Tag: Alignment

It’s Not About The Church, Or Church ≠ G-d

by theparacleteshammer, posted in Ecclesiology, Principles
Someone missed the transition from communicating about church to communicating about G-d

The above image was seen on my personal wall and so I am re-posting it here with my thoughts:

As a pastor, I would like to address a notoriously faulty paradigm here.

How does “don’t make church a high priority” translate into “no concept of G-d”?

If we communicate truth, and we move from one concept to a different concept, without language for a smooth transition that connects the two realities, then the flow will be choppy.

We live in a church age where where church members and preachers have equivocated “G-d” and “church”, and subsequently used the two interchangeably.

Or G-d and Christianity, and then utter retardations such as “Christianity is the only valid religion” or “Christianity is the only way to G-d”.

And as we all know, Jesus said:

“The Church is the Way, the Truth, and the Life”.

And we have made the church responsible for spiritual growth. And we have abdicated our responsibility, to, flowing from our personal relationships with the Trinity, raise our kids up in the nurture and the admonition of the Church.

Are you getting it yet? Too many of my cynical Generation X are done with the “Church is G-d” Bolshevik.

The issue is not church, but growing up without parents who impart through the spirit to them, not the reality of church, but the reality of G-d.

If I impart knowledge of an institution and then farm my kids out to someone else in order for them to be instructed in Scripture without doing that heavy lifting myself first, then I don’t know how much good the church will do or be.

I will also say this.

Most of my wounds spiritually came from believers in institutional churches who refused to make discernment a priority or listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit also a priority, while judging me by my exterior, repeatedly and brazenly, which in turn led to slander and false accusations.

I’ve been a believer for 37 years, and have been raising my kids without an institutional church’s backing for the last several years, and it’s not because I have a theology degree, but because I listen to and hear Him.

It is amazing to me that, in the first 3 steps of this sequence, G-d HIMSELF, the Word of G-d, Jesus is not mentioned. Just a damn institution which may or may not get my kids closer to the L-rd if it does not know how to equip and release according to design.

So, if the sequence is to truly be logical, I would replace “church” in each step with “G-d”.

Over and over, I have seen all kinds of memes and posts that refer to institutions and seem to imply the institution is the same thing as the Man, and that simply is not the case.

A church is only as healthy as the strength of the personal relationships its members have with the Holy Trinity apart from the power and authority structures they attempt to place on one another.

Grace and Peace: The Internal World vs. the External World…

by theparacleteshammer, posted in Uncategorized

THE CATALYST

Today, I was connecting with my sons on Romans 1, in my intent to take them through as much as I can of Paul’s letter before the summer is done. I was reading to them the prologue, bit by bit, and making commentary, when the common salutation hit me.

Grace and peace…

 

I must have read these words at least a hundred times, and recalled a sermon that was stuck in my spirit from elementary school or middle school, when I was there age. Richard Nussel spoke of χαπις and שׁלום.  The introductions and greetings to both Jews and Gentiles.

Indeed,

“here is a marvelous example of Paul’s Christianizing whatever he put his hand to.  The traditional greeting in the Hellenistic world was chairein–the infinitive of the verb ‘to rejoice,’ but in salutations meaning simply “Greetings!” (see Acts 15:23, Jas. 1:1). In Paul’s hands this has now become charis (“grace”), to which is added the traditional Jewish greeting shalom (“peace”).

Gordon Fee, The New International Commentary on the New Testament: The First Episitle to the Corinthians: Revised Edition, Eerdmans, 2014, p.31.

 

Paul’s idea to cover both groups in his writing, given the middle wall of partition was broken down (Ephesians 2:14), and Father has made one out of the two.  And now, we will discuss the liberty that happens when we see the two synchronizing together.

 

PART ONE: GRACE, THE FUEL FOR MISHPAT

Mishpat is the Hebrew word for justice.  I don’t have time to build it out, but if you want further details, see Arthur Burk’s Audio Teaching called A Celebration of G-d.

To sum up that well-executed teaching, mishpat is G-d’s ability to execute.

We have been conditioned to think of grace in many places as “unmerited favor”.  And while that is a true idea, it is undeveloped.  That is one facet of grace.

<cue sarcasm>No joke, I can only handle hearing one truth expressed a single way a few hundred thousand times before it ceases to be as meangingful.

Church, pget beyond the definitions and the frames of the last 50 years, and step into something new. </sarcasm>

Back on track, David.  Tell them the rest of what you heard.

Another facet of grace is found in its Greek word, which is also the root of charismata, which is the word translated “gift”.

A gift is something that you receive from the external world.  And it is given, not earned, ever.

But in order to receive that gift, we have to unpack it fully, and only once we unpack that gift does it change our external world.

Grace is therefore the enablement for us to execute.  It impacts our outside world.  Grace affects how we interact with other humans, ecology, creation, the animals, the plants, the sun, the moon, the stars, the humidity (how many of you have cursed the humidity that causes the citrus groves and lush Floridian ecosystem to be and flourish rather than blessing it to be precisely what Father wants it to be.  When we fully receive grace for the gift it is, we can impact, with our authority, more effectively, the world that surrounds us.  The mishpat of G-d finds its fullness.

Grace, when we recognize it, and accept its unique flavor for the action of the day, provides the foundation for us to partner with G-d in order to create a sustainable system.

We create with G-d because we are in His image.  We partner with Him in order to create with Him.  That is, we are designed to be co-creators with G-d.  In the image of G-d, we were made to be the thing that most resembles Him on this planet and in this universe, and, as a result, we were made to connect with Him in a way that no other created thing ever was.

And THAT whole recognition and the acceptance of THAT celestial reality of grace…
AND THE ALLOCATION of the reality of grace…
and THAT capacity to shift the terrestrial reality based on our King’s known will (on earth just as it is being DONE in heaven)…

…is the gift of G-d that is not by works so that no man can boast.

When we allow grace to flow, we recognize what needs to be shifted thorugh the use of the principles of Scripture and the principles of life, and those things that need to shift will shift.

Grace is the supernatural enablement given by the Holy Trinity that causes us to execute what He wants executed, and to build what He wants us to build.  The Kingdom of G-d is a masculine expression, and it is built by sons.

PART TWO: PEACE, THE GROUNDS FOR EXPERIENCING TSEDEQAH

If grace is the external quality that brings the execution of the Kingdom to the earth, then peace is the internal result of the use of grace in the external.  Peace, which in the Hebrew refers best to “wholeness” is when we are made whole as a result of recognizing the grace of G-d in our reality and walking in accordance with that grace.  Sometimes the grace of G-d is on you to move to Texas for the next five years because Father has a work that needs to be executed.  Sometimes the grace of G-d is on you to be a stay-at-home-parent, not because that is what your kids need, but because that is what Father asked you to do it. Sometimes the grace of G-d is for you to send your kids to public school because G-d has some things to teach them that homeschooling or private schooling cannot teach them.  And G-d. Never. Wastes. An. Opportunity.  Even one that might seem negative or distressing to you, parent who wants to control everything.

Sometimes, where G-d wants you is to allow Him to work.  You find the flow of grace, G-d will overabundantly hammer you to the ground with a massive boatload of peace.  If you resist the grace, then the peace will flee from you, though.

And when we walk in the mishpat of G-d on the external, we will experience the righteousness of G-d on the inside of us (tsedeqah).

G-d is just looking for people who have hearts to find His flow of grace so that His peace can overshadow them, come hell or high water.

“But now thus says the L-RD,

he who created you, O Jacob,

he who formed you, O Israel:

“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;

I have called you by name, you are mine.

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;

and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;

when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,

and the flame shall not consume you.

For I am the LORD your God,

the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.

I give Egypt as your ransom,

Cush and Seba in exchange for you.

Because you are precious in my eyes,

and honored, and I love you,

I give men in return for you,

peoples in exchange for your life.

Fear not, for I am with you;

I will bring your offspring from the east,

and from the west I will gather you.

I will say to the north, Give up,

and to the south, Do not withhold;

bring my sons from afar

and my daughters from the end of the earth,”

(Isaiah 43:1–6 ESV)

He will be with us and partner with us, but we must find that grace in order to experience the partnership with Him and in order to be protected by Him.  If we refuse the grace (if G-d has given us grace to do A, when we are seeking to confess the grace to do B, we might find ourselves frustrating the grace of G-d).

But if we will take the grace that G-d gives us, then with that grace, will come the wholeness on the inside.

And when the inside world, and the outside world match in us, when there is grace and peace, then the Principle of Liberty (the Sixth of the Seven Principles) will manifest, and instead of walking as servants or mere slaves, we will be walking as sons.

Hunt for the grace gang, and you will find the peace.

 

Beth Moore, the Redemptive Gift Teacher Who Behaved Like An Fivefold Prophet, and the SBC, Who Has Spent Far Too Long Protecting Ministers With Wolvish Behavior

by theparacleteshammer, posted in Beth Moore, Principles, Principles Of Relationships

One of my relatives was sexually molested by a Southern Baptist pastor.

To this day, I have a strong distaste for men in positions of leadership in the church, and the level of control that many of them walk in with the consequent abscense of the required vulnerability and transparency that should mark an elder and minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

And I am one of the number that is gifted and called to pastor.

And I would say, based on her recent behavior, Beth Moore is acting more like a pastor and prophet than most of the men I have seen, with some exceptions.

So, I say this with a very cautious, but needed heart.

The Southern Baptist Convention Needs To Repent of the Conventional Wisdom

A report from February by the Houston Chronicle details some 220 men over 20 years assaulted some 700 victims.  My relative is one of those victims.

And unfortunately, the convention might stand to reap judgment for wanting to protect their own reputations, and blaming the victims.

My relative was fired from their position at the church because of this mentality of “protect your reputation”.  That church is reaping the judgment of not just the behavior toward the victim, but also toward their reputation.

And that church has yet to repent for permitting that sin and that serial violation.

Something has to change.  Something has to give.  Because people can only be freely justified (Romans 3:23) if they confess their sins (1 John 1:9).

Enter Beth Moore, Catalyst

It would seem Beth Moore has also found herself in hot water with the powers that be.

She let slip on Twitter that she was preaching on Mother’s Day, and Owen Strachan of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary replied that women should not preach in a pulpit on Sunday to the main service, given that is perceived as only the domain of men.

Now, I understand that a great many of my evangelical friends might agree with Strachan and a number of early church fathers that preaching is only the domain of men.

However, I happen to disagree with the incomplete interpretation of the sledgehammer texts of 1 Timothy 2:11-12 and 1 Corinthians 14:34-35, for an army of reasons, including A) the ignorance of their social and historical context, given Corinthian and Ephesian women were often caught up in prostitution and sexual idolatry, B) the Greek verb λαλέω in 1 Corinthians 14:35 which is the most generic word for speaking, C) the absence of the Greek verb κηρύσσω in 1 Timothy 2:11-12 or 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 which is the verb used to show preaching in an authoritative fashion, D) the fact that the text 1 Timothy 2:12 reads “I do not permit” rather than “G-d does not permit” (this is an exhortation of Paul’s for that context, not a command of G-d’s for all time),  E) the examples of numerous women who testified, prophesied, preached, taught, and led (including Deborah, Huldah, Mary Magdalene, Phoebe, Priscilla, and Junia), many of whom were associates of the Apostle Paul.

Focusing on 1 Timothy 2:12

Paul says “I do not permit a woman to teach…”

Let’s look at that phrase.  Teaching is something in the Ephesian church that Paul forbade of women, regardless of the perception.  Given that pulpits did not exist back then, the Southern Baptist position is little more than a tradition of men based on a terrible reading of the text.

Let us show how terrible that reading is by taking that phrase to its logical end.

If Paul forbade women from teaching, then he would have forbade any form of teaching that could be remotely construed as authoritative.  This includes teaching kids, teaching infants, teaching the human spirit, teaching the youths, teaching the women, teaching anyone. Teaching is by its very nature, an exchange from one in authority to one not in authority.  Ephesians 6:1 does not say, “children obey your fathers in the L-rd, for this is right.  Rather it says “children obey your PARENTS” γονεύς, which comes from the verb γίνομαι, which means “I cause to be”, or “I generate.”  So, mothers AND fathers are both implied by that word.  Translation: mothers have authority over male children.

Look, this is a reductio ad absurdum, given to show that the premise is unreasonable.  And Beth Moore’s capacity to teach, among about 80 other women that I can name off of the top of my head who can teach, some of whom received their calling to teach precisely because “the last two men told G-d no” (Joyce Meyer).  And for those of you who want to call out heresy in Joyce Meyer for adhering to prosperity messages, she did apologize effectively for that

If we are silent, the rocks would cry out (Luke 19:40).  If a man were stifled by us, by himself, or by the enemy, do we honestly think G-d could be stopped from raising up a woman to do the thing that man was called to do?  Really?  After seeing the account of Deborah alone, one would hope that we would be more savvy in our reading of the texts.

When men drop the ball and choose to stifle their gifts and the call of G-d, G-d will call women, period.  If men stifle their voices or are forbidden by religious leaders of any Christian denomination or within Judaism, the ROCKS will cry out.  If adults will not speak, the children will speak.  G-d is not slackened that He cannot reach and that He is incapable to using anyone He wants to use.  If the messenger is a woman, then so be it.

Beth Moore is right to be used to call out this foolishness and anemic nonsense, and to continue functioning as the lively, vivacious, articulated and called speaker, teacher, and preacher that she is.

And Now For Dealing With the Sexual Abuse Scandal

I think Moore also, in her response toward’s Donald Trump, has been being prepared by G-d to be used, by her very presence, as an instrument for confronting the fever of perversion and sex abuse that has been allowed to grow in the SBC, in part, because of a rampant denial of the need for deliverance, spiritual warfare, and inner healing that pervades much of the run-of-the-mill status-quo of the cessationist theology of that denomination.

I think we men are being forced to deal with the perversion and sex addiction that grips us by the vessels of pure and holy women like Moore being used so readily and massively by G-d.

And it is about time.

The abuse of my relative, which happened some 26 years ago, and lasted for years, along with all those other baby boys and girls, is being confronted as the Mesmerizing Spirit is being dealt with, and if the SBC does not repent for its foolish behavior in many ways, tolerating and protecting ministers who enable iniquity (generational sin) in the camp rather than dealing with it, the judgment may only increase.

Just a few thoughts, from a man who is tired of covering over the nakedness.

The emperors have no clothes, gang.

And it’s taking women to point this out for us.

And supporting the pervert and perversion on the right is just as noisome as supporting the pervert and perversion or the enabler on the left.

Exodus 14:11 and One Point of the Wilderness

by theparacleteshammer, posted in Uncategorized

They said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt?

Exodus 14:11

Focus for a minute on that one question with me gang.

Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness?”

The obsession with death in the wilderness is the response of a group of people who have suffered from DID and PTSD.  They cannot see the issue for their woundedness, and Moses, with his emotional issues, and spiritual issues, still brought them out.
So, why did they go to the widerness?  What was the purpose of the wilderness?  The Israelites asked “why the wilderness”.
Here is my response to that question.
First of all and less importantly, to shake the dust off of their feet, because they were OBSESSED WITH SERVING the Egyptians.
Second of all, and more importantly, to learn how to handle the top priority, the thing of first importance.  There are few things in the wilderness that are not desolate.  Few oases, few plants, few animals, few things, compared with the life in the jungle or Canaanland.
The most important reason G-d got them out into the wilderness was so they could do the one thing the L-rd told Pharaoh.
To worship G-d.
To hold a feast to the L-rd.
To connect with Him.
And come hell or high wather, they were going to learn to worship.
Look, as someone with PTSD and potentially a part or two, let me speak from personal experience that G-d is going to bring you through some travesties and into a desolate place so you can be alone with Him, and learn Him, and understand Him.
He is still Father (Exodus 4:22), even when you are generatiaonally-damaged.  And He may not always use mothers gloves to bring you out of the situation that has caused you torment.
There may be a season where He uses both father’s gloves and mother’s gloves to do His purposes.
It is a good thing, gang, when we are brought out, and so we can see Him, see the cloud and the fire, and the G-d in the Pillar.
It’s not always about how badly we hurt, and it is not always about what’s wrong with us.  Truthfully, there wil be seasons of healing and softness, but the season of deliverance and liberation that precedes that season of healing may feel harsh, and it may land harsh.
This is where the work of deliverance requires, by turns, a mothering touch and a fathering touch.
It’s not going to always be a deliverance that is done in the manner that you and I want it done.
That said, the deliverance will be effective.
In the case of Israel, they had generational PTSD/DID and maybe some Ritual Abuse as well, and they were party to watching G-d kill many of their captors.
Beyond that, they had to learn how to walk as sons, and some still did not get it.
But G-d delivered them and drove them out of Mizraim.
To a quiet, desolate place.
To the place where their focus would be undivided, in order to learn Him and learn who He was.
Why the wilderness?
To learn worship, to actually worship, and to recieve what was necessary in terms of a hundred different lessons on how to grow into a place of sonship, sufficiency, and interdependence.
Likewise, with us, He determines to lead us out in order to lead us in…into His presence.  Both/and.  Sons/Brides. Giving/Receiving, Plus/Minus, Multiplication/Division, Roots/Exponents, Grammar/Lit/Comp/Vocab.
Whole package deliverance.
Fullness.

בְּשָׁל֑וֹם

That is, wholeness.
Not just their bodies, but also their mindsets, their spirits, their emotions, their engrained thoughts that were off, their strongholds, their resistances to His influence, and their expectations of Him and the Egyptians, all of which needed a drastic overhaul and realignment.
So it may be with us.
The first place we must visit after trauma is a Trauma unit in a Trauma Center.  And they may bring pain in order to bring life.  But, just the same, it will get better, if we move towards the scary process.
May we do so with the company of a mothering peeps if possible, but if not possible, let us still move toward it with a Father who can help us in quietness, and who has an abundance of the Fruit of the Spirit.