Author: theparacleteshammer

18 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen.
 
Paul is speaking to the spirits of the Galatians.  Grace is designed to reside in our spirits.  It is not something we can carry in the natural.  It is a spiritual quality.  As a result, it takes spiritual discernment to recognize the grace of Jesus in another believer.
 
We get a whole lot twisted based on what we see as external behavior.  We think we are discerning when all we are doing is looking at the externals.  How about we start developing some internal, spiritual discernment, and start looking at each other’s hearts, and blessing what is inside of someone rather than cursing them based on what is on the outside?
 
Many times we get into trouble as Christians because we don’t see with spiritual eyes.
 
Many times we content ourselves with looking with our natural eyes, and our spiritual eyes are blind.  We need to really pray into asking the Lord to anoint our eyes with the salve from Revelation 3:18 so we can see what He wants us to see and be in tune with the frequencies He wants us to be in tune with.  Because if the world is full of His lovingkindness, and all we are experiencing is the natural in other men and women, and missing the spiritual, it is kind of a shameful evidence that we have a blindness that needs fixing.
 
It would be a shame to miss out on EVERYTHING G-d has for us, simply because we have not asked Him to show us what He wants to show us.

 

It is fascinating to me that before the events of the last few weeks on my home country’s southern borders, very few people I know personally knew about Leviticus 19:33-34.
So, for those who fancy themselves scholars in the Torah, (read: Monday Morning Quarterbacks) let’s expand the key of that text a little bit, shall we?

“ ‘When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong.You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.’ ”

(Leviticus 19:33–34 ESV)

“When a stranger sojourns”
That phrase for “stranger sojourns” is translated “sojourner sojourns” as those two words are related to the concept of sojourning.
A sojourner is someone who is present in a country through turning aside to stay there.  That implies they are there with permission of whatever authority approves.
So, mistreating sojourners has to do with people who come a particular nation with the leave of that nation’s prevailing authorities.
Second:
“You shall love him”
Personally, there is a way in which I do not really like the current discourse and the way we have used the phrase “you shall love” and the concept of love; as a nation,  many of us (I would argue most) do not love these immigrants, legal or no, as a group, out of altrusitic motives or real, principled follow-through.  Rather, we parrot the love argument with and eye on a secondary agenda:  the passage of whatever legislation keeps us or our legacy in office one more term.  It is about another term, another law, another justice on whatever court floats your boat and gives you a political or prophetic hard-on.   And when you engage in love that has a bigger motive to manipulate, you have gone whoring after political lovers there, “whose members were like those of donkeys, and whose issue was like that of horses”.
The perpetuation of whatever status-quo agenda that allows us to putter around with people’s money.  When we use arguments of love and passion for people to advance an agenda that has little to do with love, then we engage in mesmerizing the people.
Thus, appeals to, “you should not do this with a family” or “you should not separate parents from their kids” are not even on the table, precisely because bought-off politicians are using those arguments from twisted motives to argue their particular cases forward.
We are responsible as a nation of laws, to work in the context of those laws, without a thought to our personal motives, and without a though to what is in it for us, politically.
We are responsible as a nation, to keep those people out, or allow them in, in accordance with our laws that are not supposed to be here, and are not using the legal means of coming here.
The problem is that our government is manipulating the law for political points with voting blocs.
Separating parents from kids is wrong.  Keep them together, and ship them back together, if you are going to follow the laws.
Secondly, if you are looking for the hearts of men, then…
Do not abuse Scripture to bash a Democrat.
Do not abuse Scripture to bash a Republican.
Quit bitching.  I am going to repeat that so you catch it.
Quit bitching about one side while at the same time disavowing the problems that inhere to your own party.  You are not the Secretary.  This is not IMF. Disavowal is not an option.
And until we as a nation can find a way to quit polarizing and poisoning the conversation with love out of a twisted motive, and figure out how, in the context of all our corrupt government, to have a discourse that includes material from both sides, that loves BOTH sides, and that refuses to make an enemy out of flesh and blood and until we can find real, practical solutions, in the midst of all that is untoward, that work, we will not be going forward as a nation.
Elect nine pro-life justices all you want and overturn Roe V. Wade.  MP Wilberforce understood that you change the discourse by changing the hearts of men and women.  100,000,000 conversations complete with Wedgewood China.
Also, real, principled discourse based on principles and what the law actually says has not existed in years.  Smarmy, non-realistic discourse that is motivated by scoring political points, on both sides is what prevails these days, sadly.
Further, beyond this, until we repent for buying into a mesmerizing spirit and nominating a criminal and a braggadocious pervert (neither of which were believers through any substantive testimony) for the work of leading us as a nation, we will continue down this path of destruction.
And yes, abortion may be overturned in the laws of the land, and deportation of illegals may happen through the passage of new laws or the enforcement of existing laws, but we have yet to have an Exhorter who understands that both arguments has to be won in the hearts of men.  And yes, it will take an Exhorter or a series of Exhorters to lead us well as a nation, provided that Exhorter or those Exhorters have seriously transformed hearts.
And I think Wilburforce would rather see the latter come to pass in our nation, the transformation of hearts, before the former, the passage of laws.
Prophet nation, there is a better way to win the causes of immigration and abortion, without embittering adversaries.
It takes conversations, millions of those, complete with the Wedgewood China of our day and culture, in order to really and substantively make the case.  Another justice in a court will not fix the problems that we have in our passionate yet vitriolically poisoned hearts and reins.
So, gang, who knows where to find the china of our culture, and who knows how to have the conversations well with the people?
It is time for a real solution, and it is time for someone–or a bunch of someones willing–to go the distance.   The law discussion happens dispassionately.  On the other hand, the millions of conversations have to be had with some attention to both passion and wisdom, to know how and when and where to wisely have those conversations.
Neither abortion, nor illegal immigration, or legal immigration, will be clarified without both actions on both fronts.
And it is not about fasting so we get the right justice.  It is about fasting so that we will go the distance and engage in real substantive WRESTLING with the principalities and authorities so we can find ways to keep turning the conversation in such a way as to long-term direct the course of the nation, given that we, not the President, are the kings and the higher powers of Romans 13 and 1 TImothy 2:1-8, as specified by the Preamble of the Constitution.
And the real question, are you praying for those who are actually in authority?
Are you praying for your fellows in the electorate that make up We The People?
And are you engaging out a pure and unbeguiling affection, not out of a twisted motive, but out of the Father’s heart?
 

Matt. 5:21  You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’

Matt. 5:22  But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.

Matt. 5:27  You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’

Matt. 5:28  But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Matt. 5:33  Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’

Matt. 5:34  But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God,

Matt. 5:38  You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’

Matt. 5:39  But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.

Matt. 5:43   You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’

Matt. 5:44  But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,

 
You have heard, via incessant preaching, it was said that, in the above verses, Yeshua was providing a new way to look at the law, and that he was raframing the Law of Moses differently. But, consider the following.

You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his maile servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.
Exodus 21:17

Coveting, in Monday Morning syntax, is desiring something G-d did not design for you to have.  Granted, there are a number of more flowery ways to stylize this concept, but overall, it’s about desires for things that Father did not want.
Yeshua was not reframing the Law of Moses.  Rather, He was reminding those people who believed and lived as though there were Nine Commandments that a Tenth One Existed.
Lust is sexually coveting the wife that is not yours.  That is EVERY woman that is not yours, or man if you are a woman.
Murder is coveting the life that is not yours to end.
Taking oaths is coveting to perform those things that are not yours to perform.  You are only duty-bound to perform those things that are yours from Father.  And if G-d didn’t give it to you to perform, do not even have the desire to perform it.
“Eye for an eye”, which was meant as a form of justice, in this case, is coveting to damage someone when it is not your job to injur them.  The “second mile” is about a better response than harboring the desire (covetousness) to harm wicked authority.
“Love your neighbors and hate your enemies” is the same form of cevtousness as in 5:21-22.
The Son is not offering a new way to look at the law.  Rather, he is offering to remind his hearers of the full extent of the Torah:  it covers desire also.
 
Let me say that again:  the TORAH covers the heart attitudes in addition to the acts, and the Tenth Commandment is what Yeshua is bringing out in this passage.
Craig Keener writes:

Jesus offers an implicity argument from Scripture, not just a cultural critique.  The seventh of the Ten Commandments declares, “You shoall not commit adultery” ( Ex 20:14), while the tenth commandment delcares, “You shall not covet [that is, desire]…anything that belongs to your neighbor” (Ex 20:17).  In the popular Greek version of Jesus’ day the teth commandment began, “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, ” and used the same word for “covet” that Jesus uses here for lust.”  In other words, Jesus reads the humanely unenforceable tenth commandment as if it matters as much as the other, more humanely enforceable commandments.  If you do not break the letter of the other commandments, but you WANT to do so in your heart, you are guilty.  G-d judges a sinful heart, and hearts that desire what belong to others are guilty.
Craig Keener, The IVP New Testament Commentary, vol. 1, Matthew (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1997), 116.

Regardless of whether Jesus went beyond his contemporary listeners’ interpretation of the Torah, he did not go beyond what was written in the Torah.  He perfectly aligns with it.
You can cover all of the bases morally and socially by not only eradicating the wrong action, but also the wrong desires.  And I do not laugh at that sentiment, treating it as impossible.  Rather, it is part of the great adventure that awaits us.  What G-d commands of us, G-d enables us, empowers us, or equips us to get the resources to do.
While the first nine commandments deal with wrong action, the tenth deals with the heart, the reins, and the mind.
That is, the tenth commandment shows us a whole host of applications where we might be framing the wrong problem.
And desiring something G-d has not given you is definitely wasting your energy attempting to define and frame a problem that is not yours to solve.
If you want constant adrenal fatigue and destruction to your kidneys, develop a habit of violating the Tenth Commandment by trying to solve the problems G-d has not given you to solve.
Those reins (King James language for Kidneys and Adrenals) were designed to help you solve problems that G-d has for you to solve (see the Hebrew of Psalm 16:7).
They were not designed to help you solve problems such as how you can fornicate, hate, or desire what G-d did not say you could have and still find a way to be okay with Him.
For those who want to work on the spiritual health and vitality of their reins, go here.
And for the rest of you, be blessed.
 

I gave this a whirl tonight without prior thoughts for a recipe. A little of this and a little of that, and it worked to serve 6.

NOTE: I love brown rice and because the cook time for brown rice is between 40 minutes and an hour, I had plenty of time to prep this dish.

Prep time is between 15-30 minutes depending on the tools you have on hand.

Cook time is about 35 minutes

My wife told me I had chicken to work with, and so away I went.

This is a variant on my Golden Mushroom Chicken, but roasted and after the fashion of French Onion Soup.

GFO Chicken

INGREDIENTS

• 3 pounds boneless chicken breasts, butterflied to half-inch thickness
• 1 Can Campbell’s Condensed Golden Mushroom Soup
• 1 pouch Lipton Onion Soup
• 2 cups mozzarella cheese
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil, PRN

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350° F.
2. Coat a Pyrex 9×13 with a decent amount of Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Use other oil depending on the taste you want.
3. Cut breasts to desired portion size and butterfly the parts that are too thick. I did mine to about a 1/2 inch thickness. Use additional pans if necessary.
4. Arrange chicken in pan.
5. Spread some of the soup on each piece of chicken.
6. Sprinkle onion soup mix on chicken.
7. Cook uncovered in oven for 27-35 minutes adding cheese for the last 5-15 minutes, depending on desired brownness of cheese.
8. Serve with rice and steamed or blanched vegetables, or whatever sides tickle your pickle.

Pictured below is with cheese added last 5 minutes. I will probably add cheese earlier in the final cook time, and probably use less olive oil as well. The Onion Soup packet adds a lovely touch of umami/richness.

I think this would work well with Condensed or leftover French Onion soup from home or restaurant, as well.

#benisonsofthemediumrarevariety

Pardon the crude title, but it gets the point across of what follows, gang.
 
When Jesus issues a command in Scripture, it is because He intends you to partner with him in order to do what it takes to make you equal to the task.
 
When Jesus says, “be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48), we often bring two sets of baggage to the table in reading this verse as well as its mate in Leviticus 11:44 (be holy, for I am holy).
 
First, it seems that many times we think these commandments are impossible to follow, and thus the implication is that we don’t even bother trying for a life of excellence (perfection and holiness) and settle for a lifestyle of compromise and allow sin more of a place than it really should occupy.  We let an identity that is not ours take up refuge as a squatter on our spiritual land, and leave whatever garbage behind that it wants.  And from day to day, we trouble ourselves with kind of picking up some of the trash left behind, hoping that G-d will somehow be able to tolerate us.
 
Second, we have this idea of what perfection looks like and we are under the impression that perfection exists in a particular direction in accordance with our own vision of perfection and holiness.
 
To the first point, these commandments are not impossible to follow.  A governing principle of Scripture is that with a command to some goal comes the resources necessary to reach that goal.  If G-d is going to command something of us, then for Him not to provide us with the tools, raw materials, or resources leading to that goal, is a really grotesque form of cruelty.  Anywhere else in Scripture that we know of where the Creator of the Universe is portrayed as being uniquely vicious without reason or wantonly destructive without reason or purpose?  We don’t serve a cruel G-d who is given to torturing us.
 
To the second point, I would contend that we hold on to our vision of perfection and holiness because we have no idea what perfection or holiness mean to Jesus.
 
Jesus is going to resource us with the tools and materials necessary to move us into perfection and holiness IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE WAY HE SEES AND VIEWS PERFECTION AND HOLINESS.  He is not going to resource us with the tools and materials necessary to move us into a place of perfection in accordance with our finite, limited, soulish, stupid, unreachable views of what we think these two items look like looks like.
 
Jesus does not have your idea of P and H in mind.
 
He is not going to command you to be perfect and holy and then not equip you with the capacity, tools, raw materials, or resources necessary to walk in these attributes.  For him to do so is for him to lead us into the path of futility, which is not part of His nature (Psalm 16:11).
 
Nor is He going to command you to be perfect and then expect you to achieve what you think perfection is, in your own strength.
 
Your eye has not seen, nor your ear heard the things and places He has prepared for you, simply because you love Him.
 
His path for you leads to a place of holiness, and a place of perfection, but in order for you to move there, you have to leave behind:
 

• what your soulish and natural mind thinks they look like,
• your solution for getting there,
• your ideas that these goals are exercises in futility, and
• your resolve to continue along a mediocre, sometimes-sinning lifestyle as a path of compromise

 
And you have to embrace
 

• His idea of what they look like,
• His tools and his seasons for you in the present reality, and
• 2 Corinthains 5:17
• That you have been transferred from Romans 7 to Romans 8. He has delivered you from the wretched body of death into life.  From darkness to light (1 John 1).  You can go ahead and thank him for making you a new creation, and you were (past tense) buried with him in baptism (Romans 6:4).  You fight from a place of victory rather than struggling upward against sin. You were living in darkness, and now you are seated above every principality and authority (Ephesians 1:21), with Christ in heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6)
• You have the choice and the opportunity to, instead of being so sin-focused, sin-conscious, and making sin your reference point, being Christ-focused, aware of your calling and destiny, and getting into the car and driving off into all G-d has for you.

 
 
On one hand, if all we live with is an awareness of sin everywhere we go, then everywhere we go we will see opportunities to sin.
 
On the other hand, if all we live with is an awareness of our G-d, our calling, our purpose, and our destiny, then everywhere we go and in everything we do, we will see our calling and purpose and ways and opportunities to fulfill the destiny G-d designed for us, and as a side benefit, holiness, and consecration will come.
 
You have the keys in your hand, follower of Jesus.  Put them into the ignition, and drive.
 
 
 
 

I had read a post from one of my friends earlier, who writes:

The 4th of July.  American Independence Day.  Most people have a lot of memories from this holiday.
Personally, I am a bit out of step with the culture.  I never figured out how to experience joy, pleasure or fulfillment out of watching my money go “bang.”
But, as usual, I do have other memories.
In working with survivors, we deal with a lot of tough stuff – wounds, critters, structures, programming…

If you wish to read the rest of the post, follow the link here.
The few Prophets I know at least moderately feel similarly.
And while the Fourth invariably sparkles because of explosions, and making money go “bang” (I swear at least two portions of my spirit are attracted to sparkles and sulphur), it is tied to some other memories.
My dad used to meet my mother in Baldwin every summer after he left, and then in Macon after he moved back to Tennessee, in order to pick us up for the summer.
I remember the smell of Jovan Musk,
and Budweiser,
and the time he lit Roman Candles from his boat in the St John’s River,
and the time we shot the Whistlers into the water and watched the explosions underwater,
and the times our families connected with Bob Purcell’s family,
and the time Nick nearly blinded himself adding lighter fluid to the grill, and Dad’s response of “so, did you learn your lesson, son?”,
and the trips camping in Salt Springs, and that one time on the side of the road in the middle of the night, where we put up a couple of tents and a few hours later, Dad saw some police lights in the woods and snuck up to one of the cops and asked what was going on, and the cop said that they had just had a major drug bust,
And the trips to Cedars of Lebanon that no one alive except for Pat remembers,
And the trips to Mammoth Cave and the spaces under the earth so massive you could fit a small city into them,
And the trip with Joey to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park,
And his unending sense of enjoying a good laugh, telling a good joke, and his capacity to make anyone feel welcome,
And the scratch of his beard
And the summer I taught at a summer camp for his friend, Pam Stockett,
And the hoards of explosions and the smell of sulphur.
And the places and times when he in all of his drunken woundedness (even though he never laid a hand in an abusive fashion on me) actually manifested compassion and affection.
It was not just about the explosions.
It has been the fabric in the foreground of the explosions.
These summers, I am the father now, and my two sons visit me, and there is no alcohol floating around.
And they enjoy the explosions.
And soon they will also enjoy the camping,
There is a bedazzling, kaleidoscopic array of color that flows in the night sky.
And there is the memory of the year I drove back from Bryan, OH, on July 4, 2012 and remembering the conversation I had had with David and Wendy, after first hearing about what had happened to Hannah Pettengill, and David’s counsel to me concerning my response to Kresha’s list of demands.  And how I could accede to the list of demands for reconciliation except for one:  the taking of medication of any sort.  She was under the delusion that I needed to be medicated for depression and ADHD, and I realized the truth of what needed to happen–namely, that I had for years been starved for community.
And the memory of driving back through Cleveland, knowing what I was going to say in that conversation.
And the trip from Cleveland to Manhattan, and the realization that I needed to stop off in downtown, and walk around, something I had never done before.
And the calm solitude of what I felt when I was in the North Cove Yacht Harbor.  And the massive spirit of fear in the vicinity of One World Trade Center.
And driving out of Manhattan along FDR Drive.
And calling Kresha to tell her what I was going to agree to, and what I was not.
And the sound of something snapping in the spirit realm, like a brown stick, and hearing her accusation that I had DID.
And knowing where this thing was headed.
And the season of alienation, and the few friends that remained loyal in that season of aloneness.
And then…
Death over the course of 5 months.
Filing for divorce on December 7th.
Loss of credentials with the Assemblies on December 31.
And the divorce being finalized on April 15th, the same day as the Boston Marathon Bombing.
And then, the slow recovery of life…
The following July, the trip to Mount Washington.  And the decision that I had made to marry Pam.
And now, living in South Carolina and being able to enjoy my joy, walking with my family in a place where enjoying my joy is legal.
It is definitely an enjoyment of watching my money go “bang”.
But there are added to it a host of memories that…color…the whole experience.
Happy Fourth, gang.
If you enjoy fireworks, then hallelujah, get your fuzzy buns over here next year and most any year and let’s cook ’em off together.  And if you do not, fair warning, my home invitation is open on this day, but know that it will be loud.

Galatians 6:9-10

9 And let us not grow weary in doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.

Paul’s next comments provide an exceptional piece of encouragement. The word for “give up”, “ekluoh” is best translated as “weaken” or “fail” or “loosen”. In other words, the idea that is carried here in this part of the text is that our faith in Christ’s faithfulness does not give way to unbelief.

This is a major temptation for all believers, no matter the maturity level or the “time in service”. The major temptation is the one that proves to become a killer of faith. And if our faith is something that we allow to die without nourishing it, then there is a very good chance we will give up in precisely the times when we should not give up. God did not design us with the built-in capacity to fail. Rather, He made us with the built-in capacity to succeed and persevere. The capacity to fail is something that came through the Fall of Man. Because we have to daily be crucified with Christ and bring our bodies into subjection to the leading of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 2:20, 1 Corinthians 15:31, 1 Corinthians 9:27), a benefit of this process is that we can grow in perseverance, which is critical if we are to continue in Christ and not become weary in doing good.

Paul’s promise to those who do not give up is that we will reap the harvest that is our unique harvest. The Greek word that is translated “due season” is better translated as “in each person’s unique season”. That is, each person’s season for reaping a harvest is unique and custom-fitted to that person’s unique design. God has customized a time for each of us to reap as we each sow. My harvest may not look like your harvest, and my timing for reaping may not look like your timing. But I am still responsible, when you reap your harvest, is not to become jealous of the harvest, but to celebrate your harvest with you. That harvest could be the return of a prodigal child, or a financial harvest, or a relational harvest, or the harvest of someone’s salvation for whom we have labored and in whom we have sowed much truth in the context of a relationship.

Your job is to keep sowing. It is not to determine the timing of the harvest. That is God’s job.

10 So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are the household of faith.

There are a few things that I would like to highlight here for our application.

First, the concept of “doing good”: “Verse 10 has much in common with verse 9: in both verses the central call is to ‘do good’ and this doing good is related to an ‘appropriate time’ (Greek kairos).” [1] Paul uses the phrase “do good” to tie together 9 and 10.

There is a good that we are to do that should be consistently expressed both inside the church and outside the church. No matter what, our calling as a body is to “do good”.

God, both created us, with original intent as good, and called us good (Genesis 1:31). As a result of the fall, much that was good in our intention was lost. But the marring through the fall does not excuse us from doing good in accordance with our design.

Now, let me step on a few toes here. We as Christians love to focus on how bad our capacity to do bad and to constantly sin is. Thank you, Jean Calvin and Martin Luther. And while we have to struggle and fight against sin, as Christians we struggle against sin from a place of victory; we are seated with Christ in heavenly places, EVEN WHEN WE DO NOT FEEL LIKE WE ARE SEATED. And given that in Christ, we are new creations, the capacity for the original design has been restored. It has been restored in us to do good.

Good is our responsibility, and given that we follow and hopefully know the Author of all good, doing good should become our practice.

Second, there is a question that we should rightly ask “to whom should we do good?”

Let the light shine that others may see your good works and praise your Father in heaven (Mattew 5:14-16). This is the answer to the lawyer’s question of “who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29). We are to do good to those who are not believers.

Also, love your brothers and sisters as evidence of your love of God (1 John 2 :9-11; Luke 10:29, John 13:35). The letter of 1 John covers this set of principles and evidence of love extensively.

Let me throw out a scholars’ note for those who are not scholars of Greek. Ever second-year student of New Testament Greek is required to translate the entirety of 1 John. It is the easiest book in the New Testament to translate. It is also one of the most uncompromising books in all the New Testament. For verse after verse, John gives us really high standards and shoots incredibly straight on what it looks like to actually have evidence of God’s love in us. It is quite possible that God set this up intentionally so that scholars would not get so puffed up in their knowledge that they forget the priority of love.

Hello? The message here is simple; the root of doing good is our love of God and our love of people. We keep the First Commandment First, the Second Commandment Second, and the New Commandment New.

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

-John 13:34-

Paul’s next phrase in verse 10 is curious:

“…and especially to those who are of the household of faith.”

Why would Paul exhort the Galatians to do good to other believers?

There are two reasons that I can think of.

1) Because the Galatians were likely wrestling with the sins of enmity, strive, jealousy, division, and envy (as 5:20-21 warn against, the “works of the flesh”), Paul was bringing the expression of doing good to bear as a counter-measure to the works of the flesh. Christian, let’s apply that same counsel to ourselves, because jealousy and fear flourish at times in the church, which is precisely where they should not. Jealousy and those other sins, the sins where we want what God has given someone else, are rooted in a spirit of poverty. We don’t believe that God has a set of really good gifts set aside for us, and so we want what He has set aside for someone else.

a. Let’s back up for a minute and frame the reality first of all.

b. Paraphrasing Romans 8:32, God gave us the thing that is most precious to Him: His only begotten son. What is a little bit of stuff?

c. When we do not believe that we are wealthy in spiritual things, when God has given us His son, our mentality is that of a pauper or a slave.

d. God designed you for sonship.

e. This means there is a whole boatload of wealth AND responsibility that He has set aside and purposed to give to you, only you. There is a problem that has your name on it.

f. You were designed for a specific problem. And if you do not solve that problem that God has designed you to solve, He will have to give it to someone else to solve.

g. I don’t know about you, but I want to leave this life having lived in a place of fulfillment, and having solved the one thing that is in the center of my design.

h. Back to the main point. God has a problem for you to solve, and if you walk in the sweet spot you were made to walk in, and tackle the major problem that God made you to tackle, then He will also provide the resources to meet that need.

2) Paul also wanted the Galatians to model what God’s family looks like. When you have a fully functional family that is full of purity, truth, affection, loyalty, tender affection, self-control, wisdom, and joy, who does not want to be part of that?

Let me tap one other theme here. Against the backdrop of what I just stated in Point #2, there is the opposite of that picture that is rooted in flesh: betrayal. Read the following from Psalm 55:10-12

“For it is not an enemy who taunts me— then I could bear it; it is not an adversary who deals insolently with me— then I could hide from him. But it is you, a man, my equal, my companion, my familiar friend. We used to take sweet counsel together; within God’s house we walked in the throng.”

We are designed in the household of God to be a family that is a place of safety and trust, not a place of betrayal and envy. Yet that does sometimes happen in the church. And when it happens among those we ought to count as siblings and close friends, the sting of the pain is real and deep.

Creating a place where people know their identity and their talents and are free to develop those talents, and are celebrated for who they are in Christ and what they bring to the table in Christ, helps to guard against the unreasonable fleshly behavior that results in betrayal.

And we must be ever-vigilant, and ever-ready to do good. Especially to those who are of the household of faith.

Blessing of Stillness #14

The Stillness Before We Respond to an Increase of Testing or Trial
 
Beloved, I call your spirit to attention, in the name of Yeshua.
 
Listen to the word of G-d for your spirit for today.
 
The foremen of the people of Israel saw that they were in trouble when they said, ‘You shall by no means reduce your number of bricks, your daily task each day.’ They met Moses and Aaron, who were waiting for them, as they came out from Pharaoh;
 Exodus 5:19–20
 
Spirit, there was a moment after the king of Egypt died, when the children of Israel had a moment to cry out for rescue (Exodus 2:23).
 
Following that season where they were able to catch that breath to cry for rescue, they settled back into the rhythm of bondage and building in the brickyard of Pharaoh.
 
Then these two men showed up to advocate as servants of the Most High for the release of this nation in bondage.
 
Then the nature and difficulty of the task increased majorly.
 
Then, the sons of Israel had a choice as to how they were going to respond to Moses, Aaron, and G-d.
 
Spirit, there is a moment before you respond to the increase of adversity, where you have an opportunity to respond to the increase of the fire that you are in.
 
There is a moment for you to be still, if you take advantage of it.
 
It may not look like a moment because for a season the difficulty of your trial has increased, likely past what you consider your breaking point.
 
But it is a moment all the same.
 
So, I bless you to recognize that moment when it comes, as subtlely as it comes.  I bless you to stop before you respond to G-d, to discern whether this season is something akin to a contraction that will result in your delivery from the dark press of your slavery, or whether it is the result of something else.
 
I bless you, spirit, to recognize precisely when Father is attempting to deliver you from a place of anguish.
 
I bless you, spirit, to recognize the timing of Father’s deliverance, even when you can see nothing else.
 
I bless you, spirit to hope when there is not a logical reason to hope.  I bless you with a recovery of the hope that was first yours when you came to know the L-rd.  At the first mention of the recordance of your name in heaven’s books and in the book of life, I bless you with a deep recovery of, and celebration of, the hope that is now yours, and remains yours, even when you despair of hope in your immediate circumstances.
 
I bless you, spirit, with a raging defiance against hopeless.
 
I bless you with hope while you still are.
 
Yes that was a complete sentence.
 
You do not exist, spirit.  Rather, you ARE.
 
The Scripture in the Greek of Acts 17:28 says “In Him we live and move and we are.”  We do not merely exist, like a bump on a log, with no active principle.  Because we are in Him, We ARE.
 
There is a principle of being-ness that is not part of mere existence.  There is the capacity for active kenesis and the expression of potential.  Mere existence can be had without execution or movement toward an objective.  Mere existence can be had without desire.  But we have desire, and zeal, and passion for things and goals.  We do not merely exist, we have a movement and a motion and a flow in us that impels us toward various ends.
 
Therefore, I bless you with the movement, and motion, and flow, and desire, and zeal that comes with BEING beyond mere existence.
 
Spirit, you have been placed into the Fire of His Radiance and Holiness, as an iron poker in the fire.  And in the fire, you take on the characteristics of the fire, the light, the warmth, the power of the fire.  And yet, you are still unquestionably iron.  Even when the fires increase, it is to strengthen you for the journey ahead, for the wilderness that is coming.  Father knows what is required.
 
So, everyone who is born of Him, becomes endued with the potential to live and move and be as He is.
 
Spirit, I bless you with a revelation, even in your brokenness, that you are still endued with the nature of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Though it is days, weeks, months, or years since you might have been in the fire of his tempering and proving, or though you are right now in the midst of those fires, and feel like you may be falling apart into a million pieces, you are still full of his fire, zeal, and purgative strength.
 
I bless you, oh lovely spirit, with the revelation of his intimacy as you flourish in the midst of increasing trials, and as you are still to discern if this are indeed His contractions to propel you out of the situation you are in.
 
I bless you with discernment of the nuances of your situation, as many as Father needs you to have right now.
 
I bless you with the capacity to embrace the moment of stillness, as the sweat drips from you, as you consider the nature of what is happening to you and within you.
 
I bless you with shalom and stillness in the name of Yeshua.

Serina (pronounced with a flipped R) Fleck leads the Sapphire Austria office, out of Innsbrck. She has been in California recently and, in the course of a day’s activities, she and Arthur evidently made their way to Farrell’s Ice Cream (picuted above).
Now if you know anything about Prophets, they are really simplified in their worldview. There are heavy absolutes.
Binaries.
Black and white.
Good and bad.
Right and wrong.
In and out.
Up and down.
Quick to judge EVERYTHING, amd have a strong opinion about everything all of the time. They are usually very vernal-expressive
But if you really want to foil a Prophet, your best bet is a quick-on-the-draw Exhorter. Exhorters are presentation-driven, colorful, flamboyant, social, people-oriented, relational, and without something to say in response to anything, anyone, anytime. In fact, they usually habe an unused quota of words and anyone that will give them the time of day is in for a…ahem…treat.
Granted, these stereotypes are crude, but they will serve the purpose of this post.
Arthur writes:

DID SHE REALLY H.A.V.E. TO?
Serina and I were out running around this evening, doing some fathering stuff.
I recently found out about a facet of her design I didn’t know was there, so I was looking for a doo dad that might help her unpack her treasures.
Afterwards, I took her to California’s Ultra Exhorter ice cream parlor… .
She orders the Parlour’s Tin Roof. I ordered the Black and White.
She promptly made a snarky comment about Prophets.