παρατίθημι and the Emotional Budgets That We Must Make As Believers

καὶ ἃ ἤκουσας παρ’ ἐμοῦ διὰ πολλῶν μαρτύρων, ταῦτα παράθου πιστοῖς ἀνθρώποις, οἵτινες ἱκανοὶ ἔσονται καὶ ἑτέρους διδάξαι.

and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.

2 Tim 2:2 GNT and ESV

Budgeting…

We hate it.

It’s discilpline.

It’s no fun.

It is refraining and removing the fun and freedom that we want.

Granted, there are many who like this sort of thing.

I was speaking to those who dislike this discipline.

As a father, I was listening to an exposition on this text this morning, and the L-rd had specifically said something to me during the sermon, while the pastor was explaining the Greek word used for “entrust”.

επιτίθημι seems to refer to this dynamic of despositing. Hearing that word made me think of a safe, a bank safe. Paul told Timothy to treat the teachings Paul was describing as something to “place beside” or to “place with” others who were trustworthy.

And I heard the phrase “emotional desposits”

And I saw the things that we do and we build up, different mindsets and different sets of decisions that, when consistently made, built up or piled up a large pile of something that creates momentum and makes gtravel easier.

And then I heard Him imply with His eye…

“For better or worse”

An addict has built up a pile of deposits that he has accrued emotionally in an area. Porn, alcohol, drugs, you name it.

A farmer provides to his soil seed that came from a previous deposit. Plants, Monsanto and their blood crops aside, yield seed that will reproduce themselves after their own kind and will in turn each seed produce multiplied dozens of other like precious seed that will each produce plants.

A husband will add deposits emotional or spiritual or physical or pinancial or sexual into a bank account.

We can deposit many different types of things with others.

Are we depositing the sorts of things from which we will eventually want to reap and harvest?

Intentional and emotional and relational and spiritual deposits, gang.

“These things entrust…”

Be not deceived. G-d is not mocked. Whatsoever a man sows, that also shall he reap.”

Galatians 6:7

It is easier to withdraw from a positive deposit that we have piled up over the long-term, than to try to create something positive at the last minute to stem the tide of a negative deposit that pours over us like a flood, that we have accrued over time.

Names of G-d: Hebrews 4:12: The Word of G-d Is Quick and Powerful… Hint: It’s Not Talking About Scripture

“HE is sharper than any two-edged sword…..“

“HE is able to divide between Joints and Marrow, soul and spirit…”

“HE is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart”

Hebrews 4:12, more accurately translated.

Real talk, gang.

Hebrews 4 is about Jesus. The whole thing is about Jesus.

And given it is about Jesus, let this reality sink in, Verse 12 is not talking about the Bible, unless the writer of Hebrews switches the implication of the objective case in Verse 12.

Proof of this? Verse 13

“And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”

Not “no creature will be hidden from IT’S sight.”

HIS sight. He divides.

Those who incessantly say the Bible is the Word of G-d while refusing to say Jesus is the Word of G-d and refusing to give Jesus HIS due in that office as the Word need to seriously consider the strength and work of the PERSON who was the Word of G-d BEFORE giving credence to the Bible as the Word of G-d. For the Bible is only the Word because Jesus is the Word. And the Bible’s Wordness derives from Jesus’ Wordness.

He is not the testimony if it.

Rather, it is the testimony of Him.

It’s fine to know the text of the Bible.

But what makes one a follower of Jesus is the one who Knows Jesus, the Word of G-d Himself.

Know the difference. And learn to relate to the Man as well as you know the book.

And keep reaching Higher.

Our walk os a relationship with a Man.

Not a book. And not a set of propositions.

Just saying.

Cafeteria Masculinity and Femininity, LGBT Confusion, AND Kingdom Eunuchs in Matthew 19:12

What follows promises to be short and sweet. Whether you take offense is a personal choice, and something you might have to work out. I do not claim to answer every point any community asks, but there will be a couple of issues that I will point out, as they flow through this topic

First, it would appear sexuality, male and female, was created on the Third Day with the introduction of the plants and dry land, and that reproduction and the spread of creation requires male and female interacting one with another.

Now, the exceptions aside where gender switch happens in biology, which happen to be a gross minority, and understanding that many of those switches occur in order to create a male/female binary, most of creation by a wide margin requires both parts interacting one with another.

G-d created them male and female, and G-d intended that generation and multiplication happen across the board. This is His design, and well beyond any counterflowing viewpoints.

Second, while conversing with my wife about the transgender issue, and following a conversation with a brother who came out of the transgender arena and back to relatively healthy masculinity, something occurred to me that this brother helped bring to light.

Those who adapt different sexual identity from how they were designed mostly do so with a pick-and-choose system. There is rarely consistency of any sort. That is, trans people generally seem to execute a cafeteria masculinity or femininity.

And the L-rd has made us for more than merely to pick and choose. He did not intend for us to walk in confusion.

Third, I had a conversation with a pastor friend of mine, and he postulated the following question, in light of Matthew 19:12, which reads:

“For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let the one who is able to receive this receive it.”

Matthew 19:12 ESV

What if we get used to either marriage or sexual deviance as the only two acceptable options, when there might be a third option that few are willing to entertain? Namely, the calling to a life of eunuchhood.

And what if we are forcing people to choose between this (marriage) and that (deviance) when their real expression should be celebacy?

It is an interesting concept to consider.

I do not think healthy and close same-sex friendships are a bad thing. As a Redemptive Gift of Mercy, I have a few of those that I would consider close friends, maybe some intimate.

What I have an issue with is….

…when we think that closeness and intimacy and physical touch means we were meant to embrace a solution that violates all kinds of principles that have been clearly laid-down and later uncontested in the canon of Scripture.

And when He gives principles, and law, and statutes, He does not do it to be a killjoy, but to protect us and to keep us from destruction and from paths that are dead-ends and will keep us from walking out the greater purpose for which we were created.

Gang, being taken into a place of frustration because we think marriage or deviance are the only two acceptable and G-d-ordained possibilities, and we force people into relationships rather than permit them to entertain a lifetime of singleness can rob us of some fine treasures the Father wants to express.

G-d did not make us to solve one problem by creating twelve others.

And perhaps we would do well by letting and celebrating G-d’s design in expressions that are other than the norm and that do not violate cause and effect.

I have seen much destruction when we present or we allow the culture and the SOTA (Spirit of the Age) to teach us and our children what helathy relational expression looks like.

And lest we forget, a man or a woman will reap what they sow. His design for relationships is for relationships where the possibility of multiplication and fruitfulness is a real possibility. Engaging in sexual relationship structures that guarantee both a lifetime of frustration and zero chance for multiplication was never his intent.

For those who wish to pick this apart by marshalling the argument of barrenness (“well, barren people are not able to have kids. Are you condemning them as well?”), then you missed the point and the nuance of what I am saying.

For the barren couple, the possibility of childbirth is very real, and repeatedly we have seen throughout Scripture the L-rd speaking about and dealing with barrenness.

So, no, I am not going to insert the barrenness red herring into this discussion.

What I am saying, is that when our expressions of sexuality violate the fairly-clear cause-and-effect relationships pertaining to human sexuality that the L-rd gave us, we find ourselves in a dangerous place.

And when we fail to recognize or we purposefully neglect other of His principles, such as the principles pertaining to eunuchs in Matthew 19, we will likely increase the chances of our frustration.

Perennial frustration and powerlessness and futility are not the portion of the child of G-d. Seasons where we have a bit of testing and refining and difficulty are. But G-d did not create us and destine us for permanent powerlessness.

So, as you consider masculinity and femininity, be sure to embrace ALL of that which pertains to you, and I implore you to deeply consider whether or not you are allowing woundedness, deception, offense, or buy-in of a cultural system to chart the course of your relational expression.

Those legal/moral passages in Scripture, regardless of the testament in which they are found have a purpose, and they form a fence and boundary markers and building blocks that protect us and with which we can build.

So, build well and defend well what He has given to your charge.

Be blessed, gang.

A Sucking Pit….Structures That Can Become Erected While Reading…

Not All Reading Is Fully Beneficial

The first time I felt it, was from reading the novel The Count of Monte Cristo. The last time I felt it, was in the loss of a dear friendship to me.

I don’t know if there are times when books or friendships bring to us that feeling of a structure that can create a black hole that sucks life from us, but I can say that when I read books as a very emotionally-sensitive person, I feel them intensely, for better or worse.

I read and can see each scene, and each plot device, and resonate with each similie, metaphor, allusion, and turn of phrase.

I think there are certain books that are designed, especially if the author in question has been given a gift with words by God, and an anointing for wordsmithing, which are designed to draw us in and leave us with something, a treasure or an antitreasure, if you will, if we let them affect us.

For those of us who are emotionally sensitive, we experience books in a different way, and as a result, we may have to read books through a filter in order to prevent negative structures from becoming erected by the assaults of the critters, especially of authors whose flow is defiled.

For example, those of you who know William Butler Yeats, might know that he practiced automatic writing, and had a way with words, and as a result, he was completely tied up with powers that were not of the kingdom.

Life-Giving Writings

Lewis and Tolkien, conversely, had streams that were plugged into the Lord as their source, and, as a result, for those who read his material, we see principles throughout that are not accompanied by defilement. Conversely, it is like a white hole manifesting when I read these. Especially when the relationships are lifegiving and mutually beneficial rather than sucking and depleting.

For example, the discovery of the White Sapling in The Return of the King shewed forth the life-giving relationship between Mithrandir and Aragorn II Elessar, the King of Gondor. Further, Aragorn fulfilled the known legend in Gondor that said “the hands of the king are the hands of a healer, and so shall the rightful king be known”, when, after the wounded were taken to Gondor’s Houses of Healing following The Battle of the Pelennor Fields, Aragorn healed them with the athelas plant. This exquisitely-penned account shows one of the deep dynamics at work in Tolkein’s writings that exposes the work of a Redemptive Gift Teacher.

With Reservation, A Further Recommendation For Understanding Relational Dynamics

I will say, though I cannot recommend her works apart from some serious reservations (for those of y’all that wonder about those reservations, feel free to ask Father about them), Joanne Rowling imbued her Harry Potter series with some of the best relational dynamics among friends, particularly around the area of loyalty, of any set of books I have thus far written. Granted, it was pulpy fiction, but the dynamics of interpersonal relationships in those books played out exceptionally well. If you have a solid filter in place, and Father gives you the grace to do so, read them, but only with a massive filter in place.

My Major Questions When Asking Whether Or Not We Should Read a Particular Book

  1. What is the source of the stream that flows from the essence of a writer, and thus, through their writings? “Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34).
  2. Has Father given you permission or instruction to read that writing? If so, then there is something in it for you.
  3. Are there principles in the work that you are writing? If so, then read in order to hunt for the principles of a given work. For, all truth is God’s truth, whereever it may be found.
  4. Is there a filter you need to have in place as you read a particular work?
  5. Sometimes Father is going to give you a grace to read something that He will not give to another, and vice versa. Thus, just because you see Him teaching one through this or that work, does not mean you have a free pass to read. What you do have is a free pass to talk to Father about the book or piece in question. Use that pass repeatedly. Discern, discern, discern. For example, because of the witchcraft in HP, it is not something I would readily recommend to any and everyone. Same with Yeats, or any others. I also have some real reservations about recommending a believer read Calvin’s writings, if they are susceptible to despair that could be magnified by reading the works of a man that believed in double predestination. For those who wish to wade into a particular work, great care should be exercised in discerning what is meat to eat and what is bone to reject.

This might sound like a laborious set of tasks for some, but when we use these filters as we read, we read ore effectively and with an eye toward executing more in alignment with the priorities of the Kingdom of God.