Spiritcode

Where your Treasure is

MEETING LIFE’S CHALLENGES 

‘Meeting life’s Challenges’ is an autobiography of Brooks Wilson’s life that invites us to meet him at four years of age and join his journey of life up until the current time of the writing of this book. We share the days of his early years as the son of Rob Wilson who was born in Mudgee NSW Australia and ‘Peg’ Wilson who was born in Massachusetts USA as Gertrude Brooks, the daughter of Clayton and Grace Brooks. And this Australian/American heritage of Brooks Wilson becomes a central feature of his life, which is grandly enhanced by his marriage in 1959 to Ann Meredith, a journalist from Springfield Ohio USA. 

These early years that tell of Brook’s comprehensive education, business training and career achievements are marked by his foundational Christian upbringing which defines his philosophy of life. In the preface to his book he draws from the Apostle Paul’s teaching about loving one another and in his own words he says ‘Life is not all about ‘us’. The key is to forget ‘self’ and reach out to others’. The heartbeat of this philosophy is steady throughout his book.

Brooks’ marriage to Ann, whom Brooks describes as ‘the centre of his life’ not only consolidated the Australian/American heritage but it also opened up a life of travel for Brooks and Ann that took them on a journey of adventure and discovery to many countries and regions and cultures. They had many interests in common, including their shared commitment to Christian values, and their journeys of travel together reflect both their shared appreciation of the cultural diversity and social interaction they experienced, along with a shared sense of purpose and mission of investing their care into the lives of everyone they were to meet, no matter where they were from or what they did for a living.

A striking example of how travel with meaning and purpose planted itself into their relationship leaps out of the book as Brooks describes some travel itineraries from the year of their wedding. If we could see the entry and exit visas on both their passports in one eventful week in 1959 we would see them stamped with New York, London, Switzerland, and back to London, topping it all off with Brooks proposing to Anne while they were flying over Paris at night, and Ann said ‘yes’ (Page 69).

Brooks takes us into his and Ann’s active family life with their children. We get to learn of their splendid achievements, sometimes against the odds, and their growing up and marrying and the arrival of grandchildren who likewise grow up to ‘Meet Life’s Challenges’, again sometimes against the odds. All of that flows into and out of a background of significant recent and present-day events where we meet heart-warmingly regular people and inspiringly noble and notable people such that we are made to feel at home with them on their pages, with the monochrome photos aiding the connection. The author’s style is straightforward and easy to read but as you catch the style you realize how energetically it moves the story along. He employs short, punchy sentences that get the reader into lively dialogue as if we were sitting around the table with himself and a host of other guests.

After the years of preparation in laying the foundation of discipline and study and applying the principles of life that he valued, Brooks Wilson starts to hit his straps and his potential becomes realized in a career of leadership that leads to countless areas of expression.
With his home base firmly settled in Australia and maintaining strong ties with the US Brooks begins working in Sydney with a company called Koppers USA and through this company he connects with two businessmen who had been at Harvard Business School where Brooks also studied. 
Brooks worked with these two men to set up a business arrangement between Koppers USA and BHP Australia, and Koppers Australia Pty Ltd was finally registered as a 50/50 joint venture with BHP. This Australian company was renamed KAP, with Brooks Wilson serving as Marketing manager in Sydney as his first appointment, and in time becoming Managing Director of this very profitable company and creating international trade links with many countries and regions in the Pacific, North America, the Middle East and Asia. 

The narrative of the company’s international trade hits a cracking pace in this section of the book as the author describes multiple meetings with heads of State in Australia and the USA and in China, with the China connection providing a good dose of intrigue in times of global headline events. One paragraph that sits modestly amongst the dealings with China describes what is called a ‘Compensation Trade Agreement’ and it reads ‘this was the first venture of any type to be agreed between an Australian and a Chinese company and worked for the mutual benefit of both companies’. Many of these impressive milestone events are backed up by citations in the appendices from various magazine and newspaper articles.

Towards the end of the book in the second last chapter Brooks Wilson rolls the story back into the 1800’s and features legendary family members who have wound their DNA into the personalities of the current generation of Wilsons, which makes this work a true chronicle that any family would treasure. But this book goes beyond the chronicle and legacy of past and present family history. The writing has been coiled to project a decisive challenge of how to face the future to all who read it. This book is not just for the extended Wilson family and their friends, it is a book to be offered to any person of any age who desires to know how to build a vision for their lives, and who would like to know what ingredients of character, and courage and compassion deserve to be taken in hand and given to their world.

Paul O’Sullivan

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/meeting-lifes-challenges-brooks-c-wilson/1142275488

WHERE YOUR TREASURE IS Matthew 6:22

Matthew 13:44 … The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

In the days when this parable was written there were no central banks as we know them today but there were money lenders who kept peoples’ money on low interest and lent money out on high interest. This led to the practice of people burying their money in fields that they owned, in a hidden place, to use when needed, and if anyone happened to be working on that field for whatever reason and found the treasure, he would know that it belonged to someone else and that stealing the money could get him into big trouble. So, if he really valued that treasure, he would have to buy the field and use the treasure perhaps to trade in business or even get some interest from the money lenders. 

We see this principle in another parable where a land owner who was travelling to a far land gave different sums of money to his servants and told them to trade it and he would reward them when he returned (Matthew 25:14). They all did well and profited to different degrees and the landowner was pleased with their results, except for one servant who buried the money in the field and did not put it to profitable use and didn’t even put it in the ‘bank’ (from ‘trapeza’ – a four legged table that served as a money exchange counter). The unprofitable servant was punished for his idleness and the unprofitable servant was cast into the outer darkness (vs.30).
Outer darkness is the state of the soul that is driven by fear and frustration and emotional turmoil while inner light is the state of the soul that is powered by faith and hope and love. The point is, that it is one thing to have a treasure buried somewhere but it is essential to put that treasure to good use, as we have a responsibility to be productive and to share our productivity with others and not just heap up treasure for ourselves. As far as spiritual treasure is concerned, nothing compares with participation in the outward flow of the Divine life for bringing grace and goodwill into this world. It is also the most fulfilled state of being that a person’s soul can experience. It is sadly odd that most people are not interested in that.

In the parable of the treasure hidden in the field the treasure represents the gift of the life of Jesus hidden within our hearts and our hearts represent the field. We don’t buy the treasure, we buy the field and the field yields the treasure. The Bible says that where our heart is that is where our treasure will be also (Matthew 6:21). We may have allowed the field of our heart over the years to treasure random things that bear no worthwhile comparison to the highest treasure there is of the Divine life within. We need to sell off that old field of our heart that contained all the pursuits that we once thought were treasures and buy the new field.  

The miracle of God’s Grace is that a new heart is given to everyone freely by God, simply waiting to be discovered by our faith. Every decision of faith in that new territory of the new heart grows the area of this new territory and as the old heart gives way to the expanding territory of the new heart, we experience a greater and greater appreciation of the new treasure within. Our spiritual journey is one of being aware of having a new heart and letting our faith decisions become the trade-offs of the old worldly values and the negative emotional baggage, for the new life-giving values of the Kingdom of God. The apostle Paul said that he had suffered the loss of all things to gain Jesus. Paul purchased the right field and found his treasure. (Philippians 3:8). 
Paul also writes about the treasure as being in an earthen vessel, which is our outer life, and no matter how fragile that vessel is, or how formidable are the pressures upon that vessel, the inner treasure is of greater power than the outward pressure. 
2 Corinthians 4:7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are pressured on every side by troubles, but not crushed and broken. We are perplexed because we don't know why things happen as they do, but we don't give up and quit.

Many people today are getting stuck in a cycle of negative emotional reaction to adverse circumstances in their lives and those emotional reactions come from a negative spiritual energy, but Paul is describing the ‘excellence of the power of the Spirit of God ’ within him which flows from the inner treasure in the heart. The word for ‘excellence’ in the Greek in this verse is ‘hyperbole’ which is the word we use to mean exaggerated or overstated. The Greek word means ‘to be thrown out beyond the normal range’. In other words, Paul experienced a power that was out in another orbit. It operated above the normal energy of willpower or mere emotional determination. He found the power of the indwelling treasure of the life of God through Jesus and the Holy Spirit. 

When we ask ourselves about our outward capability to manage the circumstances and challenges and pressures that come upon us in these days we might well say ‘How do I cope with these difficulties or how this will work out’ – it’s unknown and unpredictable.
But each one of us can know that our inner capability to come through these pressures spiritually and emotionally is a spiritual energy that nothing can overcome and that is getting stronger day by day. As Paul says in the same Scripture above concerning the treasure in earthen vessels ‘Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward self is perishing, yet the inward self is being renewed day by day (vs.16). As all things are being shaken in these days we can see these shakings as God awakening people in the earth at this time to an awareness of the power of the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives. The excellency of this power is of a Kingdom within that cannot be shaken.
Can you imagine the futility of us trying to make things change in our world and not allowing things to change in ourselves first? That has never worked. 

If all that we have as a mindset is the pain of the adversity of today, we will think of life as being all about what we don’t have and what we are not, instead of the inner treasure that is about what we do have and about who we truly are in God. Whatever that mindset is becomes the spiritual energy that radiates out from us that manifests who we are and manifests the inner grace that we have to everyone around us. We have to sell off that ‘don’t have’ and ‘am not’ for what we actually ‘do have’ and who we really are, now, and allow the ‘excellence of the power of God’, that real inner state of who we are be found in us. It is a spiritual energy exchange. We can experience the peace and rest of that beautiful field and the treasure it contains.  

‘He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul.’ (Psalm 23)

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Church and disputes with the World

THE CHURCH AND DISPUTES WITH THE WORLD
It is understandable that the world will have reason to dispute with Christianity in general and with the Church in particular because the belief system of the Church is based upon a spiritual reality that is not understood by the material and non-spiritual rationality of the world. If you talk to a person of the world, you will not expect them to believe that God in Christ created the universe, and that Jesus was raised from the dead and is now Lord over the Universe and Lord over our lives. 

Christians understand the material and non-spiritual rationality of the world, but they also understand a transcendent reality that comes from the revelation of God to our spirit so the Church does not have to be engaged in disputes with the world because Christians can engage in good will discussion within both kinds of realty. They can have healthy debates with all people and agree to disagree with each other on all kinds of day-to-day issues that depend solely upon observation rather than revelation from God. 

A Christian can live effectively in the world of material rationalism and be successful and productive and operate with a motivation of God’s love to bless everybody in that world that God loves creating no basis for antagonism. A Christian can let that love be on display knowing that it is only the Grace of God that changes the basis of reality for an individual from the natural realm into the spiritual.

1Corinthians 2:12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.
These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges (to discern, examine, determine if right or wrong) all things, yet he himself is not correctly discerned by the world.

When Jesus said his Kingdom was not of this world (John 18) he was making a distinction between the spirit of the world and the Spirit of the Kingdom of God. He was sending his disciples into the world to serve and to save and to heal the disordered soul of humanity, and when he saw his disciples wanting to judge the world for their sins, he rebuked them.
James wanted to call down judgement of fire upon those that opposed the message of the Kingdom of God and Jesus rebuked him saying ‘you don’t know what spirit you are of’ (Luke 9:55), and he explained to his disciples that the authority of the political State of worldly government operated from a power base that oppressed and lorded itself over people. (Matthew 20:22).

Jesus taught them that this was not the way for them to exercise their spiritual authority, which was based on servanthood, just as Jesus demonstrated his own spiritual authority when he emptied himself of Divine privilege and became as a servant Saviour to all the world (Philippians 2:7). And he did not judge the world.
John 12:46 I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness. And if anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him—the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day 
In other words, there will be an accounting, but it will be in God’s way and in God’s time.

Paul wrote that God does not authorize or empower Christians in their condemnation of the sins of the world but he empowers the message of reconciliation through Jesus. Paul wrote to the Corinthians that ‘God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their sins against them, and has committed to us this message of reconciliation. (2Corinthians 5:19). And he also wrote ‘For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? (Church discipline issues) God judges those outside (1Corinthians 5:12).

We are here to live a life of faith that is consciously aware that we are IN Christ as a New Creation (him always with us and us always with him) having inherited all the spiritual blessings of the Father as sons and daughters with his Son. We can live this life of spiritual blessing and share the good news of the Grace of God with people and prepare their hearts to receive Jesus as Saviour. The Apostle Peter encourages us to always be ready for this - but in your hearts honour Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to give an answer to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect… (1Peter 3:15)

At one end of today’s global worldly population there are multitudes of worldly people of good will made in the image of God, that have little or no faith in God and are simply living out of a good conscience as best they can. They are depending upon their skills and experience and integrity to live a good life and be happy. At the other end of the worldly population there are wrong hearted people (also made in the image of God) who behave in a self-serving and ungodly way that is harmful to themselves and all those around them. God sees the hearts and will deal differently with each individual as he decides.

There is also the political State of worldly government that operates from a power base that can be corrupted and oppress and lord itself over people, asserting itself for its own ideological ends. It creates institutions and deceptive power hierarchies to preserve and consolidate its power and wealth. 
Jesus told his disciples not to build his Church into a political power base to contest with political worldly power over the State. When Jesus was sentenced by Pilate, who embodied the political State of Rome in that moment, Jesus said. 
“My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” ( John 18:36)
Judas had meanwhile betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver because he realized that Jesus was not a political activist in a contest for political power and he was bitterly disappointed in him. The closest thing to power for Judas was the money.
This does not mean that Christians should not get involved in politics as citizens of the State, and it is a good idea if they can have leadership influence as that may be their gift and calling. That is simply being a responsible citizen. 
But they do not speak for the Church, they simply live out of Christ. They have no authority to speak for the Church and they have no mandate to judge unbelievers for their sins. 
If as a parent and as a citizen in a democratic country I am offended at a school that my child attends in allowing transgender males to occupy female bathrooms, it is my business as a citizen to oppose this politically and take whatever action I can to see that kind of a practice was changed. That is being personally active as a citizen that lives in a political world where we have freedom of speech and protest and the right to vote, but it is not Christian political activism in God’s name against the State. 

There have always been times when Christians have been persecuted for their beliefs and this will never change, and no secular laws will ever effectively change this attitude of the world against Christians who give obedience to God rather than man because of being forced to do something against their conscience before God. When Peter and the apostles was forbidden to preach the Gospel by the leaders of the nation of Israel, he said to them.
‘We must obey God rather than men’. (Acts 5:29). And consequently, they were put in prison, but an angel released them. Peter later writes to the Church and advises them on how to respond to persecution.
1Peter 3:15 And who is he who will harm you if you become followers of what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you are blessed. "And do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled." But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give an answer to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear; having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed. For it is better, if it is the will of God, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.
If Christians live the gospel of good news of the love and forgiveness of God and preach that, the Holy Spirit will bear witness to that, and God will supernaturally confirm it.
Mark 16:19 So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen.

Church leaders must ask God for wisdom in these matters and teach their people to follow the ways and the words of Jesus. We are living in times when God is allowing the works of darkness to be seen for what they are, and the more the darkness is revealed the more God’s light will be upon his people. The Church does not need political power, it needs God’s power from Heaven, and one is gained at the expense of the other – we do the choosing. And God chooses ordinary Christians to often shine as lights in this way, not always Christians of prominence or wealth or political power. A person simply needs to stand for God in their particular situation of challenge.
1Corinthians 1:27 Look at your brothers and sisters who were chosen, that not many were wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty.

The spirit of God’s Church has compassion on the suffering of humanity, acting to bless and comfort people in their pain and suffering, to be loving and forgiving and motivated to bring people closer to God so that their souls will be healed and saved.
The Christian heart and mind and will of God’s Church of love and mercy has created institutions based on these values for centuries. Those institutions have served the world through education and nurture and care of a suffering humanity. 
This heart of God’s mercy towards the world is the overflow of the justice and mercy of God that has been poured upon us through the New Covenant and gratefully received, and we know that when we show mercy, we are shown more mercy (Matthew 5:7). It is the activity of God’s grace upon the human heart that brings the individual spirit into life out of death
Ephesians 2:4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved).

 

Church and Disputes of Faith

CHURCH AND DISPUTES OF FAITH 
Romans 14:1 Accept and receive those who are weak in the faith, though not with a view to settling disputes. Don’t criticize them for having different ideas from yours about what is right and wrong.

When Paul wrote his only letter to the church in Rome he had never been there and didn’t get to go there for many years to come. The Roman church was a mixture of Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians and there were disputes between the groups about how to honour God. The Jewish Christians believed that they had to stay faithful to the Old Testament food laws about abstaining from meat and to the observance of all the Jewish Sabbaths, while the Gentile Christians were growing in a robust New Testament faith with freedom in the simplicity that was in Christ. 

Each group had a differently developed conscience regarding the rights and wrongs of the practice of Christianity and harsh and unloving judgement of one another was going on between them. Paul had been among the most learned of Jewish teachers and was also the one that God had given revelation to concerning the Gospel of Christ as the Saviour of the whole world, so he was the one chosen by God to address these critical issues of religious division. Paul wanted to see the Jewish Christians become stronger in faith in the simplicity of Christ, and he wanted the Gentile Christians to not boast about their stronger faith but to exercise faith that worked through love (Galatians 5:6).

Romans 14:2 For instance, don’t argue with them about whether or not to eat meat that has been offered to idols. You may believe there is no harm in this, but the faith of others is weaker; they think it is wrong and will go without any meat at all and eat vegetables rather than eat that kind of meat. Those who think it is all right to eat such meat must not look down on those who won’t. And if you are one of those who won’t, don’t find fault with those who do. For God has accepted them to be his children. They are God’s servants, not yours. 4. They are responsible to him, not to you. Let him tell them whether they are right or wrong (the work of the Holy Spirit). And God is able to make them do as they should (Philippians 2:13).

Paul believed and preached the simplicity of Christ and that the Old Testament rites and ordinances were just shadows of the reality that was Christ. He himself came under criticism from both sides of these disputes because he had freedom in his faith to both comply with the Jewish rites or to discard them. He said he had become all things to all men that he might win more people to Christ ‘I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings (1Corinthians 9:1). Paul lived a life of faith that worked though love. He taught that the old life of limited human effort passes through the cross and is resurrected into a new living work of the Spirit of God within us. God commends the work of faithfulness, but he empowers the work of faith.

Romans 14:5 Some think that Christians should observe certain days as special days to worship God, but others say every day alike belongs to God. On questions of this kind everyone must decide for himself in his own mind (nous)

This word nous is a description of the conscience, and it is described as the intellectual understanding and reason as the capacity for spiritual truth, the higher powers of the soul, the faculty of perceiving divine things, and of recognising good and evil –- The other Greek word for conscience in the Bible is sunedeisis which means to perceive a notion of something in dialogue with one’s own mind). 

Romans 14:6 If you have special days for worshiping the Lord, you are trying to honor him so you are doing a good thing. So is the person who eats meat that has been offered to idols; he is thankful to the Lord for his provision and he is doing right. And the person who won’t touch such meat, he, too, is anxious to please the Lord, and is thankful. We are not our own masters to live or die as we ourselves might choose. Living or dying we follow the Lord. Either way we are his. Christ died and rose again for this very purpose, so that he can be our Lord both while we live and when we die.
You have no right to criticize your brother or look down on him. Each of us will stand personally before the Judgment Seat of God and will give an account of himself to God.
(And the inner motivation of the hearts will be revealed - 1Corinthians 4:5)

The Jewish Christians observed the Old Testament Commandment of Sabbath days of gathering together as a time of resting from all worldly labour and effort in order to honour God. 

The Gentile Christians mostly observed Sunday for gathering together to worship and share fellowship in the breaking of bread and the preaching of the Word because Sunday came to be called the Lord’s Day by the first Christians in the Book of Acts (Ch.20). It replaced the Jewish Sabbath to honour the day that Jesus rose from the dead, on the first day of the week, and it was the day on which Paul directed them to give their tithes and offerings to the lord (1Corinthians 16:2). Paul would preach in the synagogues on the Saturdays whenever he had an opportunity in his travels, and he would gather with Gentile Christians on a Sunday. 

But Paul really saw every day as a Sabbath day of resting in the finished work of Jesus by living to the Lord and with the Lord day in and day out, not for just one seventh of the week. 

Romans 14:13 So don’t criticize each other anymore. Try instead to live in such a way that you will never make your brother stumble by letting him see you doing something he thinks is wrong. As for myself, I am perfectly sure on the authority of the Lord Jesus that there is nothing really wrong with eating meat that has been offered to idols. But if someone believes it is wrong, then he shouldn’t do it because for him it is wrong. And if your brother is bothered by what you eat, you are not acting in love if you go ahead and eat it. Don’t let your eating ruin someone for whom Christ died. Don’t do anything that will cause criticism against yourself even though you know that what you do is right.
For, after all, the important thing for us as Christians is not what we eat or drink but stirring up goodness and peace and joy from the Holy Spirit. If you let Christ be Lord in these affairs, God will be glad; and so will others. In this way aim for harmony in the church and try to build each other up.

The word for conscience is a word of significant meaning for our inner life. Our English word derives from two words, con=with, and science=knowledge. This knowledge stems from the tree of knowledge of good and evil and the management of knowing good from evil differs with each individual. We noted earlier the other Greek words for conscience in the Bible, nous and sunedeisis. The conscience is a spiritual sensibility about what is right and wrong that God places in each person’s heart, then as children we are taught what is right and wrong by parents according to their religion and culture and community values, and some children develop a more moral sensibility than others. 

Romans 14:20 Do not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats. It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble. The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves. But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.

The conscience for Israel was formed by the Ten Commandments and provided the most complete and most comprehensive fountain of the wisdom and knowledge of God’s nature which was designed to bring them to maturity individually and as a community. The Commandments express God’s ideology of relational integrity between us and God and between us and one another.

Under the New Covenant the wisdom and knowledge of God contained in the Commandments is written in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. In this way we become led into all truth, directed, guided and steered as the Holy Spirit arranges learning events for us so that we come to know God and become known of God. 

The story of the Apostle Peter is an example of this journey of transformation from a constricted Jewish religious conscience into a clear and strong Christian conscience. His first lesson was when he argued with God about having to eat with and visit with a Gentile Centurion which was strictly against Jewish Law, but this Gentile wanted to hear the Gospel. God won the argument and the Centurion and his household were saved.
Peter was even rebuked by Paul in front of the other Apostles for causing division in the Gentile church at Antioch. Peter had been eating freely with the Gentile Christians for some time but when a group of Jewish Christian leaders were sent from Jerusalem to check out the church Peter refused to eat with the Gentiles and caused much division and offense. He learned many lessons the hard way and his transformation of conscience was accompanied by a transformation from his ethnic and religious identity into his true eternal and spiritual identity in Christ.

It is on this journey where we all come to find our true identity which was created by God in our spirit in eternity before we were born. As we grow in the freedom of faith and love through the grace of God, we ultimately become the real self that can be expressed through our transformed soul each day of our life.

 

 

 

The Blood of our Communion

THE BLOOD OF OUR COMMUNION

Exodus 12:3 Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers' houses, a lamb for a household. 
Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. It is the LORD'S Passover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; I am the LORD. The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.

That miraculous event was celebrated by Israel every year during their Feast of Passover to acknowledge that life was given to God’s people through the blood of the Passover Lamb while death came upon the families of Egypt. There were many such rituals that God commanded Moses to have Israel perform to the most precise detail after they escaped from Egypt and journeyed through the wilderness towards the Promised land. Every year would begin with the ritual of the Feast of Passover which was followed fifty days later by the Feast of Pentecost and followed later in the seventh month of the year by the Feast of Tabernacles.
For fifteen hundred years the sacrificial blood of animals was spilled on the ground day after day by the priests of Israel for the forgiveness of their sins. God told Moses to say to the people ‘I have given you the blood to sprinkle upon the altar as an atonement for your souls; it is the blood that makes atonement because it is the life’ (Leviticus 17:11). Blood speaks of life as well as forgiveness.

But since the time of Jesus there is no more spilling of blood every year on the ritual Feast of Passover for the sins of Israel. The Bible says that John saw Jesus coming to him, and he said, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29), The blood of Jesus as our Passover Lamb spilled on the dusty ground of Calvary was the last drop of lifeblood to be spilled, and that blood is for the sin of all Mankind, (The whole earth) and it brings the life of God to all humanity. His blood is the blood of our Communion, the union of his life with our life.
And since the time of Jesus, we no longer live by rituals. The Bible says these were just symbolic of the inner reality of Christ and his life working within us 
Colossians 2:17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the reality is of Christ. 

The only way that the blood of Jesus can be applied to us today is to our hearts in the inner work of the healing and salvation of our souls so that we can live in partnership with Jesus, sharing in his life of faith and love wherever we may be, as the Scripture says. ‘But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ’ (Eph. 2:13).
And just as Israel lived with the day-to-day reality of the blood of sacrifice so can we also live with a day-to-day consciousness of having the life of Christ working within us. That is what it means for us to be ‘saved’, thanking him for the blood applied to our lives

The blood of Jesus cannot be applied by us upon any external thing as it is solely for the inner redemptive work upon the soul of mankind, even though some Christians oddly enough still practice ‘applying the blood’ or ‘pleading the blood’ upon their houses or their cars for protection and safety. Israel only ever once sprinkled the blood of the Lamb upon the doorpost of their houses in Egypt. Our faith in Jesus’ blood has nothing to do with houses, and ‘pleading the blood’ does not exist in Scripture. That belongs to the same area of superstition in the way that some other Christians believe in having a St. Christopher medal hanging in the front windscreen of the car to protect them while driving. These are no better than a rabbit’s foot, and I can’t find that in the Bible either.

Under the Old covenant every spiritual act that the people did was performed as a formal ritual. This is not the way we live Christianity. 
Jesus told the disciples to baptise people, he also told them to share Communion in eating of the bread and in drinking of the cup. He also said that the true worshippers would worship in spirit and in truth. 
Jesus did not make these activities into formal rituals, but the Church has unfortunately turned these faith practices into a multitude of formal rituals that have now  become the reality instead of ‘the reality that is of Christ’, and contention over these formalities has plagued the Church with disunity for centuries.

Baptism is the reality of our identification by faith in the death and burial and resurrection of Jesus and our commitment to living in newness of life through Christ (Romans 6). Worship in spirit and in truth is the physical act of offering our bodies to God as a living sacrifice in humble adoration and prayer and the singing of our praise to God, and in our loving service to others. (Romans 12). Sharing Communion is our participation together in the mystery of the hidden life of Christ within us as Jesus said at the last supper. This cup that is poured out for you is the New Covenant in my blood.
(Luke 22:20). We stop and linger in a moment-by-moment powerful remembrance of our oneness with God and with one another in the Body of Christ, as the lifeblood of his heart beats within our hearts.

In this life it is important for us to know what we believe, to know what we should do, and to know what to hope for. We are living in a world where many do not know what they believe, so they don’t know what they should do, and they have nothing to hope for. 

Knowing what we can believe
The world had to wait for nearly two thousand years for the supernatural work of the lifeblood of Jesus to become the fulfilment of life on earth for humanity. The Bible says that John saw Jesus coming to him, and he said, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29), but it was more than just taking away sins, it was so that we could have life and not death. Jesus died and rose again to give us his life. Humanity could now be relieved from its mindset of separation from God and could have the faith and confidence to walk close to God and get to know him as a person. 

Knowing what we should do
Hebrews 10: 19 Therefore, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus … let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience 
As we spend more and more time in his presence, we receive the wisdom and guidance for our daily lives from the Holy Spirit to do God’s will for our lives. (1John 2:27 – the anointing abides in us and teaches us).

Having a hope for the future.
We no longer put faith in our rituals or demand signs and wonders but in a powerful life that dwells within us which becomes the main thought and activity of the renewed mind. This divine loving intelligent life never ceases to operate in us, and this is the essence and substance of our faith and gives us hope for the future. 

This God life is the powerful life energy that created the universe and orders everything in it, and this indwelling life in us creatively orders and reorders everything in our personal life and in our immediate world of people and things. If God who designed the movements of the galaxies and who created every molecule and atom and unseeable particle of matter and who has his eye on every sparrow, how much more is he vitally and personally interested in us as his beloved family that live ordinary lives and do unspectacular things. He yearns to participate in those ordinary yet special things with us in close and intimate Communion.

Forgiveness and Mercy and Yom Kippur

FORGIVENESS AND MERCY AND YOM KIPPUR

John the Baptist was the messenger that had been sent by God to prepare the way before Jesus, preaching repentance and the forgiveness of sins that would come through Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world 
Luke 7:29 When all the people heard this, and the tax collectors too, they declared God just, and were baptized with the baptism of John, but the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the purpose of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him.

One of those Pharisees who had rejected the teaching of John the Baptist that day afterwards invited Jesus to his house for a meal where there were many guests, and among them was a woman of ‘the city’ who was one of those who had repented and been baptised along with some of the other guests. Such dinners of hospitality were often open and public for the Jewish community with both local and regional guests and where many topics of the day were discussed.

Luke 7:36 One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee's house and reclined at table. And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment. Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.” And Jesus answering said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” And he answered, “Say it, Teacher.”
“A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?” Simon answered, “The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt.” And he said to him, “You have judged rightly.” Then turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.” And he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” Then those who were at table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this, who even forgives sins?” And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

The Pharisee that had invited Jesus to his house and many of the company that were there would have rejected the call to repentance and the offer of baptism from John and there would have been an awkward division in spirit between those who had accepted John’s teaching about Jesus and those who had scorned it. Nonetheless because of the growing reputation of Jesus as a prophet and a teacher, as well as the reports of his working of signs and wonders there was due respect given to him by the host and by other guests that were there.
When the woman began to wash and anoint the feet of Jesus the Pharisee whose name was Simon said to himself, either by muttering or just by thinking silently, that Jesus’ behaviour was scandalous, and as the host, he was aware of the other guests who were also looking askance at the spectacle. Whether or not Jesus heard Simon mutter or whether he simply perceived the obvious disapproval in his spirit it does not say. Jesus broke in on the awkward moment with a tantalizing hypothetical for Simon about two people having debts cancelled, with one debt ten times larger than the other and asking Simon which debtor would have the greatest love for the moneylender. 

Simon was compelled by logic to give the correct answer and Jesus uses the situation contrasting Simon’s lack of courtesy and honour to Jesus as his guest by ignoring him, compared to the sinful woman’s extravagant act of loving appreciation and gratitude. 
The woman continued to wash and anoint the feet of Jesus with an outpouring of gratitude and love that were sentiments born out of her transformed soul. Her extravagance in honouring Jesus with such a greeting of love outshone the Pharisee’s unceremonious welcome to Jesus as his guest and she was able to now acknowledge Jesus as the forgiving Messiah God that John had proclaimed him to be. 
Some guests asked the question who is it that can forgive sins because only God can do that’, but Jesus then brings home his point that the women who had sinned so much and who was forgiven so much had also loved so very much in return. 
The woman is traditionally believed to be Mary Magdalene because in the verses directly following the above account, Mary Magdalene who had seven demons cast out from her is mentioned along with two other prominent women in the community who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities and they as well as others provided for Jesus and his disciples out of their means.

In this outstanding story of contrasts, we see the extremes of utter sinfulness and utter forgiveness which are only possible in the expansive love and mercy of God. And in this mighty comparison we have the major point of the story which is that God has always desired oneness with us as his sinful creation, and yet sin has separated us from him. 
But sin has not separated him from us. He pursues us relentlessly into our repentance and faith because forgiveness and mercy are always on God’s mind and heart. Jesus lived forgiving and he died forgiving - Forgive them father for they know not what they do.

From the moment Mankind first sinned it was God’s loving and determined intention to make us aware of his forgiveness for our sinfulness. Our yes to that resolute appeal is our repentance. Sinfulness was Mankind’s wilful self-determination to pursue its own self-interest, expressing its independent mindset of separation from God. 
God formalised his commitment to bridge the gap of separation that sin had caused between humanity and himself by making a Covenant of partnership between himself and the nation of Israel, and Israel became the test case for all of humanity. 
The Old Covenant was all about sin and forgiveness through a ritualised structure of blood sacrifice being made as an offering for their sins, and instruction in wisdom and righteousness being given to them though the Law so that they would know explicitly what sin was because of the Commandments that they had to obey, but never could and never did. That Covenant also offered many blessings for obedience and a Promised Land for an inheritance.

This arrangement was as close that God could get to bridging the gap that sin had caused. It was not perfect because it was only in the strength of the human will that people could try to stay in line with what God had commanded, and no one could ever manage to stay in alignment with God’s requirements.
But day after day sins were committed and day after day the sacrifices were offered, and day after day sins were forgiven. this went on for fifteen hundred years. Many were able to draw close to God over that time, but no one throughout that time could ever achieve the oneness with God that was his eternal purpose.
The day after day sacrifices were offered to obtain forgiveness for explicitly known sins but there was another kind of unclassified sin called ‘unintentional sin’ and this also marred the conscience because people knew they were falling short and were not sure of what sacrifice brought them forgiveness. This kind of sin required not so much forgiveness but mercy and such was the mercy of God that he instituted a special day once a year called the Day of Atonement for the cleansing of all the unintentional sins of all of Israel. (Hebrews 9:7 the high priest goes, and he but once a year, and not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people)
Unintentional – agnoema – shortcoming - error. a sin of ignorance or thoughtlessness.

These sins were offered up by the High priest on behalf of all of Israel and the blood of the sacrifice was offered with the sprinkling of blood seven times on the mercy seat upon the Ark of the Covenant (Leviticus 16), ‘seven times’ speaking of the fulness of mercy on offer from God. ‘Seven times’ is also a Biblical code for events that occur in the end time fullness of time and Jesus told Peter to forgive seventy times seven times, so forgiveness and mercy are both to be an emphasis in God’s end times purposes. 
That was the greatest day in their year (Yom Kippur) and it speaks to us not only of the abundance of God’s mercy upon their ‘sins of ignorance’ but it speaks to us of God’s mercy upon us today where we unwittingly keep falling short while intending to be faithful. It shows God’s eternal purpose for us as his children to know oneness with him through our faith in Jesus who is our atonement (however you wish to pronounce it). 

The new Covenant tells us that the Law is now written on our hearts, so the Holy Spirit can now clearly show us what sin is and reveal how great God’s forgiveness is and to turn our hearts away from sin and turn our hearts towards God (repentance). We do not have to offer sacrifices all the time because of the one sacrifice of Jesus on Calvary.
The New Covenant also tells us that our sins and our iniquities he will remember no more! It also tells us that he will have mercy on all of our unintentional sins of ignorance, our constant falling short that puts us out of alignment with his perfection. Our Day of Atonement is all day every day. We still have sin within us in our humanity and God still closes the gap of separation by giving us the bridge of forgiveness and mercy. We often walk across the footpath of the bridge of forgiveness with a heart of repentance, but we mostly move along a moving footway of mercy for our unintentional sins. We all need that moving footway all the time and we all need to be consciously aware of its gracious provision all the time.

So this story about Mary Magdalene had to be extravagant and emotional because it is a story of God’s most determined intention for our lives, that we are at one with him and with peace in our hearts. Only by knowing this inner peace can we possibly love him back, and Jesus sealed that reality for Mary by telling her that her faith had saved her and that she could go in peace – the peace of oneness with Jesus. 
So if you feel at any time that you need to be closer to God than you are, remember God’s bridge of determined love for us. It is still about sin and forgiveness and mercy but it is God’s bridge, and it is for us to move confidently across this bridge of his grace into his Kingdom life where all things are made new.

Water into Wine

WATER INTO WINE 

The first miracle believed to be performed by Jesus is the changing of the water into wine at the wedding at Cana in Galilee. Mary the mother of Jesus is an invited guest, and it is held that Mary and Jesus were actually present as family, along with other relatives and friends and some disciples of Jesus. This is supposed because Mary the mother of Jesus takes a very close familial role of responsibility in noticing that the guests were running out of wine and sees herself as being in the place to give orders to the servants, as it is the place of family to attend to the needs of the guests for the bride and bridegroom and their parents.

John starts his account of the events at the wedding by saying ‘On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there (John2:1), which prompts us to go back and read what had been happening on the first and second day of whatever Jesus had been doing. It states in chapter one that John the Baptist, the cousin of Jesus who had been baptizing people in the Jordan River and telling people that there was One coming that was greater than himself then saw Jesus coming towards him and proclaimed him as ‘The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world’. 
This was the beginning of the public ministry of Jesus, so this is what happened on the first day. Two of John the Baptist’s disciples asked Jesus on that first day if they could now become his disciples instead of John’s and Jesus tells them to follow him. Andrew is mentioned and he goes to get his brother Simon Peter who also becomes his disciple that day.
We then read in verse 43 ‘The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee’ and we take this as the second day. He found Philip there and said to him, ‘Follow me.’ Then Philip found Nathanael. That second day was about Jesus gathering disciples.
The next day would have been the third day where the next verse starts in John Chapter two with the story of the wedding feast in Cana where Jesus and his new disciples are guests. 

John 2:1 On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it. When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until last.” This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him. After this he went down to Capernaum, with his mother and his brothers and his disciples, and they stayed there for a few days.
This miracle is the first of what are believed to be the seven ‘signs’ of the coming of the Kingdom of God through Jesus in John’s Gospel. The other six signs are said to include three major healings, the miraculous feeding of the five thousand, Jesus walking on the water, and the raising of Lazarus from the dead. (John 4:54) (John 5:18) (John 6:1-14) (John 6:28) (John 9:16) (John 12:18).

The word for ‘sign’ in the original language is semeion. A sign is a supernatural event just like a miracle (dynamis), but a sign is also a ‘signpost’ pointing to the coming of the Kingdom of God with the mighty and dramatic change that comes to humanity when the divine being of God is joined to his created being of humanity through Jesus. This is the Father’s gift of the Holy Spirit into his Kingdom, through his Son. 
Mary had told Jesus that they had run out of wine for the guests and Jesus was taken aback by her pointed remark which implied that he had the power to miraculously change the situation, and he commented that this didn’t have anything to do with him, because his hour had not yet come. Mary seems to disregard his comment and tells the servants to “Do whatever he tells you.” The Bible then relates how Jesus goes into action and tells the servants to fill six stone jars with water. 
The Master of Ceremonies then tasted the excellent miraculous wine and makes the legendary statement to the bridegroom “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until last.”
There were six stone jars at the entrance of the house and these were for the religious ritual purification of the washing of each person’s hands and feet as they entered. 
The number six symbolises our fallen human nature - Mankind was created on the sixth day of creation and the water represents the waters of chaos with creation beginning with the Spirit of God hovering above the waters 
Genesis 1:2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep (thom - an abyss as a chaos of surging mass of water) and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. The water speaks of the disorder of our natural human life which waits to be creatively touched by the Spirit of God. The water in the six stone jars being changed into wine symbolises an inner supernatural transformation where we become a New Creation, being made one in spirit with God. The water does not cease to exist but it becomes transformed into a new creation reality.

On this occasion, Jesus did what his mother asked him, but the Bible says that Jesus did nothing unless he was told by his Father to do it. Jesus would have understood  that his mother had been told by his Father what he was to do (Mary had indeed heard from Father God on many occasions before this).
This speaks to us not only of a family occasion at a wedding, but it speaks of Father ‘s family plan for humanity on earth which is that through Jesus, mankind was destined to dwell with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit for all time. 
The Family in Heaven always was a family that lived with one another and for one another as one. Theirs is the perfect state of relationship and that was forsaken by Adam and Eve for all of humanity when they believed Satan who charged God with being self-interested and not perfectly loving to us. Jesus has reversed this lie into the truth of God’s perfect and inclusive love for us.
1John 5:7 For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit: and these three are one.
We are now part of the three in one God Family and we share their life and being and purpose and meaning. Jesus had explained to his disciples shortly before his death and resurrection that their lives would forever be intermingled with himself and his Father and the Holy Spirit.
John 14:20 In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you are in Me, and I am in you. 26. And the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things.
John has been unfolding the Kingdom truth in this story that Jesus would be the one who contains the Father and the holy Spirit within his earthly being and so he is 
central to our being included in the Trinity because while being fully God, he took upon himself and into himself our human nature with all of its limitations, as we see in the following Scripture
Colossians 2:9 For in Christ the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.
Jesus is the one who causes us to know that the love the Father has for us is the same as the love that the Father shares fully with Jesus himself. Jesus was also the one through whom he sent the holy Spirit, and it is to Jesus that we continually pray to be filled with his Spirit. John the Baptist had just previously said ‘I baptise with water but he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit’ and this supernatural act of God of the water being transformed into wine within us is the intermingling and the flow of God’s life in us and though us. 

We are fulfilled in our lives when we go with that flow and do not resist it and then we become like it and reflect it and all the while we try to observe what is in us that is resisting it. We can now have faith that this flow of life is acting towards us, and as we yield to this flow of God’s life it empowers and heals wherever it touches us, in spirit soul and body. Belonging to the Heavenly family of God through Jesus becomes the realm or sphere in which we now live towards his human family in the earth. It is Jesus himself, who is the Lord of peace, who is to be present and ruling in our midst.
Ephesians 1:4 This was the way God planned it before he even created the world, choosing the destiny of us as humanity being joined to divinity in Jesus, complete and innocent and unashamed of who we are in our close love and intimacy with him.
The love and joy and peace of Jesus is to hold sway over every aspect of our lives, and instead of pouring out of our own weary humanity we can now invite people into this family by offering the life-giving new wine of His Spirit of grace and love to everybody around us, and always being aware of ourselves as water being mingled into wine.

 

Labourers in the Vineyard

LABOURERS IN THE VINEYARD 
Jesus spoke about the kingdom of Heaven in parables. The word parable’ comes from the two Greek words, para which means ‘alongside ‘and bole which means ‘to throw’, so a parable is an Illustration or symbol of a certain reality that is forcefully thrown down beside a known truth. It is more than just an approximate likeness of something because it mysteriously contains a higher truth and has the power when it is thrown beside a known truth to turn our thinking upside down and to make us rethink our perceptions of reality. 

Matthew 20:1 The kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’ And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’ And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ But he replied to one of them, Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ So the last will be first, and the first last.”

This parable throws all of our perceptions of fair work policies into disarray, not just for trade unionists but for any fair-minded person. The Kingdom of God does not seem to obey our ideas of merit-based earning or reward. That is because the parable is about the grace of God, and our conventional way of thinking does not understand God’s gifts of love and grace and mercy. God’s gifts come without anyone earning them or deserving them.

The owner of the vineyard seems fair and just in the beginning of the story and then he seems incredibly generous towards the end of the story but then he seems unfair and unjust when those who came to work early compare themselves with those who came to work late, and they complained with a whole range of emotions common to all of us like anger, self-pity, or resentment or fear.

The owner of the vineyard for some reason had a compelling need for more and more workers to come and work in his vineyard and he went out time after time till very late in the working day to get as many people into his vineyard as he could. There must have been something special apart from wages that he thought that vineyard had to offer, and he contends with the workers for them to try and accept things the way they are, and to be satisfied with what he had to offer them. 

When Jesus told this parable about everyone getting the same wages no matter what hours they were working he was teaching us to trust him and to be satisfied that, what he has to offer us is far greater than anything we think we can do to make life work the way we want it to.  

Adam and Eve had everything they needed to fulfill their lives by having God’s loving care and protection and provision and presence, with them every moment of their lives. 
But they were tempted to believe that they could be more satisfied if they went their own way, and to get something better for themselves than what God had to offer them.
They were told by the serpent that God was unfair and unjust, so they took on a mindset of separation from God’s will for themselves and they believed Satan’s lie of darkness for them.
Mankind ended up with a desperate sense of unfulfillment in the soul, but God already had a magnificent plan in place to redeem humanity and to bridge the gap of separation that their disobedience had caused and that had damaged their soul.

Father’s love responded to the desperate sense of unfulfillment in the soul of humanity by sending his Son to die on the cross and rise again for us and to plant his life in us through the holy Spirit. That inner life grows and grows according to our simple faith in believing in its power to meet that uttermost need in our life and not the self-fulfilling needs that we think are more important and that we work so hard for to achieve. 

God created us for our lives to be fulfilled by responding to his desire to draw us closer to himself and to make our lives one with his life as a new creation by simply believing and receiving his grace and love. But our old creation humanity had designed its own self-help programs of working out how to be fulfilled in life in ways that vary from person to person. Those programs are hard work for us in our emotions and confuse our value systems and our mindset and they end up failing.
That is why repentance means being changed from the old mindset of separation from God into the new creation mindset of oneness with God. And God grants this as a gift of grace rather than through our well-intentioned self-effort.

You can erase your lifelong self-help programs and be reprogramed by God’s grace instead of your effort. You simply learn to recognise the upsetting emotion that you experience when you feel that you are in reaction to the adverse things that are happening or that threaten to happen in your life. It could be anger, self-pity, or resentment or fear just like the labourers in the vineyard.
You will recognise it by the words that come out of your mouth or that you say internally to yourself. There is usually a familiar commentary as in for Anger; ‘I’m going to let everybody know I’m just not putting up with this!’ or self-pity; ‘Not again, Why me? Its just not fair!’ or fear;’ Oh no what am I going to do now?’
If you try and erase a computer program you get a message on the screen ‘are you sure you want to erase this program?‘ and you say yes and put in your password.
With God you get the same message and you say yes and the password is ‘help me Lord I need to find grace to help’ – and even though the old program keeps wanting to restart you are now on the journey and God will complete what you asked him to.

Paul summed it up in Romans 4:4 If you're a hard worker and do a good job, you deserve your pay and we don't call your wages a gift. But if you see that the job is too big for you, that it's something only God can do, and you trust him to do it, that trusting-him-to-do-it is what gets you set right with God, by God, his gift not your work.

When we look at how this parable speaks to us spiritually it reveals how God is continually extending his invitation of grace to all of us just as the owner of the vineyard wanted as many people as he could get into that special vineyard. God desires for everyone to receive his good news of love and grace because he sees the desperate need in every human soul to be fulfilled by the gift of his own life working within them. 

Being satisfied with what God offers us is the perfect test of surrendered faith in our Father God through Jesus, especially in times of difficulty and adversity. When we surrender in faith to God’s goodness working for us in every situation, we will find his wisdom to make the right choices for a way through that situation. As well as letting God reprogram our self-fulfillment programs there is a simple prayer we can offer as often as we can remember to. It is ‘Thank you Lord for your desire to draw me closer to you and to make me one with you in everything that happens in my life.’ 
That prayer of faith becomes God’s work and our rest. 

 

The Good Samaritan

THE GOOD SAMARITAN
Wherever Jesus walked with his disciples, crowds would follow him, and he would sometimes instruct them and sometimes pray for the people and sometimes answer their questions. On this particular occasion there were Lawyers and Pharisees in the crowd and a Lawyer asked Jesus a question.
Luke 10:25 Now, a lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
He said to him, “What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?”
He answered, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind’ and your neighbor as yourself.’
Jesus said, ‘You have answered correctly. Do this, and you will live.’ (IE. a fulfilled life, not just an existence!)
But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
Jesus answered, “A man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing and wounded him and departed, leaving him half dead. By chance a priest came down that way. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to that place, looked at him and passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine. Then he set him on his own donkey and brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day when he departed, he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said to him, ‘Take care of him. I will repay you whatever else you spend when I return.’
“Now which of these three do you think was a neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?”
He said, “The one who showed mercy on him.”
Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.” 

This seems like an abrupt ending, “Go and do likewise.” as if Jesus had given a perfectly tidy answer and was ready to look at the group and say, ‘Next question?’
But what he said was a stinging blow into the conscience of each one that heard him. That story would have lived on in their minds, as it lives on in people’s minds all over the world even to this day – ‘Go and do likewise’.

Jesus had answered the question from the legal expert of ‘who is my neighbour?’ but that was not the original topic of conversation. The lawyer’s original question was ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ The lawyers and Pharisees, as well as the priests were the ones who were the custodians of the theological and ceremonial culture of Judaism at that time and they were violently resentful and resistant to the wisdom and the power of the teachings of Jesus. They were forever trying to trap him in some incorrect interpretation of the Law and the Scriptures.
Jesus often put them on the wrong foot by answering their questions with another question and on this occasion, he asked the lawyer ‘What is written in the law? How do you read it?’ and the lawyer correctly answered, that to inherit eternal life was all about loving God with your whole heart and loving your neighbour as yourself, and this is precisely what Jesus wanted to discuss, which was about love between us and God and between us and one another. That was because Jesus was teaching about God’s Kingdom of love in the earth. That love comes to us from God and is to be lived through us and to remain for all time on the earth and then from age to age in eternity. This is the inheritance of eternal life.
So Jesus told the lawyer that he had answered correctly concerning God’s eternal Kingdom love, and he told him to go and live out of that love and he would have the eternal life he was seeking. However, the lawyer did not like being given that penetrating answer, so he deflected Jesus with another question and said ‘Who is my neighbour?’

Jesus then spoke the parable of the Good Samaritan, and the story was set within the current religious and cultural customs and moral standards of Judaism of the day. 
When Jesus related how the priest first and then the Levite both ignored and even avoided having anything to do with the man who had been beaten up, that would have stung the ears of any priests and Levites who were listening, but the rest of the Jewish listeners could perhaps have been thinking ‘that poor guy could have been me!’ And they probably had an expectation that some good Jewish person, probably someone just like themselves, would come to the rescue and be applauded as being a good neighbour and be rewarded by God for their virtue.
But that didn’t happen. It was a hated and religiously despised Samaritan, a betrayer of the Jewish faith - and that would have stung everybody! That admonition from Jesus about their Jewish tribalism targeted all of their narrow wrongheadedness because Jesus was telling them that every other human being was their neighbour, even the unworthy Gentiles and the hated Samaritans. The coming Kingdom was open to everyone. The Lawyer even had to admit that the Samaritan was the one who showed mercy and therefore was the true neighbour to the poor beaten up Jewish man. 

That alone would have been offensive enough to everybody’s ears, but there was more yet to come because Jesus was talking about more than just ‘who is my neighbour?’ Jesus was talking about loving your neighbour. What the Good Samaritan did was more than being a good neighbour, he was a loving good neighbour and what he did was beyond any reasonable thing for all of them to imagine. Jesus told them that when the Samaritan traveller saw the man ‘he had compassion on him, and went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine. Then he set him on his own donkey and brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day when he departed, he took out two denarii (two day’s wages) and gave them to the innkeeper and said to him, ‘Take care of him. I will repay you whatever else you spend when I return’.

The Good Samaritan’s virtuous act of love drew no applause from he crowd that day. The Good Samaritan simply did what he did, and no reward is mentioned for what he did other than he acted in love and compassion. Jesus was telling them, and he is telling us today that this kind of love is its own reward even when it is not appreciated. That story of the loving Good Samaritan is clearly a picture of Jesus himself who sees us beaten up by life and left by the roadside and who takes us to a safe place of rest (which the Bible says is an Inn) where we can be cared for at his expense, and who has paid the price for our full recovery till his return. 
The Inn, pandocheion is translated as ‘a place where all are received, and no one refused’.

This story is first and foremost about God’s love for us. That love never ceases, even when it gets no appreciation or applause or thanks. 
God’s Love is its own reward for God himself, as it continues irresistibly till it finds someone to receive it and then it is completed, because love yearns to be received. 
It doesn’t suit a lot of people that God’s love works that way because they have their own concept of justice about who deserves God’s love. 

This story is also about our love for one another. Jesus said in the parable that this kind of love is to be our fulfillment in life as a glimmer of the reality of God’s love for us And we can be empowered by grace to not only live IN but to live OUT that love, just as Paul testified that he was compelled by God’s love to do what he did in serving others (2Corinthians 5.14).

How do we experience that love? 
We ask God to make HIS love real to us as we sit in his presence and thankfully receive it. That love implants itself deep into our spirit and grows there through the Holy Spirit.

How can we know that we have loved with that kind of love?
We measure how we’ve loved by being willing to measure how much we haven’t loved, and then we pray for more grace to receive even more of his love. God yearns to answer that prayer, so we continually put that on top of our list with quiet assurance, because we were created to complete God’s love to us by receiving it. This is the ultimate understanding for us to have in order to be fulfilled in life on this earth. 

Our faith in God is actually our faith in his love, and that love contains all of God’s wisdom and justice and discipline and mercy and forgiveness, and his ‘no’ to us is as loving as his ‘yes’. That implanted love becomes the spiritual energy centre of our life that guides us through all circumstances and completes the goal of our salvation.

1Corinthians 13:4 Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn't want what it doesn't have. Love doesn't strut,
Love doesn't have a swelled head, doesn’t force itself on others, Isn't always "me first," doesn't fly off the handle, doesn’t keep score of the sins of others, doesn't revel when others grovel, Love takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, puts up with anything, trusts God always, and always looks for the best, never looks back but keeps going to the end.
Love never dies. 
Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know truth only in part, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompleteness is cancelled.

The Sower and the Seed

THE SOWER AND THE SEED 
Today I would like to share the parable of the Sower and the seed.

Matthew 13:3 Jesus told the people many things in parables, saying, ‘A Sower went out to sow. While he sowed, some seeds fell beside the roadway, and the birds came and devoured them. But other seeds fell on rocky ground where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up because they did not have deep soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched. And because they did not take root, they withered away. Some seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. But other seeds fell into good ground and produced grain: a hundred, sixty, or thirty times as much. Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear.’

Jesus explained the parable of his Kingdom to his disciples, and he described the seed as the Word of the Kingdom. The Kingdom of God is the realm of the activity of God where he reorders everything to be aligned to his will and purpose for life on the earth through his Word. That living Word was Jesus (the Logos), who spoke the creative Word that brought the Universe into being. Jesus likens the seed that is being sown in this parable to that same living Word logos, which has the power to transform our lives when we receive this seed that is planted into our hearts.                                                                                                                               
James 1:21 … receive with meekness the implanted word (Logos), which is able to save your souls.
Paul said that he planted seed and that those that received it with faith were God’s field. He said it was a team effort - he planted the seed and Apollos watered it and God gave the increase (1Corinthians 3:6). 
The parable describes the way that farmers sowed the fields with seed. The sower was scooping seed out of a satchel that hung around his neck in front of him. He was walking on well prepared soil in a field and scattering seed as he went. There is a roadway beside the field and beside the roadway there was rocky ground in a shallow layer of soil, and between the rocky ground and the field was a deeper layer of soil that had grown random thorns and thistles. The only place where the seed can properly take root is in the good soil of the field of the hearts that are prepared to bear the life-giving grain. 
But seed will be scattered everywhere, and the seed is precious to God. Each one of us has a roadway seed challenge in life, and a rocky ground seed challenge and a thorns and thistles seed challenge. And each one of us has a prepared field challenge to accept God’s invitation to receive the life changing seed of faith and hope and blessing. 
Jesus has built redemption into every parable of the Kingdom because of the power of his resurrection and the sending of the Holy Spirit into our hearts and he can redeem every barren roadway seed challenge and clean up every rocky ground obstruction and uproot every thorny ground chokehold upon our faith.

Jesus explained that the seed that fell on the well-trodden roadway of the world was not able to take root in people’s hearts because the seed was snatched away by birds, which represents Satan blinding people minds and hearts from God’s love and truth. 
The roadway (hodos) also means ‘the journey’. The world has been on a journey for thousands of years with roadways and pathways of good and evil. There have been pathways of good intention and valuable discoveries and astounding humanitarian progress and achievement. There have also been roadways of ambitious greed and self-advantage and political power and corruption. Each one of us has had to tread the well-trodden paths of the world and have seen the dangers of the places where they may lead, and we have all had our own journey that started within a certain culture or religion or influence that sent us in directions that have resulted in a mixture of successes and failures.

The routine of roadways also tends to lock people into a sense of movement from the past and into the future with only a fleeting sense of the present moment, and we can wonder where the time has gone and where it is all leading. And until we stop and ask ourselves these hard questions and ponder our ways, we have little chance of allowing the seed of God’s loving future and hope to be the implanted seed that saves our souls and to not be snatched away by the devil. 
We can’t avoid being in the world, but we do not have to be of the world, with its political activism and intensely strong opinions that cause emotional distress and anxiety of the soul. We can debate issues with Godly wisdom and even hold positions of power or be skilful problem solvers in the marketplace with both feet on the ground, and still live with the assurance that our hearts and minds are planted in God’s field of life and truth. When we know who we are we know where we are. The only way we get on the right path when we’re on that roadway is when we see The light of the Holy Spirit that exposes the darkness and gives the grace to walk in faith.

Jesus also explained that the shallow, rocky soil represents the heart of a person who hears the seed word and receives it joyfully, but who hasn’t given enough attention to removing the rocks and stones of emotional obstacles in their life that have held them back from going deeper in God. In the words of Jesus, ‘he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution (diogmos – trouble and harassment) arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles’. They stumble on the rocks of conflict with other people, and these become rocks of offence, and harm the quality of relationships. They lose heart and walk away. 
With courage and encouragement, the relational rocks can be removed through reconciliation and commitment to loving relationships and the soil can settle, the seed can remain, and the roots go deeper and a humble commitment to faith and truth and love can make one stand strong in times of adversity. And today’s text  encourages us. 
‘receive with meekness the implanted word (Logos), which is able to save your souls’ (James 1:21).
Jesus goes on to describe the ground covered with thorns and thistles. ‘Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the delusion of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful’.
The choking activity of thorns in this illustration has two points of attack. The first point of attack is the ‘cares of this world’. The word for cares is ‘merimna’ and the root meaning of this word is ‘to distract and to disunite’. This speaks of the inordinate amount of time that can go into trying to control the circumstances of life that distract the soul from pursuing the deeper inner life of faith. It also speaks of the worry that fragments and fatigues the soul.  
The second point of attack is the ‘delusion of riches’. When pursuing financial gain that holds out promises of success and profit we must always factor in the need of diligence and effort and risk, and without a proper balance of these three things the success and profit turns into failure and loss. Another delusion of riches is that they are what bring happiness and fulfilment to our lives. These delusions choke off the fruitful life of the faith and love within the implanted seed.

The thorns and thistles can be uprooted and die off if we seek the Lord for wisdom in our financial priorities and if we set in order our relationship to God and to                                                                                                                                                                                      those in our care. ‘for where your treasure is there will be your heart also (Matthew 6:21)
Neither will the thorns and thistles choke off the good seed if we set our hearts to find his grace to help concerning the cares of this world. 
humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. (1Peter 5:6)

Jesus spoke simply and profoundly about preparing our hearts as the good ground. 
‘But other seeds fell into good ground and produced grain: a hundred, sixty, or thirty times as much. Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear.’
We can picture the sower in the field as we did before, walking on well prepared soil in a field and scattering seed as he goes. Furthest from him is the roadway and a little closer is the rocky ground and a little closer still is the slightly deeper layer of thorny soil. In from the thorny ground the soil would become richer and richer the further on in you go. Right next to the thorny ground the soil might only yield thirty-fold, and then a bit further in it would yield sixty-fold, and then a little further in where the sower was walking a hundred-fold, as the differing distances from the sower signify the different qualities of the soil.  This speaks to us of the various stages of the preparedness of our hearts to receiving the word of God, which is the logos, the living seed that contains the spiritual DNA of the life of Jesus within us. So, we get off the roadway, then we remove the rocks and stones then we dig up the thorns and thistles and then we become his field.

But note those final words of Jesus that speak to us clearly about ‘having ears to hear’.
Whenever Jesus says ‘whoever has ears to hear let him hear’ he is telling us that there is a truth that he is teaching here at a deeper level than what people are hearing. He is teaching us how to overcome the distractions and disturbances at the emotional and mental and material levels of our lives that prevent us from hearing what he is saying.
God wants to teach us how to learn his language of silence and stillness so that we will know how to hear his voice. We practice a ‘presence prayer’ attitude of receptivity and allow our usual busy emotional and mental activity to be put in brackets while we draw nearer to God and become his rich field in the deeper spiritual level of our being. And it is in this place of faith where we believe in our hearts that we are receiving into our spirit his seed of life that is changing us into his likeness.

 

 

 

Go and Sin No More

GO AND SIN NO MORE - (The power of Grace over sin)
Today we will be talking about sin, and how Jesus told a person to ‘go and sin no more’. How and why can you say that to someone?  
The answer goes back to how and when humanity lost its innocence when sin first began and how humanity can regain its innocence through the forgiveness and mercy of God through Jesus. I will discuss the fuller meaning of innocence in a few moments.
John 8:1-11 Early in the morning Jesus came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery and placing her in the midst they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So, what do you say?” they said this to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”
The scribes and Pharisees were trying to catch Jesus out. If he had said ‘yes, stone her’ they would say ‘why have you stopped preaching forgiveness and mercy?’ And if he said ‘don’t stone her’ they would say that he was preaching against the Law of Moses.
Jesus knew they had corrupt motives for their questions, so he began writing with his finger in the dirt, but they kept demanding an answer - determined to catch him out in some incorrect ruling of the Sacred Law.
The Bible does not say what Jesus was writing - some say he was writing out the Ten Commandments, but I am inclined to think he was perhaps trying to catch them out with the deeper aspect of personal sin, which is what the conscience deals with, not with the aspect of general sin which is what the Law and Commandments deal with. As they pressed him further, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” In saying this he was saying that they could stone her if they wished, so he was not compromising the Law, but he put a condition upon the stoning, and that was that whoever had a clear conscience about their own sinfulness was qualified to judge her sin. He was challenging them to judge themselves, but they had been avoiding this all their lives and preferred to stay in the shadows of their shame and guilt by judging others instead.
And when he bent down again and continued to write in the dirt they began to leave, from the oldest to the youngest. It is conceivable that he wrote their names in the dirt, and next to each one’s name the personal sin that was hidden in the darkness of their heart. The older ones left first with their heavily laden burdens of guilt and shame and the younger ones then decided to get going before the going got too tough.

Why do people cover their sin under darkness?
In Johns gospel in chapter one John talks about Jesus being ‘the light’ and that ‘men loved the darkness more than the light’. That is because darkness hides them from that intolerable light that uncovers sin and shame and guilt which are all too painful to bear. There are devious ways that darkness covers shame. One way is to cover the shame with virtuous performance. Another tactic is to falsely claim the role of victim and then shame others as perpetrators. Another way is to uncover someone else’s sin and heap shame and guilt onto them, which is what these accusers were doing, and Jesus caught them at it.
Jesus came to do more than just forgive us our sin. He came to help us turn from sin and turn towards the light and the love of God (repentance) and to live above sin by living in a loving family relationship with God, and for God, where we are not only forgiven from sin but mercifully covered from shame so that we can ‘go and sin no more’. Mercy allows light to operate.
The first sin that was ever committed caused Adam and Eve to run and hide from their shame and guilt. Their sin was their violation of trust in the divine family relationship between them and God the Father. That violation of trust in God set the pattern for all sin that we commit as human beings. That is the overriding sin of not trusting God. Sin is the activation of separation from God. 
That is the sin of unbelief – The sin whereby humanity misses the mark. This sin drives humanity into isolation from God, other people, and their innermost selves. They are ‘lost’.

Innocence
Adam and Eve were completely innocent human beings, but their innocence was untested until Satan tempted them into not trusting God. As created human beings they could be tempted, and they could choose to sin because they were of a lower order of being than God who was uncreated Being and the Bible is clear that God cannot be tempted. (James 1:13). They failed the test and they sinned and that violation of relationship with God corrupted their human spirit, and they lost their innocence. Sin causes us to lose our innocence. The word for innocent is ‘innocere’ a Latin word that means ‘to not harm’ and it also means ‘not being harmed’. They had now been harmed and they could now cause harm to themselves and others, which they did.
  
The human seed
Adam and Eve were created beings and not born from human seed, no human parents, so the human spiritual seed did not actively operate until it was passed on by Adam and Eve – DNA began doing its thing. When God rebuked Satan after he had tempted Adam and Eve into sinning, he told him that there would be enmity and conflict between the seed of his darkness and the spiritual seed of all of humanity (Genesis 3:14)
This spiritual conflict between darkness and the flawed seed of humanity would lead to ongoing temptation and sin and shame and guilt and the fragmentation of the human soul for the rest of time upon the earth. Now their damaged human seed began to live on in their offspring and spiritually reproduce and it continues to do so.
Jesus was the only other completely innocent Being to live upon the earth, and he was born from a seed, but that seed was perfect and incorrupt. Jesus was born from above by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit. The human spirit of Jesus remained incorrupt and when he spoke to his disciples about the work of darkness he said, ‘Satan has no part in me’ (John 14:30). He was tempted as are all human beings, but he never sinned. He never lost his innocence. He was never separated from the loving family bond with his Father whom he lived to please before himself.

Trees and seeds
There were many trees in the Garden of Eden and the two that are mentioned were the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the Tree of Life. Those two trees produced different fruit that bore different seeds. Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil and the effect of eating from that Tree gave the human soul a distorted perception of good and evil. The soul now perceived good as being what fulfilled humanity’s desires of self-interest rather than the desire to please a loving God, and that seed has passed on to all generations.
The Bible speaks about ‘Those who call evil good, and good evil, who change darkness to light, and light into darkness’ (Isaiah 5:20)

The other tree is the Tree of Life, and that Tree bears the fruit of the incorruptible seed of the Word of God. Jesus is the incorruptible seed of the Word of God – the Logos, and the Bible says that we are born again from that seed.
1Peter 1:23 having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God (Logos) which lives and abides forever, That seed contains our eternal life.
That is why we are able to also live out of the fruit of the Spirit – the fruit of the Tree of Life that Jesus lived, and now lives through us by the Holy Spirit. We can express that fruit in our lives though our souls - love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
We can regain that place of innocence before God as his children that we were destined for through the activity of his grace upon our souls. The loss of innocence from the first sin meant we were ‘able to be harmed and able to do harm’ but regaining our innocence means we are now able to ‘be spiritually blessed and to be a spiritual blessing’.
Ephesians 1:4 He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless (innocent) before Him in love.
We can be part of the reversal of Adam and Eve’s original sin – The sin of their violation of trust in the divine family relationship between themselves and God and between one another. They began the blame game that we all know so well. Adam said to God ‘The woman you gave me made me do it, and Eve said, ‘the devil made me do it’. That violation of trust in God set the pattern for all sin that we commit as human beings, where our first parents lost their innocence and where we lose ours, but through the faith of Jesus we regain our innocence, and through our faith in Jesus we share in his divine family life without any shame or guilt or distortion of who we are. Jesus can say to us – ‘Go and sin no more’.
Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”

That lady knew in her heart that she was loved and accepted into the family of God through her brother Jesus. As she drew closer to that divine family life through Jesus, she drew more and more distant from her past life – she could now choose to go and sin no more even while living under the Law, because she now saw life from a new perspective, from an experience of the love and forgiveness of God through Jesus. 
And we who are under the grace of God can moreso choose to ‘go and sin no more’ because the Bible tells us that since Jesus rose from the dead and the Holy Spirit was given to us sin does not rule over us.
Romans 6:14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.  -  And that is the power of Grace.