renewed…in a flash! flooded with, covered by and indwelt by the Messiah, and Mankind walked with HaShem. Paul says if we once thought of the Messiah in human terms we do so no longer.


1 Thessalonians 4: 13-18

Now concerning those who have fallen asleep: We don’t want you to remain in ignorance about them, my dear family. We don’t want you to have the kind of grief that other people do, people who do not possess a hope. For, you see, if we believe that Jesus died and rose, that’s the way God will also bring, with Jesus, those who fell asleep through him.

Let me explain (this is the word of the Lord I’m speaking to you!). We who are alive, who remain until the Lord is present, will not find ourselves ahead of those who fell asleep. The Lord himself will come down from heaven with shouted order, with the voice of an archangel and the sound of God’s trumpet. The Messiah’s dead will rise first; then we who are alive, who are left, will be snatched up with them among the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. And in this way we shall always be with the Lord. So comfort each other with these words.

Here Paul must describe the ‘parousia’ or the coming of the Lord in a way that gets these people to stand fast and not fall away as they are seeing brothers and sisters dying by persecution and even natural causes and he does not want them mourning about like the pagans. See, the gospel they had heard and been taught had nothing whatsoever much to do with where you go when you die it, it had to do with dying to their old humanity/thinking/feeling/acting and they did this because for them YHWY, the one true God, had become King uniquely in and through Jesus, his anointed one. It has to do with a New Heaven and New Earth, a restored and resurrected creation fully realized in their King’s victory over death and now working its way through everything, like a mustard plant of leaven hidden in 3 measures of flour.

How do you explain something like that though? The ‘parousia’? Well, Paul had experienced the coming of the Lord on the road to Damascus, he later detailed it to the Corinthian church, how he was caught up into the third heaven, whether in the body or out of the body he did not know, the experience was apparently like being caught up into the air, but we know he didn’t leave his body and the onlookers saw what they could of it happening right there in Damascus. Paul is here drawing on the idea of the people of God going out to meet Jesus and all those with Him as they return/arrive to their city as was common when Royalty or diplomats arrived into their cities and I described in the blog. Think also of the people running out of Jerusalem with palm branches to receive the Immanuel into His city. Paul uses very vivid imagery to describe the indescribable…he does the best he can, but such an event is beyond words, it must be experienced and his prophetic language allows for that. Ultimately, though it is to comfort his hearers so they do not lose hope as the battle wages on and they see their loved ones fall asleep, he assures them, they are at peace and they will all step into the New Heavens and New Earth together as all things are made completely new at the coming with the Lord.

2 Thessalonians 2: 1-4

Now concerning the royal presence of our Lord Jesus the Messiah, and our gathering together around him, this is our request my dear family. Please don’t be suddenly blown off course in your thinking, or be unsettled, either through spiritual influence, or through a word, or through a letter supposedly from us, telling you that the day of the Lord has already arrived.

First of all Paul does not mean by ‘the day of the Lord’ the end of the world and escape into some spiritual other-worldly place as Plato would teach. I think it’s important that be cleared up. If that were so they certainly wouldn’t need to be informed about it by letter, what would be the point? No, ‘the day of the Lord’ as in the Hebrew Scriptures refers to judgment being sent upon Jerusalem within time/space/history. So what is going on and why would these people think that the time had come and gone? Well, there was a big ordeal that happened just before Paul started his missionary journeys. The Roman Emperor Caligula, convinced of his own divinity, angry at the Jews for not worshipping him and other matters, ordered a huge statue of himself to be placed in the Temple in Jerusalem, riots and rebellions would have surely ensued had Caligula not been murdered in 41ad…otherwise the Roman-Jewish was of 66-73 may have come too soon, but the scriptures had to be fulfilled and so it didn’t until the appointed time. Paul must have envisaged another megalomaniac having similar ideas. There are echoes going back to Egypt and Pharaoh hardening his heart to the point of no return, bringing himself into utter error and so to certain judgment upon himself (only God knows when this will come to its ultimate head) and so revealing the truth. These are simply the bodies the Spirit anti-Christ has put on by those so tempted by wickedness that they fell beyond the point of any ability to recognize goodness or truth.


Revelation 13:6-8

It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven. Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. And authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation, and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.

This has nothing to do with a rapture or a resurrection, but is referring to a time of intense persecution by an empire that denies Jesus as the Messiah and the whole Body of Christ is the recipient of this emperor’s violent madness, who has been given authority by God (still ultimately sovereign) over all tribes and nations and demanded that people in the empire worship the Empire/Emperor…John’s revelation goes on to say, if you must be killed by this Empire, so be it such is the life of a Christian…it will require trust and endurance to get through this and but ultimately God has and will raise the dead to their inheritance….so fear not and get on with the testimony.

Another kind of...King, Kingdom, Ambassador, Message, Method

'But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.'

A lot of people, for a really long time, have used this particular verse to support a dualistic understanding of where we are now to where we will be when the End comes, that is when Jesus steps down from his throne and hands the completely restored, renewed creation over to the Father, YHWY who covers new creation as the waters cover the sea and instead of the thorns and thistles, come up the pine tree and the myrtle.

The idea is that this ‘place’ where we are now is not our home, we are just passing through, some fine day I’ll fly away, etc. Basically that creation is done for, beyond redemption, and the idea of ‘getting saved’ is that we get to be among those with a ticket out when it’s all utterly destroyed and go either somewhere else or worse into some final ‘spiritual’ unembodied whatever. This is how Latin-based Western Christianity has seen things for a long time (I say that because the Eastern Church never fell into this error). There are many reasons why things are this way in the west, not least the strong influence and compromise with Greek philosophy.

Ecclesia Semper Reformanda!

I don’t want to spend a lot of time pointing out the counter-biblical nature of Platonic philosophy and Gnosticism…the wicked escapism that is peddled for profit in the form of rapture theology and the Left Behind garbage (just to be clear, I am not coming down on sheep or even undershephards that have been misled...but rather we are to go out after our lost sheep and call them to repentance). Remember, the Son of Man came to serve, not to be served and Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. The fact that Paul, John et al staunchly opposed gnosticism and platonic philosophy and yet taught using a lot of the same imagery in order to connect with and then redirect their Hellenistic audience…should be sufficient enough evidence that we should be familiar with these ideas that are opposed to the Kingdom of God and vigilant against such destructive influences, not least in our own hearts.

So, what is Paul saying here?

If you lived in Philippi you were likely very proud of your ties to Rome. Rome after all was the ‘highest’ place in the known world. It was the place were culture and technology came from, the place where individual and religious freedoms were valued more than any other place on earth, they were the worlds largest wealth generator, a place of unsurpassed commerce and education…and let us not forget that Rome is where the throne was, the control center for the known world…the place from which the Savior of the world ruled…Caesar himself.

How did Caesar expand the glory of Rome? How did he build the his kingdom(empire)? He sent out his ambassadors with a message…the gospel of Caesar. Peace, culture, education, economic stability, civility…Caesar would save you from your backwards, ancient ways of thinking and would bring an extension of a government with justice system that was unparalleled anywhere else in the world. One thing, if you didn’t like it…they are the most efficient killers on the planet. They were dealers of death…the most brutal, humiliating, dehumanizing torturous deaths imaginable…and they were really good at it.

Once an area like Philippi was conquered the soldiers and people who were sent there, for the glory of Rome, colonized it…they had no intention of eventually going back to Rome, that wasn’t the point. They were in Philippi but not of Philippi; they were in fact Roman citizens. Roman citizens, since they held special ties to Rome, and were there on the authority of Caesar carried a higher status than those without that status. They were in fact the ones ‘in the right’ or justified. It was their hope and desire to see things done in Philippi as in Rome and as a result, they commonly inherited a place in Philippi because of that citizenship and their service to Caesar and his glory (weight/importance). They did not yet see this as their home because the present reality of Rome’s sovereignty over Philippi was not fully realized…there were still uprisings and ignorance to the ways things are done, Caesar’s will was gradually being imposed on the colony by whatever means necessary. In the meantime the citizen’s of Rome were constantly opposed by and the locals, who would terrorize them always trying to hold onto their antiquated tribal ways.

Often times in these situations things would come to a head and violent rebellion would break out, great tribulation would ensue. Then a great leader would be sent in with all the power and authority of Caesar himself and the vast Roman military, a power that would cause the ground to shake and the sky to be darkened and that colony would be flooded with blood and violence and when the dust settled those who survived would come out of their holes in the ground or wherever they were hiding, underground or in caves into the air. A new air, they would be caught up in the great moment, the ‘parousia’ and they would run out of the city to receive their savior and his conquerors and escort them back into the land, a new city appearing from Rome itself, cleansed of the troublemakers and rebellious terrorists. Rome and Phillipi had become one and the Empire’s glory was on display in the death and destruction that littered the land.

This the imagery that Jesus and Paul et al, speak from when they offer the Gospel of YHWY’s Kingdom as the truth over against the anti-Christ, Caesar and Rome which is just a sick parody; A distorted, warped and violent reflection of the true King and the true Kingdom, Caesar’s kingdom…his ‘world’ has missed the mark and the wages of that are ultimately destruction.

The Kingdom of God begins within us, but it comes…and comes… and comes…we grow up into the fullness of Messiah as we bring the life of Heaven to bear on Earth…in our hearts, in our lives, in our homes, in our communities, in all the Earth…and when things get really bad, hold on tight…stand firm…do NOT let your love grow cold… we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself...the Power that raised Him from the dead.

Our Father, above us and all around us,
May your unspeakable Name be revered.

Here to earth, may your kingdom come.
Here on earth, may your will be done as it is in heaven.

Give us today our bread for today.
And forgive us our wrongs as we forgive those who wrong us.

Lead us away from the time of trial.
But liberate us from the evil.

For the kingdom is yours and yours alone,
And the power is yours and yours alone,
And the glory is yours and yours alone.
Amen.

Thoughts? Questions? Comments?

Haiku! ... God bless you.

Some, dark and dreary,
'fraid of new things, quite leary.
Myths, all quite eerie!

Escape! Clouds on high?
Oh, dead faith; 'twill hardly try
We're not made to fly!

Bitter compromise.
Where is Word of the Son's rise?
Instead, feed on lies?

Who opened that door?
Oh, Paul's blessed metaphor?
No, Darby's lil' bore!

He is appearing,
wise and tender; His steering
The Day is nearing!

'In the beginning' of this fresh new Way.
Light came from darkness, eternity to stay
Unfolding! Surprising! Like Shakespeare's play.
Father - keep us and mold us as clay
Son - come quickly; seize the day!
Spirit - comfort,teach and weigh
This is what we pray.

What Do I Do With These Scars?

A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe."

Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my God!"

No one said that in the resurrection life that you would have no wounds, no scars. Though you be transformed, the Creator God takes what was and remakes it into something glorious and shining and beautiful. The scriptures tell us that He makes all things new, not that he obliterates everything and starts from scratch. The tomb is in fact empty. The point of the Easter narrative is that that process of new creation has begun, fully realized in Jesus and spilling out into the world.

What is the point of keeping the scars though? What use are they? Once the pain and anguish, the shame and weight is dealt with by the power of the Spirit...our wounds can be, nay are intended to, give concrete testimony to those whose hopes have been dashed, whose heads are swimming in a pool of muddled doubt and fear and cynicism. Our scars, in other words, remain in order to bring glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. That we might become the covenant faithfulness of God to a world who has only heard rumors that there is life beyond the pain and suffering and yes even death; and that that life is more glorious more wonderful because it has been through death and out the other side, because light has emerged from darkness.

God's Justice, Is Always Restorative Justice

I spent four days in prison and it wasn't long enough.

Prison is everything you would think it is, so you may ask why on earth would anyone chose to spend time there. A combination of circumstances in my life coalesced in such a way that when the opportunity presented itself and the Lord specifically called me to minister to prisoners (there are all types of prisoners), He had already made sure that I knew He was leading me in this direction for some time. He does that...at least in my experience.

This was my first interaction with Kairos and I have to say, unequivocally, the most powerful part was the fact that it brought Catholics, Protestants of every flavor as well as free church/non-denom's together with the mission and message of the Kingdom superseding any other issue. This is as it should be. For eight weeks leading up to the Kairos weekend I got to hang out with, worship with and really get to know some great Brothers in Christ who all had one thing in common, Christ. There was the rare theological rib here and there, but it was always in fun, love and mutual respect. At the end of the day, we are not saved because we believe in the doctrine of salvation by faith, we are saved because we believe that Jesus is Lord. That's the message...that is the reality to which we are conformed and by which we are transformed.

Once we got into the prison, I got the privilege to serve along side a young inmate who was a Jehovah's witness, and he knew his stuff too. He was one of the hardest working guys I've been around in a long time and his attitude really didn't seem to be..."I'm earning my way into God's grace", but rather "this is what we are here to do, by God's grace." I'm cool with that. He has testicular cancer and he needs our prayers.

Another young man was kind of the funny guy and i could tell he had some natural leadership abilities. At first, I didn't think he was taking any of this stuff too seriously. He was like that 'cool' kid in high school who got a lot of attention, but never really had much depth. I think I was wrong...I've got to stop sizing people up like that. After spending some time with him I found that he was very much musically talented, he took an older hymn that we had sung and off the cuff turned it into a rap and kicked a little beatbox action that was nothing less than rhythmic. When we had open mic, he got up in front of the other 35 inmates and let us know that he was in prison for shooting someone 15 times. He then broke down in tears. You see, he had just gotten the news that his mom died the day before. He was carrying that funny popular guy front all day, masking some serious pain. We learn to do that. I thank God that He worked things together in such a way that the young man had us there...can you imagine going through something like that alone, in a cage...He needs our prayers.

While we were there one of our guys was pulled out of the chapel because another inmate accused him of raping him the day before. It was a brutal and abrupt reminder of exactly where we were. Then God showed up, there was another guy who stood up in front of the whole group and shared the fact that he had struggled with homosexual inclinations for a long time and had really given himself over to his impulses. He just didn't feel that it was right, he said, but he had no idea what to do with it. Earlier that day he went into one on one prayer and counseling with one of the clergy that was with us. The Lord showed him some pretty deep things and he joyfully (and publicly) gave it over to the Lord...declaring that one day when he gets out, the Lord had prepared a wife for him somewhere and had started the healing process in him to overcome the fear of women he had been harboring for so long. That's some serious stuff to pour out in the midst of a group of hardcore felons, but that is exactly the graceful, loving atmosphere the Lord provided...there in this maximum security prison. That man needs our prayers.

These are just some of things I witnessed...not to mention...the food was amazing, the messages delivered by the men on the Kairos team were honest and raw, allowing God's light to shine ever brighter, the fellowship as we camped out on mats at a local church was great, took showers in a trailer with no roof in the parking lot (I never figured out how to make the water hot), prayed over each days events and for the families of everyone involved and really spent some honest alone time with Father... listening, learning... waiting on the Lord...and hollering 'Here I am' when He calls...that's grace at work and I was so blessed to witness it and be caught up in it. SDG

Please join me in praying that the Lord continue to work in the lives of these men and that the seeds planted take root in that place.

Strolling through Corinth whilst meditating on 1 John 3

If anyone says to you, "This thing has to do with idols, you know sinful stuff," do not partake around them, for the sake of the one who informed you, and for conscience' sake; I mean not your own conscience, but the other persons; for why is my freedom judged by another's conscience? If I partake with thankfulness, why am I slandered concerning that for which I give thanks?

The reality is that there is still some carryover 'religiousity' your brother or sister is dealing with, and though it seems wise to them, we know it has nothing to do with the sanctification Jesus calls us to, but is self made religion...aestheticism. Teach them gently and love them through it and the Lord will sanctify all in Truth, His word is Truth. If it causes divisions in the fellowship, however, the religiousity has to go, remember what we are to cloth ourselves with at His table.

If there are those among you who insist on such regulations and ordinances, you may want to pull them to the side and tastefully let them know their fangs are poking out from behind the wool. If that doesn't work take a few others with you and see how it goes, the Lord will honor your patience and persistence in prayer and if its in His will, He will turn their heart.

Also, do not be carried off the other direction, be wary of those who would abuse grace and encourage others to do the same, you obviously can't go around sleeping with your father or your brothers wife and not expect a breach in the peace or shalom of the community. The worst of the worst know better than that. Seriously, we're not talking about unreasonable standards, remember your first love and the most important commandment everything else flows from that.

Never again forget that when you are called to increasing righteousness, you are called to increasing faithfulness to the covenant you are in. This is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. If we do that we know that we have passed out of death into life.

Be aware, though, a lot of people that live according to their own best thinking are going to hate you, from both ends of it actually. The religious are going to see you as a liberal blasphemer and hate you, slander you, murder you in their hearts every time they see you walking in the freedom and love of Christ...likewise most pagans...worshipers of idols, western philosophers and secular folks are going to see you as foolish and antiquated, both groups will want to kill you (if not for real, certainly in their thoughts and words). It's kinda like Cain who slew Able...And for what reason did he slay him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother's were righteous. ...take heart through all of this, King Jesus has overcome every bit of it and he is the one we follow in triumphant procession, proclaiming victory and progressing joyfully in the faith with every Spirit empowered expression of balanced grace and truth that glorifies our Father.

Young ones in the faith, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning.

The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.

Go in the grace and mercies of the Lord.

Luke 5v1-11

One day Jesus was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowds were pressing close to him to hear the word of God. He saw to boats moored by the land; the fishermen had gone ashore and were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats - it was Simon's - and asked him to put out a little way from the land. Then he sat down in the boat and began to teach the crowd.

When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, 'Put out into the deeper part, and let down your nets for a catch.'

'Master,' replied Simon, 'we were working hard all night and caught nothing at all. But if you say so, I'll let down the nets.'

When they did so, they caught such a huge number of fish that the nets began to break. They signalled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. So they came, and filled both the boats, and they began to sink.

When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees.

'Go away,' he said,'Leave me, Lord! I'm a sinner!' He and all his companions were gripped with amazement at the catch of fish they had taken; this included James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon.

'Don't be afraid,' said Jesus to Simon. 'From now on you'll be catching people.'

They brought the boats to land. Then they abandoned everything and followed him.

Jesus has found himself teaching to a growing crowd and as they press in on him he seizes the opportunity to commandeer a vessel so as to take advantage of the terrain which, with its steep inlets set the perfect stage for both the teaching and the display of God's power. Here in this natural amphitheater, God's word was declared with power. It seems that everything was in place and Jesus simply saw the opportunity to act and so did. The people were there, the boat was there, the fish were gathered in just the right spot, Simon's heart was in just the right place that morning despite having a rough go at it that night...everything was orchestrated perfectly.

I wonder how many of these opportunities pass me by daily, you know, to glorify God? I wonder how many times Jesus hops on board my boat and goes to launch into this amazing word and demonstration of Father's power and I'm like... 'Hey, dude...get outta my boat! I'm tired and I don't have time for this right now.'

Oh, the missed opportunities to love and receive Jesus. I'm convinced that God sets these opportunities up every day, perfectly sets them up and I blow it. His Spirit blows into my midst, points out the setup and I'm like nope, not gonna listen to that, not gonna serve there, not gonna call that person, can't go visit them. To tired. To much stuff to do around the house. Gotta run here and there. Other times , I've had a rough day and things didn't go so well, so the last thing I want to do is put myself out there again. Especially when all probability and logic say it's gonna be a waste of time.

Most of the time I'm stumbling through life...trying to make a living, provide for my family, do good by all my business associates, doing the best job I know how and within that...there are those moments...the ones where everything comes together, the Spirit is moving, I'm tuned in and empowered and something amazing happens. I do something in simple obedience, I try something anew, I give myself and my resources over to be used as a platform for God's word and I see peoples lives changed. I see the poor ministered to. I see the hungry fed. I see the sick healed. I find myself blessed beyond expectations and what can one do in that place but embrace the lesson in humility and give honor to God.

I've begun to live for those uncommon moments, to seek them out and if I do that enough...I'm finding out...they are more common than I had thought, my hearing and seeing and obeying where really what was uncommon. Perhaps, by the grace of God, I will answer His call today...and again tomorrow...and perhaps, in the end, I will have lived a life worthy of His calling.

...when he comes on that day, to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed. To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Getting a little further out there - Luke 4v31-44

Jesus went down to Capernaum, a town of Galilee. He used to teach them every Sabbath. They were astonished at his teaching, because his message was powerful and authoritative.

There was a man in the synagogue who had the spirit of an unclean demon.

'Hey you!' he yelled out at the top of his voice. 'What's going on with you and me, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are - you're God's Holy One!'

'Shut up!' Jesus rebuked him. 'Come out of him!'

The demon threw the man down right there in front of them, and came out without harming him. Fear came over them all. 'What's all this?' They started to say to one another. 'He's got power! He's got authority! He tells the unclean spirits what to do, and they come out!' Word about him went out to the whole surrounding region.

He left the synagogue and went to Simon's house. Simon's mother-in-law was sick with a high fever, and they asked him about her. He stood in front of her, rebuked the fever, and it left her. And straight away she got up and waited on them.

When the sun went down, everyone who had sick people-all kinds of sicknesses-brought them to him. He laid his hands on each one in turn, and healed them. Demons came out of many people, shouting out 'You are the son of God!' He sternly forbade them to speak, because they knew he was the Messiah.

When day dawned he left the town and went off to a deserted place. The crowds hunted for him, and when they caught up with him they begged him not to leave them.

'I must tell the good news of God's kingdom to the other towns,' he said. 'That's what I was sent for.' And he was announcing the message to the synagogues of Judea.

A lot of people, including a lot of Christians, do not believe that demons exist or that it is just another way of saying 'issues'. I know because I was one of them until recently. After I had some of the most intense experiences with God and I received the Holy Spirit after years of seeking out this Jesus, even teaching the scriptures ...a battle ensued that manifested itself spiritually, physically and took my mind on a ride to the edge of insanity and back again. I'll stop for a second and remind those reading of how much of a logical, straight edge person I am. If I were to be told this stuff, I would have me locked up. As I went through it, I actually did spend five days in a hospital because nobody knew how to handle it other than to pray and fast and even then nobody had dealt with anything like it before...so it was Jesus and me in this.

So what hands-down convinced me that demons are real and that Jesus is my King, my savior. Glazed over eyes, knowing things that just can't be known, seeing sin everywhere and in everyone, my whole body heating up, being thrown into convulsions while dry heaving, commanding them out of myself, Pastor Joe on the phone with my friend Todd praying over the situation, doing my best to speak the words 'bind them in Jesus name' as I would feel them leaving me...I didn't want those things loose in my house or around my wife and kids, as I lay sweating in my bed, my friend Todd was reading scriptures over me to cool me down, my wife praying, Todd later told me he was reading Colossians. My mind is blown at this point, all my transgressions and fears started flooding my mind. I was crying out to God to make it stop, to deliver me...and he did after about a month and a half of getting progressively stronger again after that initial battle. Finally I was back to my normal self after many more, albeit smaller, battles and a lot of prayer, only now on fire even more than ever, clean and victorious by the grace of God...meanwhile, absolutely stumping psychologists and psychiatrists alike, the Lord actually using the case to turn one back to his faith from his initial 'clinical ideas' upon first meeting me. All that being said, three things...1) demons are real, there is a real enemy 2)Make sure you confess your sins and deal with your wounds sooner rather than later...they use those for footholds in your mind and finally and most importantly 3)Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord, God Almighty...and worthy is His Lamb.

The point is that I did not know who I was in Christ until Christ showed me, I did not understand His authority or power until He came and grace flowed like a river. I taught about his kingdom coming, about it breaking in and transforming, but I had never experienced it...not like this anyway. My wife is still in shock from the situation, part of her is waiting for the next shoe to drop. I can't blame her it scared a lot of people. Just like the people in this scripture, 'What is this?' To all of them I say fear not the Lord is with us, turn to Him... As for me, I have never felt more free in my life...I am absolutely in awe of our King and His Kingdom. This was more than the casting out of a demon for me, this was a full-blown temple cleansing, baptism of the Holy Spirit...if I was on a horse, I've been knocked off it. This was a two and a half month ordeal and in my mind at one point it cost me everything and He restored everything and then some. I know the Lord let me go through it to teach me, prepare me, refine me...because we serve an AWESOME God who is reconciling all things, making all things new and that happens with power by the Holy Spirit. I won't even begin to get into all the stuff He showed me in the scriptures, but WOW...

In this scriptures we see both the casting out of demons and the healing of 'normal' illnesses. We also see Jesus concern that he not be identified as the Messiah, but that the message of God's Kingdom breaking in, of YHWY becoming King in a powerful, fresh and unexpected way be spread. The casting out of demons and healings was evidence, sign posts pointing to that reality, with the ultimate signpost being the resurrection of Jesus himself. Notice the way the healing and casting out of demons was done: not with magic tricks, candles, chicken or long prayers or fancy strategies...but with simple, authoritative commands, they just have to come out...not always without resistance...it says the demon threw the man on the ground, but ultimately left him unharmed. This all pointed to the fact that God's Kingdom was and is finally and truly breaking in to our fallen, depraved and sinful world...healing and restoring and making whole, bringing glory to God and our Lord Jesus Christ whose kingdom is everlasting. That Word can't just hang around, it has to go and do what it was sent to do.

ps Many thanks to all the faithful who were praying for us through all of it and to those who supported us in all the ways you were led to.

Jesus said...if I cast out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

Not what we expected to hear...Luke 4v14-30

Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit. Word about him went out throughout the whole district. He taught in their synagogues, and gained a great reputation all around.

He came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. On the Sabbath, as was his regular practice, he went to the synagogue and stood up to read. They gave him the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it is written:

'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me
Because He has anointed me
To tell the poor the good news.
He has sent me to announce release to the prisoners
And sight to the blind,
To set the wounded victims free,
To announce the year of God's special favor'

He rolled up the scroll, gave it to the attendant, and sat down. All eyes in the synagogue were fixed on him.

'Today', he began,'this scripture is fulfilled in your own hearing.'

Everyone remarked at him; they were astonished at the words coming out of his mouth - words of sheer grace.

'Isn't this Joseph's son?' they said.

'I know what you're going to say,' Jesus said,'You're going to tell me the old riddle: 'Heal yourself, doctor!''We heard of great happenings in Capernaum; do them here in your own country!'

'Let me tell you the truth,' he went on. 'Prophets never get accepted in their own country. This is the solemn truth: there were plenty of widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when heaven was shut up for three years and six months, and there was a great famine over all the land. Elijah was sent to none of them, only to a widow in the Sidonian town of Zarephath.

And there were plenty of lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them were healed - only Namaan, the Syrian.'

When they heard this, everyone in the synagogue flew into a rage. They got up and threw him out of town. They took him to the top of the mountain on which the town was built, meaning to fling him off. But he slipped through the middle of them and went away.

Once you've been cleansed and tested by everything the devil throws at you, it is like a wave of refreshment, a power move of awe and wonder fills you up, everything makes more sense, the time is now...you begin your ministry. God's grace and power have brought you through and you have remained faithful...you are filled with the Holy Spirit...here we go...uh, oh...it's not supposed to start off like that!

So imagine your sitting in church and there is a guest speaker, you've heard lots of amazing things about him and it turns out he actually grew up in the area. You are at church every Sunday, you nod your head and laugh at all the regular jokes, you buy the right CDs, wear the right t-shirts, abstain from the right things. God's promises , when they come definitely belong to you. All the sudden this mysterious figure takes the stage and out of his mouth pour the most refreshing things you've heard in years, you are filled with joy and all the sudden you start thinking who the heck is this guy? He's been around here, so-and-so knows his parents, they're broke just like the rest of us, nothing special, they don't have any 'power' to speak like that. He talks like he knows something.

Then all the sudden the speaker says,'But you know what, these glorious things probably aren't for you folks...as a matter of fact if God is gonna do this stuff and he sticks with his pattern...it's probably gonna be for the guy down at the bar crying in his whiskey...or the Afghan rebel leader whose never known God or His Word...or the lady you all cut off to make it here and get the best parking spot this morning. Yep, these things probably aren't for any of you.

Seems to me the speaker might not get assassinated, but he sure wouldn't be invited back again. Are we ready to challenge Jesus' words of grace? Or are we ready to follow him? Are we ready to try and quote scripture and prove his message of the Kingdom coming, of it being near to the poor and suffering, of God breaking in here and becoming King here, in Spirit and Truth... are we to say in our hearts, he's just that boy from those poor folks that had him out of wedlock. Are we to, God's chosen, to exchange the glory of the living God for our imaginations or will we rejoice with the lowly and despised who are exalted to their status of image bearers, who are healed and made whole... just as the high and lofty are brought back down to their, very human, levels. Maybe we wish he would have just done it the way the devil tempted him to...a few magic tricks, big neon signs that lifted Him, along with his ego up, a power-hungry takeover of the world, a call to ignorantly and haphazardly PROVE that we are God's chosen over everyone else...maybe we don't want God's suffering servant. Maybe we just assume throw him off a cliff and get on with being high and lofty in our own minds, complaining to God when we chased His answer to our prayers out the door with our wicked hearts...

We would never do that! We're not like them...we may say...we may need to be very careful with that...

And you say, 'If we had lived in the days of our forefathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.' So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of your forefathers!

Temptation in the Wilderness (Luke 4v1-13)

Jesus returned from the Jordan, filled with the Spirit. The Spirit took him off into the wilderness for forty days, to be tested by the devil. He ate nothing during that time, and at the end of it he was hungry.

'If you are God's son,' said the devil, 'tell this stone to become a loaf of bread.'

'It is written,' replied Jesus, '"It takes more than bread to keep you alive."'

The devil then took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.

'I will give you authority over all of this,' said the devil,'and all the prestige that goes with it. It's been given to me, you see, and I give it to anyone I like. So it can all be yours...if you will just worship me.'

'It is written,' replied Jesus, '"The Lord your God is the one you must worship; he is the only one you must serve."'

Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and stood him on a pinnacle of the Temple.

'If you are God's son,' he said,'throw yourself down from here; it's written that "He will give his angels a command about you, to look after you"; and "They will carry you in their hands, so that you won't hit your foot against a stone."'

'It has been said,' Jesus replied, '"You mustn't put your God to the test."'

When the devil had finished each temptation, he left him until another opportunity.

Jesus suffered in all the ways we do. This was extremely difficult for him. We have this image in our minds that Jesus just had all the answers and just kind of blew through his ministry without really having to think too much, pray too much or suffer too much...it was easy for him, after all he's the son of God. The scriptures speak directly against this sort of thinking. To do so would be to rob Jesus of the fullness of his humanity and of his identity 'in Adam'. Jesus, as Israel's king was to embody Israel, only for him it was to succeed where Israel had failed, to be the one faithful Israelite and at the same time to do and say the things that only YHWY did and said. We see Jesus come through the waters of baptism and then led forth by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tested. This is echoing the Exodus and Israel's coming out of slavery, through the Red Sea, forty years in the wilderness led by the pillar of fire, stumbling, testing God, tempted by all sorts of temples and their idols, desiring immediate gratification for the flesh. As a matter of fact all of Jesus' responses to the devil come from this period of Israel's history. Jesus will not only have the right words to speak he will have the right context and character to grasp onto them in his innermost being empowered by the Spirit that has come to rest upon Him, the Helper.

The devil is our adversary, but make no mistake he stands under God's authority. It is his desire and responsibility to sift us and when he does it is hell. Everything is rapid fire...accusations, fears, demons who don't want to give up any ground, evil is constantly in your ear..."if you are really a child of God..." fill in the blank. You see the sin and contrary spirits in everyone around you and worse you can't get away from yourself. When Jesus cleanses the temple it can be fierce battle. The devil's testing can be even more fierce. You don't just casually recite a couple verses...you hang on to His words as though your life depended on it. That is where Jesus is right now and this is spiritual warfare at it's most vivid...the prince of 'this world' and the King-to-be doing battle at the supra-personal level.

Here the devil appears not as a serpent but as a voice in Jesus' mind, taunting and prodding, echoing again the whispering lies in the garden only now in a wilderness. If he is to be Messiah, what kind of Messiah would he be, many have come and gone and been sifted out, shown to be nothing more than dust. These temptations make sense, they sound good, they almost fit the scriptures but they miss the character and nature of the servant who relies fully on God, the child who is faithful and righteous. The one by whose stripes we are to be healed. This is not about being true to the scriptures as much as it is about being true to the heart of God. The devil knows the scriptures, he has no heart.

First the devil tries to get Jesus to use His authority to do a cheap magic trick to feed his own immediate needs by turning a stone into bread, this echos the water from the rock and the manna from heaven. Jesus will eventually take bread and fish, that which God had already provided, and multiply God's blessing to feed many...here we see Jesus using his authority for its appropriate purpose unlike what the devil would have him use it for here.

Next the devil tries to lure Jesus into following his ways (worshiping) and serving his condemning and ultimately destructive purposes by promising him status and power. Jesus did not, however, come to be served but to serve and to serve God alone which is somehow directly linked to serving those around him ultimately to the point of death. Jesus would eventually make a public spectacle of the devil on the cross, tearing him apart and casting him down in the courts of the Most High and then Jesus would take his throne high above all kingdoms and authorities, having all authority on earth and in heaven given over to him by the Father.

Finally, the last temptation for Jesus was to put God himself to the test by intentionally putting his own life in jeopardy just to prove he was the son of God. Jesus will ultimately lay his life down in the pursuit of God's people as was His Father's will, but it is God himself who will vindicate him and Jesus knows and loves and fears His Father knowing that ultimately the scripture the devil quoted will be fulfilled in him, but not by manipulation and putting God to the test.

So how does this Messiah deliver his people from the tyranny of Rome and Herod and ultimately the devil himself? He starts by defeating the enemy on a personal level. Right here in the wilderness the stance has to be made and Jesus calls us to follow him just as the Word and the Pillar of Fire called to and led forth Israel...

Many came through the waters only to fall in the wilderness...perhaps they came along for the wrong reasons, perhaps the lack of instant gratification revealed a shallowness, maybe they felt freedom wasn't all it was cracked up to be...whatever the reason, like a refiners fire God allows us to be tested so that only the faithful and true, those who stand firmly in their trust and love of the Father and the King are saved...only those in whom rest His own Spirit, He can and will get us through...He's been there before and His grace is sufficient...it is our responsibility to keep the faith, to run the race, to fight the good fight.

So we too need to ask ourselves...What are we to do with the status that we have been given as children of God? Is it to be used so that our own needs met? Is it for power? To be seen and recognized as being something important? Is it for control over others? Is it to prove something about ourselves? Is it so we can feel certain emotions? Or perhaps so we don't have to feel certain emotions? These are the battles we must fight and decisions we need to wrestle with before we go out and begin colluding with the enemy thinking that we are going to be God's people...many have gone down that road and it is a wide road that leads to destruction. We need to be refined at the deepest most personal level...then we can get on with the mission we are all called to, to be a broken and poured out people for the world, a royal priesthood, the body of Christ...the victory implemented.

Luke 3v21-38

So it happened that, as all the people were being baptized, Jesus too was baptized, and was praying. The heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended in a bodily form, like a dove, upon him. There came a voice from heaven:'You are my son, my dear son! I'm delighted with you.'

Jesus was about thirty years old at the start of his work. He was, as people thought, the son of Joseph, from whom his ancestry proceeds back in the following line: Heli, Matthat, Levi, Melchi, Jannai, Joseph, Mattathias, Amos, Nahum, Hesli, Naggai,Maath, Mattathias, Semein, Josech, Joda,Joanan, Rhesa, Zerubbabel, Shealtiel, Neri, Melchi, Addi, Cosam, Elmadam, Er, Joshua, Eliezer, Jorim, Matthat, Levi, Simeon, Judah, Joseph, Jonam, Eliakim, Melea, Menna, Mattatha, Nathan, David, Jesse, Obed, Boaz, Salmon, Nahshon, Amminadab, Admin, Ram, Hezron, Perez, Judah, Jacob, Isaac, Abraham, Terah, Nahor, Serug, Reu, Peleg, Heber, Shelah, Cainan, Arphaxad, Shem, Noah, Lamech, Methuselah, Enoch, Jared, Mahalaleel, Cainan, Enosh, Seth, Adam and God.

I can't trace my family tree back very far...if I'm lucky maybe a couple generations but honestly I'm just not that interested in doing so anyway. Most people in our culture aren't. Family ties just aren't what they used to be for the Jewish people and in the New Creation genealogies don't count for much anyway because they distract from the primary focus (1 Timothy 1v3-5). So why does Luke take the time to lay this out for us and what does it have to do with Jesus' baptism?

Luke is presenting us with another contrast here; how one enters into the Kingdom by grace, by the new covenant and how one found themselves in the old covenant, by the flesh (national and racial heritage - bloodline). He is also showing how Jesus is the fulfillment of the long story of Israel, and indeed humanity, tying all of the Hebrew scriptures up and simultaneously breaking in with something new, initiating a new spiritual birth by the very Word of God coming from Heaven that will launch nothing short of New Creation in and through Messiah who would in himself contain God's very presence and nature, all this steers its way towards the Cross and the Resurrection and finally Pentecost and forward toward the final setting of all things to rights through the power that has come to rest upon Jesus, the son of God.

God declared from heaven that 'You are my son, my dear son! I'm delighted with you.' and He declares the same when Jesus baptizes us with the Holy Spirit and sends us off to begin our life of sacrificial love and service to the King and the Kingdom. This is comforting to know that YHWY remains with His children from conception to resurrection and beyond. I hear so much argument back and forth about what I don't have to do to be accepted by Father, the scriptures are clear that He has fulfilled the covenant and Jesus is crystal clear at multiple levels in his parable of the prodigal son. As a person who is absolutely confident that I am of God's elect, His child by His grace and sacrifice, I desire nothing more than for my Father to speak to me daily and teach me His ways, to guide me so WE can get on with it. I will never forget the day of visitation, the day Jesus baptized me in the Holy Spirit, I was scared out of my wits, trembling and at the same time so excited and in awe...to know the fear of our God who is an all consuming fire...I can't put it into words...but I knew immediately... I had to GO!...even if I didn't know what that looked like. Everything changed that night...but there was still something ahead of me and it would drive me to the brink of madness...it was comforting to know that my King had been there and He was with me to go through it too otherwise the wilderness is a frightening, lonely place and the enemy is vicious...relentlessly vile and constantly tormenting...madness is where I would have stayed if it were not for my King and His power, His words.

For we are God's fellow workers...We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ. For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.

Luke 3v10-20

"What should we do then?" the crowd asked.

John answered, "The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same."

Tax collectors also came to be baptized. "Teacher," they asked, "what should we do?"

"Don't collect any more than you are required to," he told them.

Then some soldiers asked him, "And what should we do?"
He replied, "Don't extort money and don't accuse people falsely—be content with your pay."

The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Christ. John answered them all, "I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." And with many other words John exhorted the people and preached the good news to them.

But when John rebuked Herod the tetrarch because of Herodias, his brother's wife, and all the other evil things he had done, Herod added this to them all: He locked John up in prison.

When you turn toward God and hear the good news that His Kingdom is near...that the justice and peace you have longed for your whole life is coming, just round the corner... you have to "do" something. How does one respond to such great news! We automatically know we need to worship...to change something to express our gratitude...to celebrate and start living in that new reality right now!

We need to put in perspective how much the people of Israel desired to hear that YHWY was going to finally act on behalf of His people in the face of the oppression of Rome, the filth and corruption of Herod and the twisted Temple regime. We have known very little of real political and economic suffering in this country for quite some time, praise God...I'm talking about starving for justice, thirsting for things to truly be set right, being under the literal boot of evil day in and day out...militarily, economically, religiously and politically.

When you live under that kind of leadership you learn to behave like your leaders...you reflect their leadership...you consume more than you should, you take advantage of the weak and it's business as usual, you use your skills and authority to steal and its all ok because that is how the system works, you are sexually immoral and adulterous because money, sex and power are the things that we lust over and we can indulge. It's the way of the world.

John says to these people that if they want to express that they are part of the covenant renewal, part of the New Creation getting ready to burst forth into this one then they need to take the first step and come through the waters and out of slavery to the world that is passing away...then they will find themselves in the desert of Sin (see the Exodus) they are a redeemed people, but now they need to learn to be a new creature if they are to live in this New Creation...and that means reflecting the new leadership. YHWY is becoming King again and He will rescue His people in and through the coming Messiah, the Son of God.

John's baptism deals with the obvious stuff, the common sense right and wrong...and he knows it...but the baptism of the One who is coming will make them agents of New Creation...just as the pillar of fire lead the mixed people group after they left Egypt, so the Holy Spirit, God himself, will be upon them to lead them, dwelling in them, brooding over the chaotic, fallen creation and reshaping it with the trans-formative power of self-giving, self-sacrificing love...acting in the role humans were always intended to, bringing God's glad and wise order to creation...the Word made flesh.

This type of activity will set the Christian up in direct conflict with the powers of that old world...John as with all the prophets, Jesus himself, the Apostles, the Early Church Fathers and countless martyrs since then would find that this Christian life is a very dangerous vocation at present...We like to see Herod as this evil man and we would like to point the finger...the fact is he is just like so many of us when confronted with our own evils, who would use all our power to shut that voice up if we were not prepared by suffering and transformed by hope. If it were not for grace, we would lock that voice crying out in the wilderness away and so in our ignorance we could get on with our deathly existence.

Hebrews 13v17-25

Obey your leaders; submit to them. They are keeping watch over your lives, you see, as people who will have to give an account. Make sure they can do this with joy, not as a burden. That would be of no value to you.

Pray for us! Our conscience is clear; we are quite sure of it. We wish to act appropriately in everything. I beg you especially to do this, so that I may be quickly restored to you.

May the God of peace, who led up from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the eternal covenant, make you complete in every good work so that you may do his will. May he perform, in you, whatever will be pleasing in his sight, through Jesus the Messiah. Glory for ever and ever be his, Amen!

I beg you, my dear family, bear with this word of exhortation; I've written you briefly, after all. You should know that our brother Timothy has been released. If he comes soon, I will see you and him at the same time.

Greet all your leaders, and all God's people. Those from Italy send you greetings. Grace be with you all.

I used to absolutely refuse to teach Sunday School. I was asked to facilitate the class a few times by the Sunday School Director, but I had read that teachers are held to a higher account and not many should do it. That was a risk I was not taking, peoples lives hang in the balance...not to mention I know God doesn't need any more ammo to blast me with...He's got the goods as it is. Eventually, the lord prompted me to fill in in an emergency and then once or twice more. Even then it was a program that you just follow along with so I couldn't screw it up too bad I figured.

It wasn't until my senior pastor at my current church invited me to share a word with some guys at an addiction recovery project called "All The Way". This was a new program that was just busting out with great people that were discovering the new life our King offers and this was an opportunity to share the story with them and lead them to see where they fit in the plot. Besides who could turn down teaching the scriptures at a gathering called "Happy Hour". My co-laborer, Mike Rosa,and I started with the John's gospel. God thus started me on a journey of teaching and preaching the Word that would change my life and toss me overboard into the most passionate relationship with the Father and my brothers and sisters at ATW that I never imagined. I was out of the boat and it was great, because Jesus was right there. The fellowship was intimate, there was opportunity for discipleship for those who wanted to really dig in, accountability in the brotherhood was strong and people had and shared serious testimonies of dying and we got to see many rise again.

I never forgot the responsibility that this placed on my shoulders though. We are quite literally talking about peoples lives when we take on leadership roles in the ministry (particularly teaching), you can't just say time-out, oops...real people...real lives...real struggles...real wounds...real time. They needed the real Jesus and Mike and I were the witnesses God sent into the mix. Who deserves such an honor, to speak before so many of God's children? I still pray over those the Lord gave us to look after and minister to and serve and will continue to do so, they made it an absolute joy for me. I've rarely been around such a large group in one place of people genuinely hungering and thirsting for the justice and mercy and faithfulness that only Jesus offers...

Our time at ATW was short, but I pray many take seriously the Word we spoke...Jesus is Lord, turn to Him and you will find healing and refreshment until the day of the renewal of all things, there is rest in the arms of the King. In the meantime though, there is also a battle in front of us and there is an enemy who would have us harden our hearts, carry us off in all sorts of directions, lead us into confusion and try to break down the bonds that have been built in the Spirit. This is only exacerbated by our own sinful natures that we constantly must battle against. However, having had our eyes opened to King Jesus through this "short" exhortation carrying in it some of the sternest warnings in the new testament about falling from grace and staying the course side by side with some of the clearest exegetical encouragements and teachings in the history of theological literature. We have learned, I hope that scripture speaks into real situations to a specific time and specific place and specific people, but as we read them and join in the story we find the Holy Spirit reminding us of many things and making it our story, changing us forever...even as the walls are crumbling about us and within us, The Father's grace, the King and the Kingdom are unshaken.

I pray those who have been following along for Hebrews have been blessed and will now go and be a blessing with anything you've gleaned, giving all glory and honor and praise to our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

Hebrews 13v9-16

Don't let yourselves be carried off by strange teachings of whatever sort. The heart needs to be strengthened by grace , you see, not by rules about what to eat, which don't do any good to those who observe them.

We have an altar from which those who minister in the tabernacle are not allowed to eat. For the bodies of the animals whose blood is taken into the sanctuary by the high priest as a sin-offering are burned outside the camp. That's why Jesus too suffered outside the gate, so that he might make the people holy with his own blood. So, then, let's go out to him, outside the camp, bearing his shame. Here, you see, we have no city that lasts; we are looking for the one that is still to come.

Our part, then, is this: to bring, through him, a continual sacrifice of praise to God - that is, mouths that confess his name, and do so fruitfully. Don't neglect to do good, and to let 'fellowship' mean what it says. God really enjoys sacrifices of that kind!

I've built a lot of walls in my life. Sacred walls. They protect me from being hurt by my enemies and more so by those who I allow closer access, my wife, my family, my friends. I know how to build these walls in my sleep. It is a skill acquired during and after many battles, many years of oppression and wounds and scars have found themselves on my inner self.

The problem is that these walls, with their silly 'rules' and varying distances away from the 'real me' not only keep out the bad, they prevent close meaningful fellowship with people I care the most for. Better to be safe though right? Wrong, it may be a riskier way to live, but a life without walls is the life that is truly life. A holy life must have those walls taken down till not a stone is left unturned. It is a broken and a poured out life that Jesus invites us into. It is a wreckless and untameable love He calls us to. If He is to be Lord of all, then all those walls must come down. YHWY will not be placed in a box, the Father is a wild and untameable creator, the Spirit broads over chaos and brings righteous order by the power of the Word...there are no categories for Him. His name is above every name.

We continue to be speaking to this small community of Jewish Christians most likely living in or around Jerusalem. They are frightened, they are under enormous pressure from friends and family, they have their own internal struggle with the way they understand the world and this new Way that has caught them up in the love of God and away from everything they knew. The mention of the altar and the sacrifices is an almost direct command that they need to start seriously distancing themselves from the Temple. Jesus has not only condemned it due to its corruption and the part its regimes played in His execution, but because as long as it stands there is an idol that misrepresents, to the people of God and the world, the God revealed fully in and through the true temple, the body of Jesus Christ.

These are tense times and these walls must come down in order for something new to truly and fully break loose into the world. The vindication of Jesus, as with any prophet, is the coming to fruition of His prophecy. Whatever that looks like. In the Hebrew scriptures the coming of the prophet, in Jesus' case, the Son of Man was almost always on the backs of a foreign, and thus pagan army, many times followed by a period of exile. The means here would be the same, but they people of God were already in exile. They were taking part in a temple system that had whored itself with the oppressing foreign government in order for its leaders to have some sort of political and/or religious power (they didn't separate the two) over the people. Hoping that if YHWY did act or if they just waited it out that they would come out on top, their primary concern. They maintained this through compromises that were in their own best interests and not consistent with God's ways, nor were they concerned for the well-being of majority of people, much less the marginalized that Jesus spent most of his time with.

The author of Hebrew's not only set's up an alternative, but he dares say the altar that they eat from is 'better than' the temple altar. Picking up the continuing theme of the letter. He warns them against submitting to any of these strange food laws, derived of course from the Hebrew scriptures, but useless none-the-less. They have no power in regaining their image bearing status. Our sanctification in God's sight, is by progressive strengthening of our hearts to love and care for those everyone else, the world, would sideline. Those who have accepted Jesus' as the sovereign King are able to 'eat' from the true bread of presence, the Word of God delivered upon them by the Holy Spirit. The Aaronic and Levitical priesthood have no right to eat of this altar...yes...them's fightin' words right there!

Jesus suffered and died outside the gates of the Temple and is therefore completely independent of and superior to anything to do with the old, fallen system. It played it's part in the story, but has now run its course of usefulness in God's purposes. So now the author is imploring them again, having prepared them earlier in the letter for the reality of what it means to answer Jesus call, "Come, follow me." They will no doubt be spat upon, called traitors and despised by mainstream Judaism, Pharisees and/or Essenes as well as the more secular nationalist movements vaguely guising themselves as being religious for the political power it wielded over the masses, led of course by the Sadducees. This was not the 'city' they hoped for and therefore the ties can be cut and they can go out to where Jesus went and beyond in order to seek and find the 'city' that is to come once this one is brought to an end.

As we saw in chapters 11 and 12, we are already part of this 'new city'. The assembly's job then, is to not only seek this 'new city' this 'kingdom' outside the 'gates' of the old, but to start embodying it right away through true, meaningful worship and fellowship built on a membership that requires nothing more than a fruitful confession that Jesus is in fact now Lord over all things because He is reconciling Heaven and Earth in and through His body and blood and spirit poured into this world at the point of the cross...he starts this in the hearts of those who pour forth glad rejoicing and praise to his Lordship.



God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

I hear of your love and of the faith which you have toward the Lord Jesus and toward all the saints; and I pray that the fellowship of your faith may become effective through the knowledge of every good thing which is in you for Christ's sake.
For I have come to have much joy and comfort in your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you.

May it be so...