Spiritcode

You will be as God?

You will be as God?
Genesis 1:26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image (selem – a representation, resemblance), after our own likeness (mut – as us, like us). There are significant differences in the two words, however this statement ‘You will be as God’, or ‘like God’ was declared from the beginning by both Lucifer and God. The first we hear this statement is from out of the mouth of the serpent in the garden of Eden. 
Genesis 3:4 And the serpent said, Death will not certainly come to you: For God sees that on the day when you take of its fruit, your eyes will be open, and you will be as God, having knowledge of good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and a delight to the eyes, and to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit, and gave it to her husband. 

Those tempting words from the place of darkness provoked a hidden longing in the heart of humanity to be like God.
The very same hidden longing to ‘be as God’ had already been consummated within the heart of pride within Lucifer and was now being passed on to humanity, his greatest rival among created beings.
Isaiah 14:12 How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground--mighty though you were against the nations of the world. For you said to yourself, "I will ascend to heaven, I will exalt my throne and rule the angels. I will preside on the Mount of the north, the place of the heavenly council. I will climb to the highest heavens. I will be as the Most High." But instead, you will be brought down to the pit of hell, down to its lowest depths.

This aspiration to be ‘like God’ or ‘as God’ is something that is pursued by those who walk in great darkness as well as those who walk in great light. It was said first in the Book of Genesis by the serpent where ‘being as God’ is connected to possessing the knowledge of good and evil whereby each person redefines the meaning of good and bad as being what is good or bad for them personally. However ‘being as God’ is more deeply embedded in the human psyche than we might think. God even corroborates the serpent’s words to Eve in some respects when he drives man out of the garden. 

Genesis 3:22 Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever…” The word ‘lest’ in that sentence allows it to hang in the air unfinished. It is as if the Lord wants us to ask; ‘And…? And what, and why?’ There is a ‘please explain’ there somewhere. and before the verse even allows time for discussion it describes God going into action - therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden. God bans humanity from having access to the way of the tree of life. 
In Isaiah 6.9 (spoken by Isaiah) and in Mark 4:12 (spoken by Jesus) and in Acts 28 (Paul) there is another similarly intriguing scripture that uses the word ‘lest’ in such a way that it also leaves us hanging in the air so to speak, asking the question ‘why Lord?’ and even ‘when Lord?’  or ‘for how long Lord?’ God is telling Isaiah what effect his preaching will have when he proclaims it.
Isaiah 6:9 When you preach to them  tell them they will keep on hearing, but not understand, keep on seeing, but not perceive.’
Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes;
lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts,
and turn and be healed.”
Please explain Lord, I have a question… The correct question here is ‘How long Lord’ and that is indeed what Isaiah does ask, and The Lord gives him a sobering answer.
Isaiah 9:11 Then I said, “How long, O Lord?” And he said: “Until cities lie waste without inhabitant, and houses without people, and the land is a desolate waste, and the LORD removes people far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land”.
This answer in some ways strangely describes the days in which we live…
So back here in the garden of Eden we have the unfinished ‘lest’ sentence swallowed up by; “therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard (sapor – preserve and reserve the way (path, road, journey) to the tree of life”.
God did not let Adam and Eve or any other human being have access to the tree of life (until Jesus) and he guarded the way to it with angels and a flaming sword. God is somehow letting us touch the mystery of eternal life.

THE BAD, THE GOOD, AND THE IN-BETWEEN ASPECTS OF ‘BEING LIKE GOD’
‘Being as God’ is seen in its darkest shadowy form in many narcissistic egomaniacs in their consuming passion of having control over everything in their world, which is impossible, but which is striven for with whatever devious power they can lay hold of. This is seen in cruel tyrants such as Pharaoh, Alexander the great, Caesar, and many others in ancient history and they were regarded by the people and by themselves as a god). Then there are the modern-day practitioners like Stalin and Hitler who acted as deluded savior gods convincing the people that they were needed o save the nation and its heritage and honour and status of dignity and equality in the world.. 
The term for this kind of grandiosity is ‘apotheosis’ (elevated by pride to divine status). 

In its common or everyday form ‘being as God’ sits unnoticed and invisibly nested within the individual sovereignty of all of humanity under God, even if they don’t believe in God, because all of humanity was created in God’s image, or resemblance, or shadow. This includes the responsible citizens of good conscience who honour their social and political freedom which is a God given responsibility and status. It just so happens that nobody generally goes around thinking about this or saying it or discussing it, but this is a hidden reality that has been sown into humanity through a vast range of other expressions of individuality.  A vast number of people worldwide would fall into the worldview of Secular humanism even if they may not describe themselves as such. They may believe that God is not necessary to be a moral and ethical person. In that sense they have become ‘as God’ by replacing faith in God with philosophical truth and reason as the basis of morality and decision making, rejecting religious doctrine or the supernatural, even though they may retain Christian values without Christian faith. Then there are the more energetic zealots of ideological activism who uphold some collective opinion as to how everybody should think and act on certain social issues of social justice or financial equality or health practices etc, and they find their collective identity in those ideologies. They often make their ideological opinions into virtues and become ‘as God’  in judging and even penalizing others for not agreeing with their virtue or morality. 

However, ‘Being as God’ in its highest and most noble form is more than just being created in God’s image or resemblance. We are now talking about being made in his ‘likeness’ or ‘’as him’ in our inner being. It involves having a heart to worship God and to trust in his divine love and goodness and to be transformed by the Holy Spirit into his likeness. It also involves being willing to be discipled by God as our Father who delights to grow us in faith and love both for him and for one another, no matter what race or culture or gender or personality or status. This is being ‘as Him in the world.’ (1John 4:17)

2Peter 1:4 And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by corrupt human desires.

1Corinthians 3:18 … as the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like him.

This was the reality of the life of Jesus.
Philippians 2:7 who, though his essential being was fully as God, did not use the grandeur of being equal with God something to be promoted but he humbled himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And serving obediently to the point of dying on the cross for us. 

So as his disciples we are called to not just represent Jesus but to embody his life. In other words when Jesus died and rose from the dead and went to be with his Father he sent the Holy Spirit to live within us according to our own unique and individual life.
Our inflated egoic self is now constantly being invited to empty itself of pride and independence and self-importance and emotionally opinionated judgments. That tree of life can now live through giving us his wisdom in things through faith and love. 
By faith we dare to become what without faith we are afraid to be - a vulnerable human being, but a real person, with real meaning in our lives. We have a saviour, and a leader, and a commander, in Jesus. If we always come to Jesus in this way and abide in him in utter faith, as vulnerable ordinary people, we will always find his strength and know his power and love. We draw aside from all other thoughts and focus on the one great thought of God toward us, that through the power of his Holy Spirit he is changing us into his likeness. This is an ever present reality of faith.

‘Being like God’ should be front and centre of our minds and being. It is our destiny and the ultimate goal of God for us that gives meaning to our existence no matter what the status or circumstances of our lives. You will be as God, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

 

The hidden tree of life

THE HIDDEN TREE OF LIFE
In the story of creation, the Bible says there were two trees in the midst of the garden of Eden. They were the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and the tree of life.
Genesis 2:9 And out of the ground the LORD God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

‘In the midst’ does not mean ‘in the middle’. The word midst (taewk) is mostly translated as ‘midst’ and rarely translated a middle (209 vs 7) If I told someone that I saw them in the midst of the crowd it would not mean that they were in the very centre surrounded by everyone else. So we are not talking about two trees standing side by side, on grand display in the centre of the garden. However, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was the tree that was featured and even showcased in the story.  It was the tree that God told Adam not to eat from and it was the tree that became their literal downfall through disobedience.

THE SPIRITUAL SIGNIFICANCE OF TREES
A tree is part of the order of living creation and it is rooted in part of the non-living order of creation, the earth. Adam was created out of the earth and the word adamah means the ‘ground or earth’, from where we get the name Adam. So the spiritual significance of the two spiritual trees is that both trees are rooted in humanity.
Both of these trees declare the powerful symbolism of something which has life and bears fruit and is rooted in the earth, or the ‘adamah’, the ‘Adam’ of our humanity. 

THE COMMANDMENT AND THE CONSEQUENCE OF DISOBEDIENCE
Genesis 2:16 And the Lord God gave the man an order, saying, You may freely take of the fruit of every tree of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you may not take; for on the day when you take of it, death will certainly come to you.

THE TEMPTATION AND THE FALL
Genesis 3:4 And the serpent said, Death will not certainly come to you: For God sees that on the day when you take of its fruit, your eyes will be open, and you will be as God, having knowledge of good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and a delight to the eyes, and to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit, and gave it to her husband. And their eyes were open and they were conscious that they had no clothing and they made themselves coats of leaves stitched together.

Adam and Eve were the first of human creation to be tempted by darkness to eat of the tree of knowledge and they were the first to experience the TRAGIC downfall of disobedience and sin. All of humanity is tempted by darkness to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and all have eaten and all have fallen, not just because of Adam falling, but as well as Adam falling (Romans 3:23). They just happened to be the first. They had a conscience before they were tempted, so they knew right from wrong just like us, but the temptation was too great for their UNTESTED human nature TO RESIST.
There is one exception, and that is Jesus, who was tempted in every way just as we are, being human, and yet he did not ever miss the mark or fall into disobedience because he had a relationship of perfect integrity and harmony and unconditional love with his Father. He was in alignment with his Father’s heart (righteous) and so he did not sin, and he did not fall. He was born from above and had the seed of life from his Father through the Holy Spirit (UNLIKE ADAM), and so was also born into his mother Mary’s humanity. 

1Peter 1.23   we were born again not through corruptible but incorruptible seed– logos – the seed from above…

Through their disobedience Adam and Eve broke relationship with God from them to God, but it was NEVER broken from God to them – or to us. They were the ones who broke the harmony, the openness and freedom and their trusting friendship with God. 
They were told by the serpent that when they ate the fruit they would NOT die, AND here they were, still alive, so what did ‘you will surely die’ mean?
There was going to be a physical death and a spiritual death. In the New Testament there are two words for life. They are ‘bios’ (biological life) and zoe (spiritual or Godly life).
When they sinned against God and their own conscience something triggered an inner emotional and spiritual mess within them. Their eyes were opened for them to see that they were unclothed, exposed for who they now were. Shame and guilt and fear rushed into their lives uninvited. They tried to cover themselves with leaves, and a life of covering up began for humanity.
Their relationship with God had been one of unconditional love, but now everything became conditional to a new mindset of what good and evil meant.

They had died spiritually by cutting themselves off in mind and heart from the life of God, the source of all forms of life on the earth and they retreated into an independent experience of their own ‘separated self’ life. They had ceased to consciously make the life of God central in their minds and hearts and became confused as to the meaning of life itself. Life from that moment on was now perceived to belong to oneself so that each person had to make a conscious choice whether or not to share the personal rights of their life with God or anyone else. This became the beginning of conditional relationships for humanity instead of unconditional love. 
It became the mission of darkness to destroy Godly covenant relationships between people and God and also with one another, where we can allow certain other people to share our own personal rights as a human being and where people thinking of themselves as ‘belonging’ to another person as in marriage. We all live with the relational consequences of the fruit of that first act of disobedience to this time.

The Bible describes the plight of people living in this state of spiritual death.
Ephesians 4:18 having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, without the knowledge of God because of the blindness of their heart. 

This is speaking about people who have become self-conscious rather than God conscious. All those things are the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Adam and Eve’s minds had become alienated from the life of God yet they were nonetheless still being impacted by the life of God because they had been created in his image so that his goodness and mercy and blessing still came upon them and could be reflected through them to one another so they could still be kind and loving if they chose to. And even though unconditional love became an uncommon thing for us it always remained in God’s heart towards us. Great is his faithfulness even in our unfaithfulness.

There is actually nothing wrong with the knowledge of good and evil. Knowledge blesses mankind in a myriad of ways and it is powerfully productive and helpful. The problem arises when we contend with the fierce ownership of our own individual rights that we believe are ‘good’ for us. Darkness sows suspicion and mistrust into our judgment of what is good and what is bad. What is good is now judged on the basis of what is good for me, no matter how it seems to someone else, and what is bad is judged by what is bad the way I see it, no matter whether it seems good to someone else. The closer a thing comes to what we like or want to happen for ourselves, the more it is good, and whatever prevents us from having that thing is bad, and that is why we can make such lopsided and discriminatory judgments against God and against one another. 

This is how humanity is tempted to live in its perception of what is objectively good and bad. Our eyes have been opened to see we must defend or assert our exposed and vulnerable selves. We live in a world of wrongly judging ourselves and one another. 

That is why Adam and Eve judged the fruit of the tree of knowledge to be good for them in every way. It was sold to them as being of beautiful appearance, good to taste and pleasing to the senses, and able to bestow special knowledge and wisdom. Mankind at that moment began to prize those things, and they judged God’s advice to them of not eating the fruit as being bad. They believed the lie that what they now thought was good for them was being cheated of them by God himself.
The outwardly self-gratifying life became more important than the inwardly fulfilling and satisfying life of trusting relationships, first with God and then with others.
The fruit of the tree of knowledge was not only on splendid display for Adam and Eve to see, and tantalizingly forbidden to eat, but sitting amongst its branches was a cunning deceitful serpent. Nothing has changed regarding this tree and we are all constantly being confronted by this reality.
The fruit of this tree has deeply affected the way people, especially in affluent cultures, live out their lives.  Even in Christianity there is a tendency to conform to the competitive performance-oriented success culture of the world rather than the inner transformational power of the exchanged life of Jesus. The outward display orientation has its source in the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The powerful inner reality of faith and love has its source in the tree of life. It seems that the western culture finds the outward display irresistible, and only when there is either persecution or a sovereign move of the Holy Spirit do the values of the inner life of God change the hearts of humanity and glorify God instead of man. But there is a better way.

THE HIDDEN WAY OF THE TREE OF LIFE
The tree of life was somehow strangely out of sight or out of mind or both, throughout the time of Adam and Eve and God and the serpent in the garden, They were not given any commandment concerning the tree of life because God didn’t even mention it except at the very end. Humanity was obviously destined to eat of the tree of life in due course and there was access to it, but this did not seem to be the time, and in fact only after eating of the tree of knowledge was the way to the tree of life blocked. Then God did not let Adam and Eve or any other human being have access to the tree of life and he guarded the way to it with cherubim and a flaming sword.
Genesis 3: 24 He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard (sapor – preserve and reserve) the way (path, road, journey) to the tree of life.

There was however an appointed time for mankind to be shown the way of access to the tree of life, but for the time being it was forbidden, and the way was hidden.
There was one exception, and that is Jesus, who is the tree of life, and who is also rooted in Adam (adamah – the earth) as a human being, but who contained eternal life and bore the fruit of the tree of Life (The fruit of the Spirit and the power of the Spirit). He was born from above. The life and power of God was hidden as a hidden tree of life not only in the garden but within the humble humanity of Jesus.

Isaiah 53:1 Who has believed our message and to whom has the LORD revealed his power? My servant grew up in the LORD’s presence like a tender green shoot, like a root in dry ground. There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance, nothing to attract us to him. He was despised and rejected - a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care.
Jesus did not try to attract people to himself or to put his power on display to impress people. This was a new kind of behaviour from someone of such power and authority, and even his disciples wanted him to display his Kingdom authority when they wanted to call the fire of judgment down on those who resisted and opposed him (Luke 9:54). 
They had always been attracted to and influenced by the tree of knowledge, but Jesus came as the tree of life and made himself of no reputation to become a servant to humanity (Philippians 2:7). They had no understanding of this hidden truth, the hidden tree.  It’s meaning was mysteriously hidden throughout the OT even though it was mentioned. But now it was with them veiled in his humility like a tender green shoot, like a root in dry ground. There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance, nothing to attract us to him. He was despised and rejected.

This is in stark contrast to much of Christian activity today, that wants to be on display as the agent of God’s power and judgment of what is good and evil. 
The Bible does not say that knowledge is bad, but it shows how the self-centred use of knowledge differs from the blessing of a caring relationship
1Corinthians 8:1 Knowledge puffs up (inflates the ego) but love builds up…
The tree of life is hidden in the ordinariness of our New Creation humanity that is joined life to life with Jesus. 
Colossians 3:3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.
This means that we died with Christ and now live with him. When Jesus went on the cross as a human being he took us as humanity, with him.… We now had access to another tree to live out of instead just the tree of knowledge of good and evil. We can now live our lives choosing the tree of life over the tree of knowledge. The pathway is God’s love - Total trust in Gods unconditional love coming to us – we trust that he knows what is good for us even if we don’t. The inflated EGO me is now constantly being invited to empty itself of pride and independence and self importance and emotionally opinionated judgments and to eat of the fulness of the hidden tree of life that is now able to live through us. We ask for and receive his wisdom in things – and love can grow and flow. That is the fruit that Jesus spoke of that would spring up out of the ground when he gave his life as a seed to die and be buried and rise again with us from the dead (John 12:24). This enables us to bless God and one another and to bring healing and wholeness to a broken world through a life of humble service.

Commandment 3 episode 4

Commandment Three – Taking God’s name in vain

Does this Commandment mean more than just people using God’s name in swearing?

How do Christians use God’s name in vain?

What does God’s name mean?

What does it mean for God to ‘not hold people guiltless’ for taking his name in vain?

Does this Commandment operate for people who do not believe in God?

All the commandments deal with relationships, and this commandment focuses on a very real aspect of a relationship, and a very important aspect, which is the name of the Person with whom we have a relationship. It is bad enough to have one's name forgotten, but even worse, to have it abused or exploited.

Don’t rob God’s name of its meaning and power by using it to promote your own futile campaign. God does not count such harmful schemes as innocent (not hold him guiltless).

Seeking of endorsement for our own name is really the seeking of endorsement for the self -images that we have been building, according to the fault addressed in the previous commandment which was the making and serving of images. 

It is the basic insecurity within every image-maker that does not trust in God that creates a compulsion to attach credibility to that image by borrowing the fame or success of someone else's achievement or reputation. 

 

 

Ascension after forty days

ASCENSION AFTER FORTY DAYS From 'The Plan'  Paul O'Sullivan - Sydney, Australia.   pauloss@me.com  
Jesus had brought millions of souls from the grave to the sky and his time in heaven for the celebration of this victorious journey was momentary, as he had left the tomb just before dawn and had to return to earth that same day. He would now spend forty days on earth as a witness to his resurrection, to seal The Plan of his Father and see it implemented for the rest of time. At the end of those forty days he would return to Heaven, to begin his new mission upon the planet. After that he would wait for ten more days before sending Holy Spirit to begin the new mission of the ‘Spirit of life in Christ Jesus’

Holy Spirit had accompanied Jesus every moment of his life on earth. He had joined himself to the human spirit of Jesus and had felt every feeling that Jesus had felt. He had known every one of his thoughts, and he had communicated every thought from Father God to him. Those thoughts became words in Jesus mouth, and Spirit caused those words to have life and power to all who heard Jesus speak. In this way Holy Spirit had also experienced life within humanity on the earth. In fifty days after his resurrection (Pentecost pente=fifty), and after Jesus had returned  back to  heaven  Holy  Spirit  would  become  the  bond between heaven and earth for all time. He would fall like rain from heaven upon the souls of mankind, seeking to awaken the spirit of humanity to the cosmic truth of what Jesus had done in joining mankind to God. This would now become the mission of God, Father Son and Holy Spirit, in Heaven and on earth.

That same day Jesus returned to earth in a glorified body that could never ever die again.  
Mark 16:9 After that, He appeared in another form (heteros morphe – an altered form or nature) to two of them as they walked and went into the country.

His body was without the constraints of a limited physical body, but it could be seen and recognized as a natural body. In this spiritual yet natural body Jesus could appear anywhere and at any time. He could feel and be touched, could breathe and eat, and walk and talk, all of which he did when he resumed his earthly visit. He came back and saw again the bewilderment and confusion in this world of uncertainty that people cling to so fervently, and he wanted to see all this change. He arrived in Jerusalem and heard that the temple priests had fabricated a story that his body had been stolen by the disciples and that they had overcome the temple guards and raided the tomb. He also heard that his disciples were still doubting that he had risen from the dead, even though some of them had come to the tomb and seen it empty, and some women had spoken to the angels.

He set off walking from Jerusalem in the direction of Galilee, where he had said he would meet with his disciples. It was then that he saw the two men walking together in serious discussion and he recognized them (these were the men mentioned in that Scripture about Jesus appearing in another form). They were men who would have often come to listen to him and ask questions along with many other disciples. He greeted them and joined them as they walked, but Holy Spirit had supernaturally veiled their eyes from recognizing him. He listened as they spoke and detected the same mood of bewilderment, if not depression, that seemed to be hanging over everybody. He politely commented that they seemed to be bothered about something that was going on locally, and he asked what that might be.

The one called Cleopas gave Jesus a puzzled look and said to Jesus that he must be the only visitor in Jerusalem that hadn’t heard about what had happened. So when Jesus asked Cleopas to spell out what he meant the two men smiled at each other and the other man began to patiently explain about the man called Jesus, a great man whom they had both followed and believed in. They enthusiastically recounted some of the miracles he had worked, and that he was a prophet, the greatest of them all. Cleopas broke in and added that Jesus stood up for justice and taught them about God. They thought he was going to turn the world upside down and make everything new for them. Jesus pushed them further for more details and they said they had expected that there would be freedom and prosperity for the Jews for a start. 

There was a pause, then one of them gave a sigh and told Jesus how the temple priests had convicted Jesus as a criminal and how he was crucified by Pontius Pilate, and that today was the third day since these things happened. When Jesus asked them to explain the significance of the third day the two men looked at one another awkwardly and one of them shrugged and said that the man Jesus had said he would rise from the dead after three days. Cleopas took up the story again and explained that some of the women even went to the tomb and found it empty and reported they saw two angels who said he was alive, and that some of his very own disciples also went to the tomb and found it empty. He too shrugged as he finished talking.

Jesus nodded and remained silent for a few paces as he walked alongside the two men. He then very pointedly asked them why on earth they didn’t just believe what they had been told by Jesus himself. The other man condescendingly and a little impatiently, replied that they hadn't seen anything, so what were they expected to believe? 
It was then that Jesus quietly declared to them that they should have opened their hearts to what God had revealed, and simply believed what Jesus and all the prophets had spoken, that the Christ should suffer these things and then enter into his glory. He then began to speak about all the Scriptures concerning himself. He spoke in detail of the Plan of Father to send The Son into the world. He taught them from the words of Scripture about prophesies which outlined the details of his birth, and his life and death, and his resurrection. Something happened in their hearts as they listened to him, even though they still didn’t recognize who he was. And the next thing they knew they were close to Emmaus, which was their destination.

They didn't want Jesus to stop talking so they appealed to him to stay with them, even though he told them he was going further. They asked him to at least stay and have a meal, so Jesus accepted their offer. During the meal Jesus took some bread, and gave thanks for it, and as he broke the bread their eyes were opened and immediately they recognized who he was. This was the ordinary, extraordinary moment, sitting at a table, life happening, very natural yet very spiritual, eye to eye and heart to heart. Jesus heard Father speaking to him from heaven, telling him that this was the way it was going to be. Holy Spirit would be the one who would open peoples’ eyes to see him and know him as he really was, and that was the way The Plan would be implemented from heaven to earth. Jesus then heard Holy Spirit whisper to him; “People will speak the truth about you, and I will reveal you to them.” 
The next moment Jesus vanished from their sight

After Jesus vanished from their sight the two men decided to go back into Jerusalem and find the disciples who were in hiding, afraid of what was going to happen to them because of the rumors that were going about that they had stolen Jesus’ body. They found them and were whisked inside and the doors were locked behind them. They told them of their journey with Jesus on the road to Emmaus, and their miraculous meal with him where he had suddenly vanished. The disciples were ecstatic that Jesus was back from the dead, and while they were still talking Jesus appeared in their midst while the doors remained locked. The disciples panicked, and thought they were seeing a ghost, but Jesus explained to them that he was not a ghost because a ghost didn’t have bones and flesh, and he asked them to touch his hands and his feet and to see for themselves. 
 
Jesus stretched forth his hands and his peace hit their hearts. He breathed his Spirit upon them and they received the impartation of his peace and they immediately felt at one with Jesus and with each other. This was just a mere foretaste of what was to come, as it would only be after his final ascension and being seated at the right hand of Father that Holy Spirit would be sent to dwell within them. On the day of Pentecost Holy Spirit would be sent from Father and from himself upon all humanity. That peace is also the air we can now breathe and that peace is what we can also now impart to others.

He could still see their bewilderment, and he knew he had to convince them in some ordinary way that he was real and alive again. So he asked them if he could have something to eat. James scurried to the fire and brought back some steamed fish, and some honeycomb, and held the mixed platter out at arm's length as Jesus accepted it and ate it with gusto. He looked around the room and noticed that Thomas was not amongst them. He asked them why they didn't go to Galilee where he said he would be going to meet them. They shuffled about without giving an answer, and Jesus told them he would see them in a few days at Galilee, and he vanished once more.

The disciples gathered at Galilee where they used to gather in the large boat shed that belonged to James and John's fisherman father, where they tended to the boats and net repairs. It was situated snugly in a grove overlooking the beach. Peter had been waiting with the others and had then become restless and asked James and John to come fishing with him to get some food for Jesus to eat. While the three were out fishing Jesus suddenly appeared to the others as they sat patiently, waiting for his arrival. When Thomas saw Jesus appear he walked hesitatingly towards him and stopped in front of him. Jesus knew that Thomas had not believed that he had risen, even after the other disciples had said that they had seen him. Jesus held out his hands towards Thomas and told him to touch his hands where the nails had pierced, and to touch his side where the Centurion’s lance had entered his side. Thomas broke down and wept, and told Jesus that he believed. Jesus gently acknowledged his faith, that in seeing and touching he now believed. He went on to tell Thomas that there would be many who will believe without even seeing him and that they would be greatly blessed for that kind of faith. Jesus comforted him and he disappeared again. 

Jesus appeared to them again one morning after seven of them had been out fishing all night and had caught nothing. He stood on the shore and watched them fishing but they didn't realize that it was him. He shouted out to the fishermen from the shore, asking them if they had yet caught anything. A disgruntled ‘No’ came from Peter to this expert on the seashore, who responded to Peter by telling him to cast his net on the other side of the boat. Peter was about to explode when he heard John cry out that the expert on the seashore was indeed Jesus, The Lord. Peter then yelled to the others to do what Jesus had said. So they threw the nets to the other side and began to pull so many fish into the boat that they could hardly keep the boat afloat. But by this time Peter had plunged into the sea, swimming for all his might to get to his friend on the seashore, leaving the crew on the boat to work together on the haul. When Peter lurched his way up onto the shore he headed straight for Jesus and collapsed in front of him. He saw that Jesus had already prepared a fire with burning coals and had fish and toasted bread ready for them to eat. He didn't ask Jesus how he got the fish. Jesus reached down and helped Peter into a sitting position and told him to go and get some more fish from the catch so they could make breakfast for the others. 

After they had all enjoyed breakfast together Jesus called Peter aside. He knew there were things that had to be said between them. Peter’s soul was in a turmoil of regrets, shame and guilt. Time and again he had asked himself why he didn’t stand up for Jesus instead of disowning him three times when he was asked if he knew him - and could that have made a difference? He had remembered when the rooster crowed that Jesus had predicted that he would do just that. What was Jesus going to say to him now – would Jesus disown him, even rebuke him three times? But Jesus asked Peter three times, in three different ways whether or not Peter loved him. The love of Jesus owned Peter, and Peter passionately gave himself up to the ownership of God’s love. As a true representation of a flawed humanity owned by God’s love, Peter was mercifully forgiven and accepted. It was also this moment that owned him, not the past, or the uncertainty of the future. This would also continue to be his greatest gift to God, seeking to give each moment to his loving presence. After having his spirit and soul fed with this Word of love from Jesus, repeated three times, Peter was commissioned three times to feed God’s lambs and feed his sheep. As Peter would go on in life, he would face his many imperfections, and he would learn to return to each present moment, as in that special moment, where he could surrender to the ownership of love, shed his fears, and grow in faith as a participator in God’s nature.

Jesus met with hundreds of people over those forty days, but on the final day he gathered with just over a hundred of his disciples and followers, including his mother. Jesus then took the eleven disciples aside to give them some final instructions. He told them to go into Jerusalem and to wait for Holy Spirit’s empowerment. They were to wait in the same upper room in which he celebrated the Passover feast with them the night he was taken captive. He then told them about the fulfillment of The Plan. 

Jesus explained to them that Father had always wanted to have a family of sons and daughters to share his love with them - the same way that Father had shared his love with Jesus himself. Lucifer had tried to block this Plan from the beginning of time by blinding the mind of humanity with darkness, causing a chasm of separation from the living God to exist in their minds and to devise independence in their souls. But Jesus had overpowered darkness and Holy Spirit would come to them and bring them the power of the life that he now lived. He told them he would join their lives to his risen life and they would become one in Spirit with him. Holy Spirit would take Father’s love, and his own words, and place them in the hearts of men and women, as a deep consciousness of indwelling abiding life. He told them they would together be as his body in the World, and each in their own way, gifted with grace and faith from Heaven. People and things that happened around them would change, as they themselves became more and more changed into being more like him.

A dazzling light shone within a billowing white cloud above them. Jesus turned to them all and raised his hands in blessing. He did not need to say goodbye. As he began to rise slowly heaven-wards he was enveloped in the cloud, and as they stood together looking into the cloud that had taken him they saw the shining figures of Michael and Gabriel standing to one side (Acts 1:10). Gabriel told them that the same cloud that they saw taking Jesus into eternity would also bring him back one day - in total glory and triumph, and The Plan will have been fulfilled. he End.

 

 

 

From the Grave to the Sky

When Jesus gave up his Spirit to his Father he then descended in his Spirit on a mission of great purpose. Below him was a place called Paradise, and next to Paradise was a place called Hades. Jesus had spoken about these places when he told the story of The rich man and Lazarus, the beggar. The rich man who lived sumptuously in arrogant self indulgence all of his life ended up in Hades and Lazarus who lived the life of a humble beggar ended up in Paradise, with Abraham (Luke 16:19) 

Jesus had now descended to these places. Paradise was where there were millions of souls who had been waiting for him from the beginning of time. These had lived their lives on earth in hope, many of them guided by the Commandments through Moses, but many simply by a good conscience. They were locked away from eternity till eternity would now come to get them. He would also visit Hades, the grave, the prison of lost hope.

The bible says that Jesus then preached to all those prisoners of time the message of the plan of Father, the Gospel. Father had sent Jesus into the world to set people free from the captivity of sin and to bring his New Creation life to humanity. This latter part of the mission of setting people free was one of setting prisoners free from the captivity of time, as they had waited as captives for heaven to come to them. Many listened and heard this message of freedom at this time. The Scriptures speak of this moment about Jesus.
1Peter 3:18 He died once for the sins of all sinners although he himself was innocent of any sin at any time, that he might bring us safely home to God. But though his body died, his spirit lived on, and it was in the spirit that he visited the spirits in prison and preached to them-- spirits of those who, long before in the days of Noah, had refused to listen to God, though he waited patiently for them while Noah was building the ark. Jesus would have sat with Noah, and Adam and Eve, and Moses, and Abraham and many many others in Paradise, talking and resting with them, and he was to wait there until the end of the third day.

When John writes in the book of Revelation concerning his visions and the angelic messages of the seven angels through whom Jesus speaks to the seven churches there is the declaration of Jesus having received the keys of ‘Hell and death’ 
Revelation1:17,18 Fear not; I am the first and the last: -- I am he that lives, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and I have the keys of hell and of death.
With one of the keys darkness would one day be locked away and set aside for another encounter, reserved for an appointed day at the end of time. With the other key he would now unlock the prisoners of the past from their patient pause and take many into an eternal heaven.

When Jesus turned the key of freedom in the prison gate a tremor hit the universe. Power from Father and Holy Spirit in heaven was released into and through Jesus to overcome death and the grave that changed the nature of every atom of matter in existence and brought all things that existed into a new kind of union with Christ. 
This was the beginning of the ‘power of the resurrection’, bringing all things that existed into Christ.
Colossians 1:16 He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile (bring into a state of harmony) with himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, bringing them into unity with himself by the blood of his cross. 
Prior to this moment, all of creation was separate in its state of being (a lower order of being) to the creator, the highest order of being, called ‘uncreated Being’. That consciousness mindset of separation was there, as far as humanity was concerned, in latent form, from the beginning of the creation of humanity. This conscious mindset of separation was waiting to be triggered by disobedience to the will of God, and that disobedience caused mankind to go his own way and miss the mark of going the way of God – and that is sin. 
This is known as the law of sin and death in humanity. The disobedience caused guilt and shame and separation, the death blow to relationship from us to God, but not from God to us. It was on our part, but God remained faithful. And now Jesus, who had done the work on the earth to overcome this law of sin and death through perfect obedience and perfect relationship with his Father had made a new way open for humanity to walk in God’s ways in the new law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:2). Now that our creator Jesus has joined himself to his creation in humanity we can rise above this mindset of lostness and separation called the law of sin and death. The Bible says that the whole creation is groaning for this glory to be fully manifested and that we groan within ourselves also for its complete fulfillment which will be at the end time resurrection. 
Romans 8:23 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth (the bringing forth of a New Creation) until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved.

The time came for them to leave and Jesus led them on a triumphant upward journey, to their new home, his home. The entire company was escorted by Michael and Gabriel and the hosts of angels around them, as they ascended ever upwards until they reached the earth, from where they, and Jesus most recently, had come – from the grave to the sky. There they all stopped for a brief period of time, because there were things for Jesus to do there. The first thing that he had to do was to go to his tomb where his earthly body lay in its shroud. Michael and Gabriel flew before Jesus to the tomb and found the guards there that the temple priests had appointed to stand watch at the tomb. As the angels alighted the ground shook and the massive stone rolled away as a huge burst of lightning hit the place sending the guards reeling headlong to the ground. They leapt up in fright and bolted. Jesus entered his tomb and united himself again to the wounded shell of his body, leaving the headpiece and shroud lying separated from one another in the tomb (John 20:7). 

Michael and Gabriel waited inside the tomb while Jesus walked bodily from the temporary resting place, out into the garden. He walked about, recalling vividly the events that had so recently taken place nearby. He remembered his time of kneeling in an agony of prayer, when he accepted his cup of unbearable suffering. 
A very strange thing was also happening in other parts of Jerusalem. Hundreds of souls who had just accompanied Jesus from below and who had recently died were making the briefest of appearances to their loved ones. 
Matthew 27:52. And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had died were raised up and came out of the tombs after his resurrection, and they went into the holy city and appeared to many.

At that same time some women had prepared oils and spices to anoint Jesus’ body. On their way to the tomb they were discussing the problem of how to move the huge stone that covered the entrance. When they arrived they were astonished to see that it had been moved and the guards were nowhere to be seen. They peered inside the tomb and were met by the majestic appearance of Michael and Gabriel, sitting in the place where Jesus had been laying.

”Are you looking for Jesus? Gabriel said. He has come back to life as he said he would. Go and tell the disciples that he will be coming to see them, and that they are to wait for him in Galilee.”

The women ran to tell the disciples but one of them dropped behind and walked slowly through the garden, still confused and weeping. She almost collided with Jesus who was also walking in the garden, and she apologized, not recognizing him, thinking he was the gardener. This was Mary Magdalene. And he called her by her name and said,“ It's alright Mary, it's me, it really is.”

When she recognized him she ran towards him but he held up his hand and said, “Please do not hold me because I cannot be touched until I have presented the complete offering of my body and blood to my Father (Leviticus 23:9-16). I will be back with you very soon, so go and tell the others.”

Jesus then regrouped with all those he had set free and the magnificent procession began to move in splendour with its escort of glorious angels, from the grave to the sky. As their ascension took them closer and closer to the throne room a mighty voice could be heard proclaiming his majestic entrance;
Psalm 24:7-10 Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come in. 
Who is this King of glory? 
The LORD, strong and mighty, the LORD, mighty in battle!

At this command the heavenly music began. The sound of thousands of pipes, the voices of hundreds of harmonies, the deepest of vibrating bass and the ascending range of every stringed instrument created a majestic symphony.  The cascading melody and the volumes of resonance pulsed with rhythm, flooding and receding in this moment of triumph. Jesus had come home.

Hebrews 1:3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he sustains everything in the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high…
This was the moment, purification for sin had been made and now everything in the Universe was upheld by his power.

Ephesians 1:19-21. how vibrant and powerful is that divine energy that comes from God to us when we simply believe that he is the creator and generator of this supernatural power 20. Which exploded into reality when he raised Jesus from the dead and took him into heaven to sit next to him at his right hand. 21. This heavenly place and position took Jesus as God and man above any other force or realm of authority that can be named, whether on earth or in the heavens…and he has become the center of all consequence and meaning in the universe.

Father led Jesus to a throne in the throne room, and sat him at his right hand, where the most glorious of all crowns was placed upon his head, which still bore the marks of the cruel wreath of thorns from his flogging. All the angels and all those who had come with him on the upward journey beheld their king in his place of honor. Those of the faithful company who had waited throughout time also took their places of honor in their new home and joined in the magnificent celebration. Jesus’ time in heaven for these celebrations was momentary, as he had left the tomb just before dawn and had to return to earth that same day. He would now spend forty days on earth as a witness to his resurrection, to seal The Plan of his Father and see it implemented for the rest of time. At the end of those forty days he would return to Heaven, to begin his new mission upon the planet. After that he would wait for ten more days before sending Holy Spirit to begin the new mission of the ‘Spirit of life in Christ Jesus’

Holy Spirit had accompanied Jesus every moment of his life on earth. He had joined himself to the human spirit of Jesus and had felt every feeling that Jesus had felt. He had known every one of his thoughts, and he had communicated every thought from Father God to him. Those thoughts became words in Jesus mouth, and Spirit caused those words to have life and power to all who heard Jesus speak. In this way Holy Spirit had also experienced life within humanity on the earth. In fifty days after his resurrection (Pentecost pente=fifty), and after Jesus had returned  back  to  heaven  Holy  Spirit  would  become  the  bond between heaven and earth for all time. He would fall like rain from heaven upon the souls of mankind, seeking to awaken the spirit of humanity to the cosmic truth of what Jesus had done in joining mankind to God. This would now become the mission of God, Father Son and Holy Spirit, in Heaven and on earth.

Within the contradiction of the experience that we call human life, there would exist at one and the same time the cry for, and the resistance to, the oneness of spirit with God for which mankind was created. And within the human pain of this struggle would be found the cry of Holy Spirit wrestling to join the minds and hearts of people to God. This struggle and wrestle would exist throughout time as the Spiritual energy of God’s love that would never cease its activity in the hearts of humanity. It would be the sign of the divine heart exercising its love in the subduing of human nature that it might resonate with the nature of God. Whenever this truth would be embraced by a human heart, that heart would at last find itself at home, around the Family table, where it was destined eternally to be. To be continued.

(Excerpt from ‘The Plan’ – Paul O’Sullivan – Sydney, Australia)

 

From the Cross to the Grave

Pontius Pilate asked the Centurion to command an escort of guards around Jesus to take him to Calvary, or Golgotha, which means The place of the Skull. One of the Centurion's men put the beam on Jesus' bleeding shoulder as they left the yard and went into the crowded street. The already large crowd continued to grow, some of them followers and friends, others bitter enemies, and yet others who were just confused and angry. Jesus staggered and buckled under the weight of the beam but he continued to drag it behind him. It was the custom to write a description of the crime committed on a clay plate and fix it to the top of the cross. Pontius Pilate had written an inscription that read, “THE KING OF THE JEWS”
An angry voice called out above the crowd “Who wrote that stupid inscription?” 
One of the temple priests shouted back “It should say ‘He said he was king of the Jews’”
Pilate stepped forward  “I wrote that inscription and it stays  as  it  is,”.

A few paces further on Jesus staggered again but this time fell headlong to the ground. Some women rushed forward to help him and the Centurion recognized Mary, as she tried to reach out and help her son and he was touched with compassion for her. He could see blood flowing freely from Jesus now and he knew that he had to keep him on his feet. He must not let Jesus die here on the street. A burly lumbering man who, by the look of his clothing was visiting from some other region, kept close by Jesus as he stumbled forward, and the man balked now and again, as if to reach out and grasp hold of the beam, only to pull back. The Centurion called out to the man.
“You, help him. He is too weak to carry that on his own.”
The man from Cyrene leapt forward and took the beam. The peace that surged through his heart overcame the strain of the heavy burden, as he strode on into endless time. The trek to Calvary, with its frequent stops took just under an hour from the time the Centurion picked Jesus up in the yard. The process of crucifixion had begun, but it would take many more hours on Calvary for Jesus to die.

John saw Mary walking falteringly up an incline with her companions and he went over and helped her. She saw him coming, and turning, she reached her hand out for him to help her up the slope. Mary asked John to stay close by her, and he assured her that he would. 
John didn’t know where the others were - he just knew that they were hanging back from the crowd a little, and like them he did not comprehend the fulness of what Jesus actually wanted to achieve - Their beloved leader whom they didn’t fully know how to follow.

As John and Mary reached the flat terrain at the top of Calvary they could hear the dull clink of hammers beating against metal, bone, and timber, mingled with the muffled sound of pain. Two other criminals were already hanging on crosses either side of the hole where Jesus pole was to be fixed, but these two men were tied to their crosses, not nailed. Jesus was finally hoisted up and then the pole was crudely dumped into the hole prepared for it. Some time was spent securing its placement so that it stood erect and stable in the rocky ground. A range of utterances rushed from the mouths of people standing watching when the cross fell into place and when the nails tugged on the body they were pinned into. Some of the sounds were stifled cries of shock and dismay while others were more like startled yells of alarm. But overriding these noises was the swelling chant of taunts and slogans coming from the crowd.
Then the priests and the leaders of the Jews joined in the chant. “You were pretty good at saving others, but you can’t even save yourself.  If you are the Promised One, our Messiah, then come on down from that cross and prove it to us. Weren’t you going to pull down our temple and rebuild it again in three days? Well why not get yourself down from that cross?”

John winced when he heard Jesus splutter as a soldier tried to push a sponge of sour wine and myrrh into Jesus' mouth. Jesus turned his face aside and refused the swab. Centurion ordered the soldier away and the man joined the other soldiers who were throwing dice to see who was going to keep Jesus’ robe. Dust was spitting itself into peoples' faces on this strangest of days and gusts of wind blew as storm clouds raced faster than usual across the sky, causing a flickering of sunshine and deep shadow. As Jesus hung there the criminals beside him were weakening, groaning in their pain, when one of them turned to Jesus. He had earlier on joined the choir of obscenity, picking up the ugly chant with gusto. He now wanted to have his last few words of bravado heard in this dark prison of life and death he had made for himself.
“They're telling you to get yourself down, but how about us? That would be a real miracle, even I would believe you.” He was delighted with the impression this made on the crowd, as they clapped and cheered him, but the man on the other side shouted at him angrily.”
“Are you mad? Don't you even fear God? Don't you know who this is? We deserve to be here but he doesn’t. He has never done a wrong thing.” He then turned to Jesus and said.
“Lord, will you remember me when you are in your mighty kingdom?” Jesus turned his head and looked at him with love and said,
“Today you are coming home with me to Paradise.

John put his arm around Mary's shoulders as she looked on, with tears rolling down her cheeks and her countenance numbed from all expression. John tried to shield Mary from watching but she pulled away from him. She remembered tending his little body when he was a baby, that life that was part of her life. It was then that Jesus looked down at his mother standing next to John. He spoke to her through parched lips.
“Mother let him be your son.” His head then turned towards John.  Mary looked at John and clung on to his arm.
“Son let her be your mother.”
John stood with her and watched her son's life draining from him. As they stood shielding their faces from the biting dust that came in bursts, and their eyes from the intermittent dazzle of the sun, they were astonished to see the sun dimmed and the dazzle become a weak gleam. High noon surrendered to a deep darkness which remained for three full hours. Darkness took over that day, in those last hours and put a stop to some things. Shouts of bravado that just moments ago would have roused bold echoes now hung hollow in the still air, and those mockers that had stood close to the action at the foot of the cross now slid back into the crowd.

Lucifer was watching from the headquarters of darkness above, waiting impatiently to hurl darkness at the one who was the sum of all goodness and light upon the earth. His darkness would have to wait its turn in the gloom for three more hours. Even the carrion crows and the ravens hung in the air queuing up to eat, because it was the tradition to leave the bodies hanging on the crosses to rot. Lucifer was exhilarated with the absolute certainty of this impending triumph, and he desperately wanted to close this chapter, shut the book and throw it onto the vast heap of his destruction. His plan was to attack the mind of Jesus, that place in all of humanity which he had chosen as his battleground. He would attempt to wrench all hope from his heart and plunge him into despair, where he assumed that Jesus would have no way back into his hope or his faith, let alone his love.

There were Angels suspended within this pall of sadness that shrouded the desolation below as Heaven waited in eternity and three hours of darkness passed on earth.

Then Lucifer shot himself like a dart into the one that hung between two criminals on a lonely plateau of the place of the Skull. The gigantic spirit of Jesus absorbed the full impact of Satan as all hell's hateful fury hit him, and as every vile thing ever done by countless millions of crippled hearts down through the ages and for the ages to come assailed his being. Thunder cracked and the earth began to shake. The magnitude of this kind of collision, the sum of all sin hitting the sum of all innocence, shakes all created things.. 
A swirling sea of fear clawed at him and sought to pull him under but Jesus hoisted his faith above the fear with absolute trust in his Father's love. His great spirit swallowed every vile accusation that Satan hurled at him, and he took them all into himself and locked them safely within his vault of perfect love. He owned it all. He had become the reservoir of all evil in one moment of time, yet he was completely innocent of any one wrong deed. So he rallied his strength once more, but another missile of horror careened into him more powerfully and more deadly than anything before, sweeping over him and submerging him into an impotence and a canceling of all hope. It was black and fathomless, nothingness. It was like annihilation. This was the cup that he told Father he would accept, but he did not know it would be like this. He called out to Father;
“Father, Father, why have you forsaken me?”
The source of this horrific thought was not Father God, but darkness had assailed the human heart of Jesus, the Son of Man, of the lineage of David, and in an instant he knew the answer to his question. He had not been forsaken by his Father, but in his humanity he had experienced forsakenness for a moment, so that no living soul from this time on would ever have to feel forsaken by God again because of their human weakness. He was actually living out the prophetic fulfilment of the first verse of Psalm 22 spoken by David. 
From this first verse and through many of the next nineteen verses David prophesied the agony of Jesus as Son of Man upon the cross, with such utterances as;
7. All who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads;
“He trusts in the LORD; let him deliver him; let him rescue him, for he delights in him!”
Yet you are he who took me from the womb, you made me trust you at my mother's breasts.
On you was I cast from my birth, and from my mother's womb you have been my God.
Be not far from me, for trouble is near, and there is none to help. They open wide their mouths at me,
like a ravening and roaring lion. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint;
my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast; my strength is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death.
For dogs encompass me; a company of evildoers encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet—
I can count all my bones—
they stare and gloat over me; they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots…

And then we see the within the agony of the Son of Man the resurgent faith of the Son of God declaring in the following verses;
19. But you, O LORD, do not be far off! O you my help, come quickly to my aid!... Save me from the mouth of the lion! You have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen!
I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you:
You who fear the LORD, praise him! All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him, and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel! For he has not despised or forsaken the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him. 
As he hung there he embraced the tragic weakness of humanity and touched the feelings of forsakenness for every human soul throughout all ages. The vast bank of love that filled heaven filled his heart and went out to a beloved humanity. He looked at the mocking faces standing round the cross and he loved them. He sent his voice into a waiting heaven and cried out.
“Father forgive them – they don’t know what they are doing.”
He had done it. It was finished. The Plan OF SALVATION could now be put into effect.

Jesus had something more to say but his throat felt parched and he wanted to speak with strength.
“I'm thirsty,” he croaked out.
The Centurion, who was ever there on duty, called the soldier over who had shoved the sponge in Jesus' face earlier.
“Give him the wine sponge” he ordered.
The soldier jumped to the command and put the sponge up on a pole to Jesus, who could now say loudly and clearly what had to be said in his last moments.
“Father into your hands I now offer my Spirit.”
Then in one last gasp he shouted loudly for all about him to hear. “It is finished!”
Then he died. And he and we were placed securely in The Father's loving hands.

Who brought about the death of Jesus? Was it Jesus, His Father, The Jews, The Romans, our sin? All of these played very significant parts, and there are Scriptures for each of their roles. But it was finally Jesus;

John 10:15… and I lay down My life for the sheep… 17. Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This command I have received from My Father.”
John 12:23 But Jesus answered them, saying, “The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.

At the moment of his death the cosmos convulsed. An earthquake tore a searing gash into the mountainside and people were toppled off their feet. Rocks split apart and the graves and tombs on a nearby hill cracked open. People ran in fear from the place, but they did not know where to go. At that moment there were priests in the temple about to sacrifice the Passover lamb. At the very moment that the knife pierced the sacrificial animal the priests were thrown off their feet by the earthquake. The temple shook as huge stones fell from the parapets and the great veil in the temple proper, which separated the place of God’s presence from the rest of the temple was lightning torn from top to bottom. The priests fled in panic as tempest swirled through the city.

Lucifer’s dark mind was being assaulted by a force he had not felt before. It was a desperate feeling of failure and futility. What was going wrong? Jesus was dying with a magnificent hope, not a dark and dreadful despair. The offering of Jesus’ spirit to Father God had released a tangible power into the universe. Lucifer turned to the three dark archons who always accompanied him and shouted. “Let's get out of here, something’s wrong.” He tried to flee back into the darkness but a huge bolt of lightning from the throne room gathered him up and catapulted him downwards. He was traveling face down at a furious speed, and for a split second he thought he saw a burning lake beneath him. It struck him with horror, and he believed he must have imagined it. He was turned on his back and drawn up with the same speed into the darkness above, and then turned back onto his face as he found himself again being plummeted downwards.

The carrion crows were in for a disappointment that day. They were not to know that the next day was the Sabbath, and that it was against temple law for dead bodies to be left hanging on a holy day, so all the criminals had to be dead before sundown and taken off their crosses. The two criminals who were tied to their crosses were still a long way from death so Centurion had his men break their legs that they would die quickly. The Centurion then had the task of ascertaining if Jesus was indeed dead. He called over one of his guards.
“Give me a lance,” he commanded.
He took the shaft and instructed the guard on how to plunge it into Jesus body, under his heart, where the pericardial sac would have amassed his body fluids if he had expired. Water gushed out and the Centurion knew the day's work was done. He knew that this man was indeed the Son of God.

Pilate had received a report that Jesus was dead but he wanted to confirm the certainty of this from the Centurion whom he knew was there at the time.  This was because Pilate had been told that someone from Arimathea, a man called Joseph, was making arrangements for the burial. The Centurion confirmed all this and that also this Joseph was a very wealthy man and wanted Jesus buried in his own tomb that had just been hewn out in a prestigious place in Jerusalem, practically in the temple itself. He told Pilate that some women followers had a shroud prepared and anointing oils and spices.

Pilate asked if Jesus had to be clubbed to death, and the Centurion said no, and explained that they we had to club the others, the ones who were tied, but not Jesus who was nailed, and that it was hardly surprising after the beating he was given. He told Pilate that Jesus died without them breaking one bone of his body.
(Psalm 3:20 He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken.)
Early the next day Pontius Pilate received a visit from the leaders of the temple priests and lawgivers who were anxious that the followers of Jesus might conspire to take his body from the tomb and try to fabricate a story that he had been resurrected, because they had heard that he had said he would come back to life after three days. They insisted that guards be placed at the tomb to prevent this from happening. Pilate advised them to appoint their own temple guards at the tomb, and they agreed to this.

So now we go from the cross to the grave.

The Prince of Darkness now realized that this man’s body, which had just been destroyed on Calvary had contained no fault or sin, and therefore could no longer be kept captive in this lower world. Jesus again recalled what had been written in the Psalms. You will not let my soul rest in the grave, you will not let your Holy One see destruction. (Psalm 16:10)

As Jesus hung on the cross and offered his spirit to his Father he felt his spirit being lifted up above his body. From there he saw the scene on Calvary and all the people standing around, still looking at his dead body hanging on the cross, and he saw the Centurion call for the lance. He also saw the bolt of lightning and Lucifer being caught in it and hurled downwards. He then began to travel downwards himself, and knew he was on a mission of great purpose. Below him was a place called Paradise, and next to Paradise was a place called Hades (Luke 16:19). 

Jesus descended to these places. Paradise was where there were millions of souls who had been waiting for him from the beginning of time. These had lived their lives on earth in hope, many of them guided by the Commandments through Moses, but many simply by a good conscience. They were locked away from eternity till eternity would now come to get them. He would also visit Hades, the grave, the prison of lost hope.

Lucifer had thought that all he had to do was get Jesus killed as a human being and Jesus would then be forever locked away from human life and from God life. When darkness entered our world at the fall of man human beings began to live spiritually separated in their minds from the Life of God (Ephesians 4:17). So Lucifer had laid claim to the ownership of physical death and spiritual separation of every human being. From that time of separation the Prince of darkness, the Prince of the power of the air, the god of this world, held sway over the minds of men (Ephesians 2:2). But death and spiritual separation could not demand payment for something it did not own. It did not own the perfection of the sinless life of the very virtue of God resident in Jesus’ body. The moment Jesus died the cosmic law of sin and death was being overturned to make way for a new cosmic law to soon come into effect, The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. This would be the new Law of Life for humanity, joined as one Spirit to God’s Spirit, a New Creation life for a people who would live by faith and not by sight, not in the false self with its mindset of separation but living as the True Self in the Spirit, with a conscious mindset of Oneness with Jesus, through the Holy Spirit. To be continued…

 

Mystery of suffering

Paul’s mission in life started as a religious mission for the Jewish religion and ended up becoming a spiritual mission for the whole of humanity. As Saul the Jewish Pharisee his mission was one of persecuting Christians wherever he could find them. 
We see the record of the transformation of the religious mission of Saul into the spiritual mission of Paul in the Book of Acts. It is the account of him going to Damascus one day to get Christians and to haul them back to Jerusalem for imprisonment and punishment and death, when he gets struck down by a blinding flash of light out of the sky.
Act 9: 4 When Saul fell to the ground he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” And Paul said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting (to cause suffering and even death).
6. Astonished and shaken up by what had happened to him he said ‘Lord what do you want me to do?’ The Lord said ‘Get up and go into the city and I will tell you what you have to do.’
7. The men who had been travelling with him stood by, speechless, because they heard a voice but did not see anyone.
8. Saul then picked himself up off the ground and when he opened his eyes he found he couldn’t see a thing, so his companions had to lead him by the hand into Damascus.
9. He stayed blind for three days, and neither ate nor drank anything the whole time.10. The Lord then spoke to a man called Ananias in a vision, and said ‘Ananias’, and he answered ‘ I am here Lord’.
11. The Lord said ‘Get up and go to Straight Street, to the house of Judas, and ask for a man called Saul, whom you will find praying.
12. Saul has seen you in a vision, coming in to lay hands on him, so that he might get his sight back again.’
13. Ananias answered,’ Lord I have heard about this man from many people, and how much evil and destruction he has brought upon the Christians in Jerusalem.
14. And he has obtained authority here in Damascus from the chief priests to imprison anyone who calls upon your name.
15. The Lord answered him ‘So do now what I have told you, because he is a chosen vessel of mine, to bear my name before the nations, and before kings, and the children of Israel.
16. I want to show him how many things he must suffer for my name’s sake.
17. Ananias did as he was told and went into the house and laid hands upon Saul and said ‘ Brother Saul the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on your journey here has sent me to you for you to receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit
18. Straightaway it was as though scales fell from his eyes and he could see. He stood up and became baptized.

Jesus had just asked Paul ‘Why are you causing me suffering?’
Saul did not realise it at the time, but Jesus was telling him that by his persecuting the Christians and causing them such suffering, he was actually causing Jesus to feel the same suffering that they were going through. Whatever feelings of sadness or grief that they went through, he did too, and whatever feelings of joy and peace and love and compassion that Jesus felt, they could touch those feelings too, deep within their hearts, spirit to Spirit. 
Saul did not yet know or understand this profound and beautiful mystery so Paul’s first question to Jesus was ‘Who are you Lord?’ 

He then asked Jesus ‘What do you want me to do?’
We read that Paul was given an interesting job description by Ananias – suffering – and to bear the name of Jesus before nations and Kings and the Children of Israel, for their transformation. For the rest of his life Paul would live a journey of the unfolding revelation of who this man was, who as God, felt the deep inner sufferings of all those who called him by his name. 

This was to become the purpose and reason for living for Paul, that he might know him, this man Jesus, and to know that this man had suffered for him, and that this man knew him as he truly was, in his deepest feelings.  Paul would come to know that this was to become a two-way thing, this fellowship of one another’s sufferings and feelings, both sad and glad, that this bond of loving friendship would grow and last forever, that this was the reason for the creation of and the ongoing existence of all of humanity from, and for, all time. 
Paul accepted this invitation of a life of shared suffering. Paul shares in his epistles the  many things he suffered outwardly in his body in his ministry to the nations, to kings and to Israel, and at a deeper level he shares the things he suffered inwardly. He tells us he was afflicted in every way, but not crushed, perplexed, but not driven to despair, persecuted, but not forsaken (2Corinthians 4:8). In each of these sufferings, the affliction, the perplexity and the persecution he states that he was able to transcend these things. 
How was this? 
It was because he had a Friend with him, the man Jesus Christ, who shared every feeling of vulnerability with him and gave him not only comfort and solidarity, but who, because of their shared life of the Holy Spirit within, Paul received Divine strength. 
This was the way Paul came to have his question answered of ‘who are you Lord’ and this understanding of ‘who are you Lord’ gives every one of us the answers to all the questions that can be asked.

The first question that God asked anyone in the Bible was ‘Where are you Adam?’
This was because Adam and Eve had listened to the serpent by disobeying God’s commandment about eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil they went their own way into darkness and independence and they felt shame and guilt and separation from God. They were told by darkness  ‘don’t trust God to deal out what is good for you, instead work out what you want for yourselves that is good for you – more power and freedom and independence, fame and glory, all by yourselves because you really don’t need God any more.

God pursued them into their dark hiding from him and from themselves and said ‘Where are you Adam? Where are you Eve? Where are my friends that used to want to walk with me every day?’ 
God is still looking for that friendship.
God knows where to find us now – He finds us in the spirit to spirit, heart to heart, mind to mind, will with will, friendship with Jesus.
They ate from the wrong tree. They had sinned, ‘missed the mark’ (Hamartia – sin). Humanity missed the mark then and still does. Missing the mark was walking away from a trusting and loving friendship with God. The Bible is clear that we all would have done that same thing.
but one day the right tree would be offered to us all freely – Jesus, the Tree of Life. 
Then we would be able to hit the mark, not just the recovering of the walking in the garden like Adam and Eve, but being one with God in Christ, in a perfect friendship. That is the mark, the target, the goal. It always was and always will be. When we miss that mark we bring upon ourselves all of the unnecessary hurt and pain and suffering in this world of ours.

Through Jesus, that tree of life, there would come a New Covenant of grace and mercy and forgiveness. The New Covenant shows us how we can come to know God and have that loving trusting friendship with him forever.
Hebrews 8:10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts,
(This is the heart to heart, mind to mind, will with will, understanding of the core inner values for loving relationships between us and God, and us and one another, like not stealing from one another, or cheating, lying, violence and anger, unfaithfulness and, coveting etc. These things no longer separate us from God but through the Holy Spirit, are transformed into virtues as we trustingly share with him our failures and weaknesses in these areas and know we have forgiveness and mercy – a taker becomes a giver and unfaithful becomes faithful. … 
they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.
For I will be merciful toward their unrighteousness (human failings),
and I will remember their sins no more.” 
All of the blessings of the new Covenant come when we aim in the right direction for the right target (and hit the mark).

When Paul wrote to his favorite church, the Philippians, he addressed them as ‘My brothers and sisters whom I love and long for, my joy and crown…’who shared in my  
needs and my distress above all other churches’ (Phil 4:1,14). Paul’s feelings of love and compassion for these people who were dear to him are on display here, and so is his open hearted vulnerability as he acknowledges their compassion for him in his distress and his needs. This is where lives can touch one another, even from a distance. He goes on to share with them this same heart for togetherness in his quest for knowing Christ and sharing in the fellowship of his sufferings.
Philippians 3:10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship (koinonia – partnership, sharing, communion) of His sufferings (pathema, pathos- the deepest feelings, passions of the human heart), becoming like him in the form and pattern of His death and dying, if by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

When Paul said ‘That I might know him, and the fellowship of his suffering, he was not just stoically accepting or looking for suffering, he understood that he was touching the feelings and emotions, of Jesus as both God and as a human being, and that is how he got to know God. Paul continually experienced The Holy Spirit working deeply with his spirit in this mutual understanding or compassion. The word compassion simply means ‘common passions’ or shared feelings and sufferings.

And just like Paul, we get to realize that God is deeply compassionate and profoundly tender and infinitely patient and that he waits for us to bring our feelings to him and to share them with him and to realize that he has felt them himself and understands them. And in the meantime he never stops unfolding to us who he is. We can then find grace to understand more clearly the sufferings of others, to bring the compassion and comfort that brings healing to our souls. That kind of healing grace and love puts God on display in the sharing of our lives together.

When Paul saw that that this bond of loving friendship would grow and last forever, and that this was the reason for the creation of and the ongoing existence of all of humanity from before all time and for all time, he determined to make this his goal in life. As Paul hit the mark in this way he was continually amazed at what God did to display his supernatural power towards him and through him. He learned to accept the sufferings of his outward life, giving thanks in all things as he became continually renewed in his inner life of faith and hope and love. This is the life to which we too are invited to share.
This is hitting the mark, and it is with the assurance that we are not alone. We have Jesus with us and we have one another, and for this we give thanks. Amen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mystery of One in Christ

About 2000 years before Jesus was born God took Abraham and Sarah and chose them to be the parents of a Nation and a culture that he would set aside to reveal himself to, and for about 1500 of those 2000 years that Nation would be trained up in the Jewish religion.
God invested his love and wisdom and truth and power and discipline into them. It was as if a nation were kidnapped and put in custody for 2000 years as a test case for humanity under the caring government of a true and just God.

They represented, in their good and bad responses and reactions to God’s investment in them, how the rest of humanity in its entirety would respond and react to a God who would claim them all in due time by joining his life to ours in the person of Jesus Christ, the Jewish Messiah. He wants to reveal himself to all of us and invest his love and wisdom and truth and power and Fatherly discipline in all of us. Humanity in total has always been the object of God’s passionate love, and when the Jewish Christ/Messiah was born into the earth he brought the fulness of God into all of humanity, not just from that time and into the future, but also redemptively all the way back to Adam and Eve and Noah and Abraham. After Jesus died on the cross he took the keys of hell and death in his resurrection and opened the gates of Heaven for all those people that existed before Christ’s death. 
The Scriptures are clear; We have always been in his sights, but unfortunately he is not always in ours.
The apostle Paul grew up in the Jewish religion as a true authority in the Way of the Jewish faith. He was then taken by Christ to become the true authority to the rest of humanity in the new Way of the mystery of Christ/Messiah. 

Paul understood the profound differences between us all and yet the stark sameness of us all. He speaks to us about himself, who once thought as a child and then grew up to think as one who has come of age. As a very small child we all have the potential to become formed into whatever national and cultural and religious traditions and temperamental thinking it is that grows us. 

Is it any wonder that as adults we all contend with each other about what is right and wrong concerning just about any aspect of our adult perceptions of spiritual reality and truth?
This is why Paul wrote to the Church in Rome which had Christians from every national and cultural and religious persuasion on earth and was able to say;

Romans 14:1 Welcome with open arms fellow believers who don't see things the way you do. And don't jump all over them every time they do or say something you don't agree with—even when it seems that they are strong on opinions but weak in the faith department. Remember, they have their own history to deal with. Treat them gently.

Let us look at Paul’s journey of experiencing the almost humanly impossible pathway of getting everyone to agree with his understanding of the mystery of being One in Christ. After He had dramatically succeeded in converting non-Jews from all over Asia Minor and Greece into the mystery of Christ in us and us in him, through the Gospel, he determines to go to Jerusalem to persuade the Jews to believe in his revelation of God through Jesus Christ their Messiah.

 

ACTS CHAPTER 21 – THE ACCOUNT OF LUKE, THE FELLOW TRAVELLER OF PAUL 
1.And so, after the tearful good-byes of the Ephesians, we were on a ship and on our way. 
3. Cyprus came into view on our left but was soon out of sight as our ship kept on course for Syria, and eventually docked in the port of Tyre, to unload its cargo there. 4 After we located the Christian disciples there, we stayed with them for seven days. They repeatedly told Paul through the Spirit not to set foot in Jerusalem, 
10 and after we had been there for a number of days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. 
11 He came to us, took Paul’s belt, tied his own hands and feet with it, and said, The Holy Spirit says this: This is the way the Jews in Jerusalem will tie up the man whose belt this is, and will hand him over to the Romans and the Greeks.  
12 When we heard this, both we and the local people begged him not to go up to Jerusalem. 14 But because he could not be persuaded, we said no more, except, The Lord’s will be done.
17 When we arrived in Jerusalem, our Christian brothers welcomed us gladly. 
18 The next day Paul went in with us to see James, and all the apostles were there. 
19 When Paul had greeted them, he began to explain in detail what God had done among the non-Jews through his ministry. 
20 When they heard this, they praised God, then straightaway said to him, but do you see how many thousands of Jews there are who have believed, and are still all ardent observers of the law?
21 They have been informed about you- that you teach all the Jews now living among the Gentiles to abandon Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or to live according to our customs. 
(They then proceeded to pressure Paul to act like a good Jew and Paul understood this, as he later explains in 1 Corinthians 9:19…I became as a Jew under the Law to the Jews and a Gentile without the Law to the non-Jews not under the Law in order that I may win them to Christ I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some) – Then they speak sternly to Paul …
23 So do what we tell you: We have four men here who have taken a religious vow; 
24 take them and purify yourself along with them and pay their expenses for them to have all your heads shaved. Then everyone will know there is nothing in what they have been told about you, but that you yourself live in conformity with the law. 
27 When the seven days were almost over, some visiting Jews from the province of Asia who had seen him in the temple area stirred up the whole crowd and seized him, 
28 shouting, Men of Israel, help! This is the man who teaches everyone everywhere against our people, our Jewish law, and this holy temple! Furthermore he has brought Greeks into the inner courts of the temple and made this holy place ritually unclean!
31 Violence broke out and while they were attempting to kill him, a report was sent up to the commanding Roman officer of the garrison that all Jerusalem was in uproar and confusion. 
32 The commanding officer immediately took soldiers and centurions and ran down to the crowd and rescued Paul.
37 As Paul was being bundled by the soldiers into the barracks, he said in Greek to the commanding officer, May I have a word with you? The officer replied, Do you know Greek? 
38 Then you’re not that Egyptian who started a rebellion and led the four thousand men of the Assassins into the wilderness some time ago? 
39 Paul answered, no, I am a Jew from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of an important city. Please allow me to speak to the Jewish people. 
40 When the commanding officer had given him permission, Paul went and stood on the steps and gestured to the people with his hand. They had become silent, and when he addressed them in Hebrew, they kept all the more silent.

CHAPTER 22
1. My Brothers, listen to my defence that I now make to you.  
3. I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated with strictness under your teacher Gamaliel according to the law of our ancestors, and was zealous for God just as all of you are today. 
4. I persecuted this Way of Christ/Messiah even to the point of death, tying up both men and women and putting them in prison, 5 as both the high priest and the whole council of elders can testify about me because I received from them letters to the officials in Damascus, to bring Christian prisoners who were there back to Jerusalem to be punished.
6. as I journeyed and came near Damascus at about noon, suddenly a great light from heaven shone around me. 
7. And I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?’ So I answered, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And He said to me, ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting.’… (The story goes on to mention Paul being made blind and the disciple Ananias praying over him and him receiving the Holy Spirit and his sight being returned…)
17.  “Now it happened, when I returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, that I was in a trance and saw Him, Jesus Messiah  saying to me, ‘Make haste and get out of Jerusalem quickly, for they will not receive your testimony concerning Me.’ 
So I said, ‘Lord, they know that in every synagogue I imprisoned and beat those who believe on You. And when the blood of Your martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing by consenting to his death, and guarding the clothes of those who were killing him.’ 
24. Then He said to me, ‘Depart now, for I will send you far from here to the Gentiles (the non-Jews.) And they all listened to him until that was said, and then the Jewish men raised their voices and shouted, Away with this man from the earth! For he should not be allowed to live! 
25 When they had bound him and stretched him out for the lash, Paul said to the Roman centurion standing nearby, Is it legal for you to lash a man who is a Roman citizen without a proper trial?
27 So the commanding officer of the Roman garrison was summonsed again, and asked Paul, Tell me, are you a Roman citizen? He replied, ‘Yes I am’.
30. He then brought Paul down and stood him before the Jewish religious council.

CHAPTER 23
Paul looked directly at the council and said, My Brothers, I have lived my life with a clear conscience before God to this day. 
2 At that the high priest Ananias ordered those standing near Paul to punch him in the mouth.
 3 Then Paul said to him, God is going to strike you, you whitewashed wall! Do you sit there judging me according to the law? In ordering me to be struck you are in violation of the law yourself. 
4 Those standing near him said, Do you dare insult Gods high priest? 
5 Paul replied, I did not realize, brothers, that he was the high priest, for I know what is written, ‘You must not speak evil about a ruler of your people’ – Sorry!
6 Then when Paul noticed that part of them were Sadducees and the others Pharisees, he shouted out in the council, Brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. I am on trial concerning the hope of the resurrection of the dead! 
7 When he said this, an argument began between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided because the Pharisees believed in the resurrection of the body and things of the Spirit, and the Sadducees did not.
10 When the argument became so great that the Roman commanding officer feared they would tear Paul to pieces, he ordered the detachment to go down and take him away from them by force and bring him into the barracks for his own safety.
11 The following night the Lord stood near Paul and said ‘Cheer up Paul, for just as you have testified about me here in Jerusalem, you will likewise testify about me in Rome’.

I can just imagine Paul trying to smile while thanking the Lord and thinking to himself; ’So this is as good as it gets!’ But deep down he knew it was destined to be better than this. Paul knew the greatness and goodness of Christ, and Paul never gave up. 
That is why Paul was able to write;
Galatians 3:28 In Christ's family We are no longer Jews or Greeks or slaves or free or even male or female, but we are all the same; we are One in Christ Jesus.
No longer Jews or Greeks resolves the perplexity about racism, and no longer slaves or free resolves the perplexity about entitlement and privilege, and no longer male or female even resolves the perplexity about gender equivalence. And all the perceptions and the felt experiences of hurt and misunderstanding about all of these are resolved in our faith consciousness of being One in Christ - all humanity in harmony with God in Christ – the ultimate intention. 

These grievous problems are not only a bewildering predicament of our human society throughout history, they are awkward unsolved puzzles that have weakened the church’s testimony of unity and justice and compassion to the world, especially when the Church has been given the very Spirit of wisdom and grace to model the answer everywhere – our Oneness in Christ. 

Our humanity seems to be hardwired from an early stage in life to detect unfamiliar differences in people other than what we grew up with, and to be cautious about anything that falls too far away from under our tree, and that is not unusual. But with maturity and wise guidance and an openness of heart and mind we can learn to appreciate the practicality and harmony of the blending of our differences that reveal to us that we are really all very much the same in so many ways and indeed we have need of one another in those differences. 
Paul wrote that very thing to the church in Corinth.
1Corinthians 12:12 The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ. Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit.
God sees and appreciates those differences us in, which he himself planned for us to have, and to be expressed through his Spirit. He sees you just the same as everyone else. We see the differences and contend with each other even in the finest shades of differences of opinions or practice. 

Jesus knows each one of us intimately, Spirit to spirit, human to human. He understands
the unique potential and aspirations we each have, and the misunderstandings and the hurts we have all suffered, and the suffering perhaps that we have caused to others. 
So to repeat the last part of the Scripture I read before in Paul’s letter to the Romans about us seeing with understanding the enormous diversity the human traditions and personal histories and experiences of us all
Romans 14:1 Welcome with open arms fellow believers who don't see things the way you do. And don't jump all over them every time they do or say something you don't agree with—even when it seems that they are strong on opinions but weak in the faith department. Remember, they have their own history to deal with. Treat them gently…

A longstanding Caveat of discerning caution from Paul
Ephesians 4:13 until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. 
Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with man-made methods and doctrines so clever they sound like the truth.

This revelation of Oneness together in Christ has to start somewhere. 
I believe it starts with a revelation from the Holy Spirit for each one of us that God has made us One with himself through Jesus Christ. That has to come first. That truth needs to be grounded in the truth that each of us is deeply loved by Father God, each one loved as much as he loves his Son (John 17… You have loved them Father as you have loved me…).
This needs to be reinforced and sustained by the truth that each one of us is accepted fully as we are, along with our race and status and gender and shortcomings and limited understanding, and half formed opinions, and the not at all perfect teaching and formation of our thinking, by our institutionalised doctrines and practice and favourite television preachers. 
Otherwise we are left with the fact that God sees us as One in Christ and we see one another as outsiders, the way Peter saw the Gentile Centurion Cornelius, and was reluctant to even enter the man’s house let alone present the Gospel to him. The Holy Spirit did the rest in very quick time (Acts 10).

I have seen some grand moves of the Spirit in my time, and my notion of the next move is that Holy Spirit would rain down and soften our hearts by his love, and give us ears to hear one another and eyes to see one another and hearts that feel for one another.
This flood of grace from Heaven could melt our hearts and bestow upon us a humble innocence that heals our souls. And then we might just get to take that healing power into a broken world.

This makes me feel like a little dot in a big picture and that’s okay, as long as Jesus is the big picture, because that makes a little dot feel big enough to be part of anything Jesus wants it to do.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Politics and God's Government

POLITICS AND GOD’S GOVERNMENT 

The Book of Isaiah is a story is of a people who are meant to live in hope, turning to God, waiting for God, and being surprised by God’s goodness to them. 
After Solomon, the kingdoms of Israel and Judah were divided. There were 20 kings of Israel in the north and not one of them did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, and of the 20 kings of Judah in the south, only eight attempted to do what was right, and King Uzziah was in the top five of these. The Bible says of him;
“Uzziah set himself to seek God … and as long as he sought the Lord, God made him prosper.” (2Chronicles 26:5)

Isaiah begins to speak a message of warning and encouragement after King Uzziah dies (in Isaiah chapter 5), because when the King died God’s people turned away from trusting in God. Isaiah’s constant message of turning back to having hope in God all comes to a focus in Isaiah’s words of warning for their presumptuous attitude and desire for political power and control.

Isaiah 30:9 a people who lie, A people unwilling to listen to anything God tells them. They tell their spiritual leaders, "Don't bother us with irrelevancies."
They tell their preachers, "Don't waste our time on spiritual impracticalities.
Tell us what makes us feel better. Don't bore us with obsolete religion.
That stuff means nothing to us. Quit hounding us with The Holy One of Israel."

Therefore, thus says the Holy One of Israel, because of your rejecting me so that you trust in a headstrong dictator and rely on him, therefore, may this guilt be for you like a bulge in a high wall which suddenly breaks up and collapses. It shall break up like a clay vessel being smashed (That dictator was Pharaoh – worldly power)

Those words were said to God's people during a time when they had become tired of waiting for God to do something, and God was waiting for them to demonstrate that they trusted him. 
Israel and Judah’s kings had been playing politics for generations, siding with different nations against other rival nations. At this time God’s people were putting their trust in the worldly powers of Egypt and Assyria and playing them off against one another. But none of the nations could help God’s people or provide safety for them as they were only interested in using Israel to strengthen themselves against their enemies, and Israel had taken on a political role among the nations instead of taking on their role as God's spiritual representative, his servants, to exercise his Government in the world. They had rejected his government and authority over them. They had demanded that their spiritual leaders and prophets exercised political power instead of exercising God’s Government.

Isaiah 9:6 For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulders…. Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end,

The Bible says the Government will be upon his shoulders, not the politics. Government and politics are two different things. 
Politics is exercised by people in a state or nation, no matter what happens to be the lawfully recognized form of Government of the day – one governance, much politics, and God in the midst.
Politics Comes from the Greek word Polis which means the State and its citizens. Politics describes the strategic conflict between competing power bases within the states or nations – it is mostly people power, not God power. These political agencies and influence include the political parties, the media (all kinds in that zoo), special interest groups and lobby groups. We take the politics on our shoulders, and we are all involved in some way because we are the people, the citizens, but the Government is always upon his shoulders – God is in charge of history. When we personally are under the Governance of God – The Lordship of Christ, we can bring that into the political arena, whether it is the media or lobby groups, in a God Governance way. God gives his people a voice.

Romans 13:1 Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.
Psalm 75:6 For promotion comes neither from the east nor from the west nor from the south. But God is the Judge: He puts down one and sets up another.

Government means the recognised management of authority and responsibility for justice, law and order, and the care and well-being of the citizens within a state or nation. 
We bring ourselves under the Government and authority of God’s Word. If obedience to that authority is at odds with the recognized local authority we obey God but accept the legal consequences of the local authority. as Peter and John did when they preached the gospel in Jerusalem. 
Act 4:18 So they called them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered and said to them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.”
Acts 12.3. This account tells the story of Peter and James being arrested by Herod who was an agent of Roman Governance (Caesar), for preaching the Gospel. Herod put James to death, and the people applauded him, so he arrested Peter, however God needed Peter out of prison so he sent an angel to release him. 
James and Peter did not organise a political protest, they took the governmental consequences and we see the two ends of the spectrum of their eventual end – death for James and miraculous liberty for Peter. The Government is upon God’s shoulders.

We saw the warnings of God to his people in the previous Scriptures in Isaiah 30:9 where he rebuked them for playing politics amongst the nations, and the threat of sending the Assyrians from the north to bring judgement upon them unless they gave up their independence and turned back to trusting in him. 

In the following verses of Isaiah 30 we see the desire of God’s heart of purpose of blessing for obedience for Israel, but a warning for disobedience; 

Isaiah 30:15 For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel “In returning and rest you shall be saved, in quietness and in trust and confidence in me shall be your strength.” But you were unwilling…

16. You've said, 'Nothing doing! We'll rush off on horseback!'
And God says to you ‘You'll rush off, all right! Just not far enough! And You've said, 'We'll ride off on fast horses!' 17. And God says ‘Do you think your pursuers ride old nags? Think again: A thousand of you will scatter before one attacker. Before a mere five you'll all run off. There'll be nothing left of you—a flagpole on a hill with no flag, a signpost on a roadside with the sign torn off."

But then comes the encouragement of God’s faithfulness to us. (Israel/Church)

18.' The lord waits to do good to you. He is almighty in power and is kindhearted towards you in your weakness. He is a God of true justice and right order in everything He does. If you wait for Him - with Him waiting for you - great things will happen to you as my people.' 

Verses 15 and 18 contain two of the clearest expressions of Isaiah’s message that God had been calling upon Israel/Judah since the days of King Uzziah.

It was now turn around time…

He called for a willingness on the nation's part to turn inward to its faith and to rest on God's grace and promises, but Israel were putting their trust in political power instead of in God. 
It would require quietness in the midst of turmoil and trust that God would control the great forces that were devastating the nations. That would be a courage or daring of a very different kind to their political strategies. The church today cannot trust in politicians to save them either, but we can trust in God to save politicians. The Bible tells us to pray for our leaders for this very reason.

1 Timothy 2:2 Pray especially for rulers and their governments to rule well so we can live godly lives, in the way our Savior God wants us to live.
4. He wants not only us but everyone saved, I mean everyone, to get to know the truth…
8. Since prayer is at the bottom of all this, what I want mostly is for men to pray—not shaking angry fists at enemies but raising holy hands to God.
(Not weaponizing God’s name politically – the Third Commandment)

The final blessing in verse 18 is dedicated to those who are willing to listen and who wait; 
Vs.18.' The lord waits to do good to you. He is almighty in power and is kindhearted towards you in your weakness. He is a God of true justice and right order in everything He does. If you wait for Him - with Him waiting for you - great things will happen to you as my people.' 

He repeats to them that He will do good to them. He acknowledges that He has allowed them to go through tough times of disorder, adversity and suffering, and that He has even used it all for his purposes, but that now it is time for rest and peace to come to them, and that when they cry out to Him he will hear and act.

God had to wait till his people had come to that place of honestly admitting that their efforts and their wayward leaders and prophets had not brought them the freedom and safety and happiness they thought it would. They didn’t get the results they expected.
This is something that we all have to learn- the hard way- That God arranges history, not us – the Government is upon his shoulders. He actually waits for us! So what is He waiting for? He's waiting for us to wait for Him!
So why don't we wait? Well, just like them - we feel we can't just sit around and do nothing - we have to think of something to do. 

God certainly wants us to do the best that we can, and to be agents of godly change, taking on our role as God's spiritual representatives, his servants to the world. He is waiting for us as Church wherever and however it exists, to wait for him and on him, for our eyes to be opened to the opportunities that he places us in right in the midst of our day to day lives – family, friends, work, sport and recreation and the creative arts, health care and compassionate counselling, media, education, wherever he is setting us up to bring his wisdom and faith and love into any situation. His blessing and his power waits to be demonstrated. So pray for rulers and all who govern.

 

 

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A Living Hope

A LIVING HOPE 

1Corinthians 13:13 So now faith, hope, and love abide (remain, continue eternally), these three; but the greatest of these is love.
The greatest of these is love – beginning with God’s love for us, because it causes the faith and the hope to exist. God’s love is the beginning and end of all things. That is the source of the hope that we can live in at all times. That is the reality of a living hope.

Everybody needs some kind of hope
Everybody on the planet goes through difficult circumstances and situations of uncertainty and danger and loss, and some people make it through better than others. Those who do best in coming through these experiences are those who have clung on to some kind of hope. 

So where do people generally find this regular kind of hope? 
The answer is they find something or someone, perhaps even themselves, to believe in, and our natural skills and experience can give us hope or confidence, for a while at least. And in this world there are many random things on offer to believe in and it can seem like a guessing game because the certainty of a person’s hope depends upon the reliability and credibility of what they believe in, and nothing in this world is certain, or lasts forever. There are also superstitious and religious teachings that Paul cautions the Church about, to not be ‘tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of teaching, by human cunning, or devices {the word for that is kubeia = rolling the dice – what are your chances with this one?}… Ephesians 4:13) Some new method on the internet maybe, about how to get God to answer your prayer – These things just lead to disappointment, and there’s too much of that. I believe that the need that God desires to meet in each of us, is to be drawn closer to him - rather than just for a sincere cause - no matter how righteous it may seem to that person. (We will get to prayer later) 

A certain hope
However for a Christian, life cannot be a random guessing game. Our hope is based on our faith in God’s loving goodness toward us.  
Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the basis (hypostasis – basis – that which undergirds something and causes it to stand) of things hoped for, the assurance of unseen things (things=pragma – activity {of God}). So;
Faith is the basis of hoping – the assurance of the unseen activity of God. 

God’s love is for you – All the time
Your faith is for God - and it blesses him (Hebrews 11:6)
Your hope blesses you – because you can now live a life knowing that someone is personally thinking about you continually, working life out for you far better than you can for yourself. That is a living hope that lasts forever.

Hope is something we cannot live without, and we need the certainty of real hope as the anchor to our soul – hope that lasts, and strengthens our soul. 
Hebrews 6:18 That we might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place of his presence behind the veil, where Jesus the forerunner has entered for us.

What is the veil and how does that relate to a sure and steadfast anchor of hope?
That veil hung in the temple in Jerusalem in the time of Jesus, and it signified the separation between the people and the presence of God, the Ark of the Covenant. Behind that veil was the most holy place, and only the High Priest could enter into that presence once a year on the Day of Atonement. When Jesus died on the cross that veil was torn from top to bottom and the earth shook, and the rocks upon the mountains round about were split. This was an act of God from Heaven telling us that Jesus was the forerunner for us in entering though the torn veil, and breaking down the separation between God and man from that time on – Through his love, forgiveness and mercy, through Jesus our living hope.
Jesus lived each day on earth and went through by that veil because it had no hold over him and created no separation for him, even though he was tempted in all things as with us. He was the first of the New Creation.

That veil is called ‘the flesh’ in the Bible 
Hebrews 10:19 Therefore, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the veil, that is, through his flesh, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, and let us resolutely affirm the declaration of our hope without hesitation, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works. 

However that veil for us today is the mindset of the separated-self, called ‘the flesh’ in the Bible. The flesh can generally be described as our humanity in the form of its basic instincts, good and bad, or the ’old man’ or ‘old nature’ that started with Adam when he ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil and experienced separation from God. Jesus came ‘in the flesh’ but he lived ’in the Spirit’ and experienced no separation from his Father. Our flesh, our veil, stands between us and the presence of God until we go through by faith into what Jesus did, in making us partakers of his divine nature through his death and resurrection and sending the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. The separated-self mindset (the flesh) is a negative and distorted self-consciousness that has found ways to cope with all of the things we struggle with in life. There are the struggles of the past – the disappointment and loss, failures and errors. And there are the uncertainties of the future – the anxiety, perplexity, and danger. Our assurance of faith that we are now a new creation in Christ and the unfailing hope in God’s love and good will for us gets us through that veil of separation and into the living presence of God, where all things become new.
When we go through the veil of negative self-consciousness in this way, we experience the positive God-consciousness of faith hope and love in our soul. 

How do we push through the veil?
The first thing we need to do is to reflect upon the love that God has for us. God’s love for us is not a passive love, it is the activity of his goodwill towards us at all times.
Our attentive reflection brings his love into the central focus of the present moment of what is happening. It shifts all the past disappointment and loss out of the way and puts them out of mind. It moves the uncertain future and anxiety out of the way and puts them out of mind. It leaves us only with the reality of the love of God for us – a love that is eternally creative and powerful and purposeful for us 
Psalm139:17 How precious are your thoughts to me O God! 
This is always the starting point. The consciousness of God’s love for us then generates the faith and the hope.

Our prayers
It is from this place of faith with the peace of God ruling in our hearts that we bring our prayers and petitions into God’s presence with a real faith in his love and faithfulness to us. We trust his love to attend to our needs and the needs of others according to his good will for all of us. Real hope and real faith operate through the love of God.

Peter’s sermon on the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter two mentions two prophetic fulfillments of Old Testament Scripture. The first was from the prophecy of Joel, that wrapped the whole world up in the love of God because the Holy Spirit would be poured out upon ALL flesh, which means that humanity is now ‘In Christ’, not just ‘In Adam’. The second was from Psalm 16 that wrapped the whole world up in a living hope like David had, who was able to dwell in the presence of God because of the hope of God’s love in his heart.
Psalm 16:7 My heart instructs me in the night seasons. I see the LORD always before my face, for He is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken. Therefore my heart rejoiced, and my speech was glad;
Moreover my soul also will rest in hope. You have made known to me the ways of life;
You will make me full of joy in Your presence.’

Pentecost was the first great move of God’s Spirit coming to humanity and making history in the Earth, causing us to become a New Creation. There have been many outpourings of the Holy Spirit since, and I pray that this new and certain hope in the love of God for us is going to be the essence of the next move of God’s Spirit in the earth.
This is something that will soften people’ hearts so that their souls will be rescued from the false hopes and disappointments. This will bring a sure and certain hope in God’s healing love to us, Spirit soul and body.