G-d Can’t Be Pro-Life, ‘Cause He Killed Babies…Or Can He (An Analysis of Some Texts, Using Other Texts)?

16 October 2020 by theparacleteshammer, posted in Exegesis, Uncategorized

AN INTRODUCTION AND SOME CUSTOMARY PROVOKING STATEMENTS

Because New York passed an abortion law or some such thing, people all of a sudden have started to talk about and exegete the news.

It has been raised as an argument against those who might be pro-life that G-d cannot be pro-life, since, in the Bible, and specifically, in the Torah, he killed babies.

I rarely discuss current events at the same time they are happening. But today I will make an exception.
ollie north
Check that. Two exceptions.

#elliotabrams

It is uncomfortable to talk about how unrighteous our government’s actions are in the area of abortion and talking about how righteous a pro-life stance is, while turning the blind eye to the warhawking anti-life nature of conducting police state actions overseas, that are the purview of Republicans and Democrats alike.

Back to what I was talking about, seriously. Sometimes we want to excuse our government’s stupidity by an appeal to one issue, when there are a breadth of issues at play. And such exegesis gets sloppy.

Some days, our exegesis, which can turn to support one group or party over another, is only painted with broad strokes that Scripture does not use.

And when it comes to Scripture, sometimes our exegesis boils down to making sure that the G-d in the right hand side of the Bible apologizes for the actions of the G-d in the left hand side of the Bible.

But here is how I would processionally explain the actions of the G-d on the left hand side of the book, in seven elements.

Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever. Hebrews 13:8

PREFACING THE SEVEN ELEMENTS: IS HE REALLY AS MEAN AS SOME SAY?

Consider also the fact that the “kinder, gentler” guy on the right hand side of the book, at the end of the right hand side, plagued the whole earth and wiped out a million here and there, in case we think the guy on the right hand side has more reformed ways.

Translation: parsing the Old Testament G-d and the New Testament G-d out from each other as distinct causes the whole book to fall apart greatly. Truly, they are one and the same. Revelation teaches us that. And His Judgment is His mercy.

BACKGROUND TEXTS FOR RECONCILING THE TWO PARTS

G-d, on the other hand, as Scripture RELENTLESSLY teaches throughout both the Tanakh and the New Testament, gives space for people to repent and reform before He executes against them.

Cue cluster of texts that show G-d’s mercy and granting people space and breathing room to repent before He judges.

Jonah 3-4, where G-d relents/repents after the capital of the flaying Assyrians repents.
Revelation 2:21, where G-d gave Jezebel space to repent
Genesis 15:16, where G-d gave the Amorites space to repent, that He didn’t have to, and would have caused something to work out between Israel and the Amorites had they repented.
Genesis 18:17-19, where G-d debated what he would share with Abraham, knowing Abraham’s righteousness, knowing Abraham’s heart to cry out for mercy, and knowing that Abraham was able to affect G-d’s heart because Abraham was the friend of G-d in only the way Givers can be.
Deuteronomy 2:9 and Judges 11:17, where G-d gave Moab their land, and commanded Israel not to harrass them, even before Moab fought against Israel (Joshua 24:9). This could have led to Moab’s national repentance and a reconciliation and commerce between Moab and Israel. And even when the national reconciliation did not take place, G-d STILL played out the drama that should have been between Moab and Israel in the story of Ruth and Boaz.
Genesis 46:4, where G-d SENT Israel down to Egypt, and G-d DWELT WITH Israel IN Egypt, and during which season, Israel had centuries to get to know her G-d, and the Amorites had space to repent and prepare the land for the ISRAELITES, which could have happened instead of their destruction.
Genesis 47:6, where Pharaoh gave favor to Israel in the land of Egypt and with the pagan ruler of Egypt.
Isaiah 19:24-25, where the L-rd will ultimately bring about redemption of the Egyptian nation, and the Egyptian nation will occupy the first place. SECONDLY, <GASP>, pagan, flaying, barbaric Assyria. And third, Israel.
Exodus 4:22-23, where G-d first reveals to a pagan nation His name of “Father”. He then commands, before the first drop of water turns to blood and before the first frog touches the land and dies, Egypt to LET HIS SON GO. And then the judgments start and increase.
- And yes, one can argue G-d kept Pharaoh from repenting, because of Exodus 4:21 and 7:3, but to merely argue that is to see only part of the whole narrative. Psalm 115:16, “the highest heavens belong to the L-rd, but the earth he has given to the sons of men.” G-d has given people free will to choose what they will or will not do. He does not always get what He wants.
From the point above, through the entire sequence of issues, the L-rd showed the Egyptians what they had done in infant genocide towards the men of Israel (Exodus 1:22, note the waters turning to blood in 7:17-21 revealed the death that was in the water and the blood that was on the Egyptian hands). The Tenth Plague was the progressive outflow of the response of the Egyptian injustice of Israelite genocide. Again, there are causes and effects. And when you sow the cause, you will reap the effects.
Let me point out also the counsel of G-d in Exodus 9:19; He told the Egyptian people to gather their flocks and herds to keep them from the hail. Some listened, and some did not. There were Egyptians who had livestock that kept them in from the hail and their livestock was spared. This opened the door for some of them to turn. G-d uses every circumstance to bring people to Him, including His judgments.
Recall also Exodus 12:49, which could plausibly imply that, during the plagues, there were some Egyptians in the nation that chose to follow the G-d of Israel, and chose to align themselves with Israel, and celebrated the Passover. Even if there were none that did actually align with Israel, He still made provision for that.
The book of Joshua is completely devoted to the destruction of whole nations while the Israelites possessed the Promised Land.

Element 1: G-d’s decisions, even those decisions that result in human death, are ALWAYS executed in the context of His mercy and His justice, which are the twin facets of His love. What will drive His children to seek Him?

Element 2: G-d’s purposes are aimed at a long-game strategy. He weighs all decisions with an eye toward redemption and how they will impact eternity and His house.

Element 3: G-d aims to eradicate sin, rebellion, iniquity, and abomination from the earth.

Element 4: G-d’s yearning desire is to walk among us, be our G-d, and for us to be His people. Whatever keeps that community from happening He may remove from us.

Element 5: G-d looks for the fruit on the tree. He looks for fresh water or salt, hot water or cold, humility or assertion, upness or downness, filiality or bridality. He looks for consistency that He can utilize. He looks for and brings organized sequence.

Element 6: Sin twists and perverts the good, and that twisting is revealed in the fruit of the tree that is planted. G-d despises things that twist and mar.
Element 7: Everything G-d is, does, or permits to happen is ALWAYS with an eye toward straightening out the twistedness.

Look, it is not like G-d on a bipolar whim massacred millions of innocent babies in an unprovoked rage.

He gave all of these nations, including Mizraim, CENTURIES to repent. And when a culture of death and murder is embraced, somewhere down the line, death is going to be result, and the empire that embraces death is going to self-devour.

He exposed the Egyptian culture for the death-bringing culture it had become. Blood was already in the waters before the first plague. He just forced the nation to see the blood that was in the water. He untwisted the reality of the waters. And in so doing, He allowed all of those baby boys’ blood to testify (Hebrews 12:24).

The Golden Calf is an example of a culture self-devouring. The Levites massacred 3,000 of their own families and so were ordained through G-d’s warring against the defiled spirit of idolatry.

National sin has national consequences. Longstanding sin has consequences. G-d even showed longsuffering toward the residents of Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities on the plain, and Lot interceded for Zoar, and as a result, G-d spared that city.

And one of the names of G-d (Exodus 34:5-6) is The L-rd Who Is Longsuffering.

G-d is not Hitler, G-d is not Pol Pot, G-d is not Stalin, and G-d is not Mao.
And it is not really the church’s job to justify the behavior of G-d to others. G-d can work in, around, and through our objections and the obstacles. But we have to recognize that the principles of Scripture do work. Sexual sin has sexual consequences, murderous sin has murderous consequences. Abortive sin has abortive consequences. Actions do have reactions. Sum of the Forces, Newtonian approximations, and all that jazz.

And Jezebel’s genocide resulted in her blood being shed.

And Naboth’s Vineyard landed on Ahab’s head.

The Principles work, without prejudice, and without caring what you think about how nice G-d or anyone else is.

And ultimately, G-d can work every situation to His glory.

But for us, now is the time to wake up, acknowledge reality in the stead of hiding from it, and bless New York, as we should have, instead of cursing it.

G-d was there first, and this decision on New York’s part is not helped by cursing New York. Rather, gang, let’s not carry on with eighty-five reams of conversation, and instead work with what we know about the Giver and Exhorter design of the state and Manhattan, respectively.

Bless the Giver and the Exhorter dynamic of that state.
Just some thoughts here, gang.

Trauma Bonds To Time and Land: COVID-19 And Short-Term Memory Edition

22 July 2020 by theparacleteshammer, posted in Principles

What if this season of COVID-19 is being used by the enemy to exploit our words, our gaslighting, our mistreatment, our maligning of one another in order to lay a sticky trauma bond in order to mess with our timeline and create artificial time or Luciferian time, and to pervert and twist and mess up and fray our three strands of time (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: Life, Dominion, Honor)?

What if, instead of redeeming the time, we are instead defiling it with our words and actions?

What if, instead of responding to the L-rd, we are reacting to the enemy?

What if, instead of allowing the L-rd to set the agenda and calling out His goodness and His work in this, we are calling out how evil the enemy is and therefore allowing the clowns to set the agenda?

What if we are missing out on the opportunity to unpack this segment of time because we are merely reacting to what is happening in the natural?

I am not suggesting that we stop protesting and only return to being nice and sweet, because nice is not a fruit of the spirit.

I am suggesting that what is happening in the natural with our civil liberties is not the only thing negative happening now.

What if we are assuming socialism is just an election away when in reality it has already come?

What if we have been a socialist state for some time and many of the manifestations and superstructures of the police state were put in place by a conservative president?

What if it only took an invasion (Bull Run, 1861, or September 11, 2001), to get us to accept the control of a police state?

What if that superstructure was built upon a great society and an older deal with which we have grown comfortable?

What if we are speaking out about what is happening in the natural, but we have grown comfortable with a panic culture that was based on a spirit of fear in the supernatural environment, and we are just now getting to the point where we will be made uncomfortable by the spirit realm and we are just now walking in discernment?

What if G-d promised us we could walk with Him and we have for decades proclaimed we are comfortable without Him?

What if our attention span has grown so increasingly short that we cannot see beyond one election cycle, and therefore cannot see the Socialism in our current legislation, airports, cities, and military strategy?

What if the current wave of mistreatment of the US is based in a predatory foreign policy?

What if the military can get us used to their prevailing presence in our major cities?

What if there is no end in sight for our men and women in uniform and we are just getting used to the price of endless deployment?

What if Donald Trump presides in a nation that cannot see past the next tweet or the next election?

What if our attention span keeps us from interceding prophetically over the long-term because we have been distracted in our short attention span from election to election with clarion calls to 40 day fasts that only take into account an election, but do not take into account the long-term reality that in one way or another, we have already embraced socialism by turning away from our fundamental principles and embracing a domestic and foreign policy of safety at any cost?

What if we have been conditioned to believe abortion is the only evil, and that we have chosen to pay any cost, even if it means we embrace a culture that embraces death in other areas?

What if, in order to break abortion, we have to make a deal with Monsanto?

What if the promise of overturning a bad SCOTUS is actually a genetically-modified carrot that is a complete violation of His deisgn, and that we have gotten so used to trading one set of principles in order to have another in place, we have bargained the source of our light away?

What if the very thing we have feared happening in this nation has already happened?

What if the prophets of the prophetic movement who have shown to be accurate 13 percent of the time and that we are still getting our north star from concerning single elections turn out to not be hearing the voice of the L-rd from election to election?

What if our prophetic voices are not hearing the voice of G-d?

What if the enemy is, during the last 4, 8, or 12 years, while we willingly listened to televised debates over new networks that were full of the spirit of lewdness, the enemy sowed seeds of destruction while we thought we were sowing the seeds of democracy, and also, what if during that time, he set up surrounding tripwires behind our battle lines and all it will take is one wrong move to realize we have been set up?

What if we have been pointed in the wrong direction this whole time by a ruling charismatic class that has only heard the L-rd 13 percent of the time?

What if the enemy can set off a trip wire that traumatizes us and sends us back through a loop that is upstream of our healing and deliverance and keeps us stickily embedded in the curses we have spoken over time such that we are bound to time by the trauma we have collectively suffered.

What do we have to fear if I am wrong? Nothing

What do we have to fear if I am right? Nothing good.

#justthinking

Twisting Tithes and Offerings / The Reality of Poverty, and the Spirit of Poverty: Dynamics of the Kingdom That are NOT the Power of G-d. PLUS a Blessing

16 May 2020 by theparacleteshammer, posted in Uncategorized

“The L-RD said to Moses, “Speak to the people of Israel, that they take for me a contribution. From every man whose heart moves him you shall receive the contribution for me. And this is the contribution that you shall receive from them: gold, silver, and bronze, blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen, goats’ hair, tanned rams’ skins, goatskins, acacia wood, oil for the lamps, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense, onyx stones, and stones for setting, for the ephod and for the breastpiece.”
Exodus 25:1-7

We often hear the dynamic of financial giving to the church, and frequently, when those gifts are given to the church, she does not steward them well.

Often, when the giving of offerings is mentioned, it is most strongly connected with money. However, from the above passage, money is not the only thing to give, the only medium for exchange, nor the thing the L-rd likes the most.

And frequently, churches in the circles I have run in most recently function on an emergency week-to-week basis. There is no slush fund for widows, orphans, or fatherless. There is zero investment in college students’ tuition so as to assist them in avoiding the evils of debt, something Scripture explicitly commands us to avoid. And college students are missionaries, whether or not we like it, and we are responsible to see to it that their monthly support is met. And the church does not often preach or teach giving passages with a view toward garments, textiles, time, presence, or service. And those garments and leather mentioned in the double fractal of seven in Exodus 25 is treated as wealth.

In short, our view of giving is exceptionally narrow, and our view of what consititutes a legitimate need is even more narrow. Moreover, our views of justice are equally narrow. The church, not the government, was designed to be the primary safety net for the poor.

Another View of Romans 13: Past vv. 1 and 2

Romans 13. Let’s crack a piece of this one open in our next flyover, because it is likely to make us a touch uncomfortable.

And, let us bypass the usual griping about vv. 1 and 2.

The text reads:

For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is G-d’s servant for your GOOD. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. FOr he is the servant of G-d, an avenger who carries out G-d’s wrath on the wrongdoer.
Romans 13:3-4 ESV

Each of you know that I do not hold Washington as the leadership, because the Constitution, being our foundational set of principles, set the citizenry as the leaders, and our representatives are those who serve us.

Of course, some have a very twisted view of how authority works, which is why we are in the predicament we are in. We bought into the twisted idea that a politician’s moral fiber was not important during the presidency of Bill Clinton, and now we are stuck with the immoral in Donald Trump. Our lack of consistency in dealing with elected officials is legendary.

That said, even were I to humor the idea that the politicians are the closest analogy to Paul’s use of “kings and those in authority” in 1 Timothy 2:1-4, I would say the following.

The king is supposed to be G-d’s servant for good. And if he is corrupted, or better yet, if they are corrupted, then we do not have a servant for good.

The king is supposed to be an avenger who carries G-d’s wrath on the wrong doer.

Earth’s mightiest heroes….

Yes, I went there….

If those in the government have chosen to expend their authority, then they will lose out on the authority given to them, and the L-rd will hand that authority over to those who will steward it, and to those who will be the avengers for good and for justice.

If elected officials continue to bastardize their offices, then at some point, the L-rd will hand the lion’s share of that authority to those who will move the wheels of justice and those who will seek for the river of righteousness to flow like a never-failing stream.

I speak from personal experience. A prophet threatened me and several of my closest friends at the time. She defiled her office, and the L-rd put a stop to that, stripped her of her authority, and gave it to others who would steward it rightly.

For the good of the Kingdom.

Authority can be seated in offices, it can be seated in our position in Messiah, it can be given for special tasks, and it can be earned.

And when stewarded well, the Kingdom is further extended.

And when the Kingdom of G-d is expanded and increased, it will benefit other people.

We were made to extend the authority of G-d in the context of His kingdom.

And kingdoms are not built by slaves who are grasping for ready-made, completed solutions born out of the simplicity of what we think is the gospel.

The Kingdom of G-d is not built on miracles.

It is built on principles.

It is built with a variety of resources, not merely financial, that are woven together.

It is built inclusive of the frame of suffering. You have to have skin in the game and awareness of the building blocks, mortar, and other materials that make up the structures in the kingdom.

And it is built by sons, sons who understand the εξουσια coupled with δυναμις.

By sons who look for the resources, not just some of the resources, but every single resource.

Poverty is not merely lack of financies and money. Poverty is a mindset that refuses to look for resources because it is convinced of the reality of lack.

Relationships are a resource.

Knowledge and knowhow are resources.

Marriage, family, relationships, friendships.

Land, time.

Humility, perseverance.

Keeping at it when you have parts that beg for suicide.

How well can you succeed at being who you are?

Who He designed you to be.

For as many days as remain to you.

Open your eyes. The eyes of your spirit.

Find all of the resources that belong to you.

You need not just money and gold and precious gemstones coupled with the presence and power of G-d. You need wood, fabric, friends, companions, tenderness, time, land, and authority. The principles that are woven together.

We do not help someone out of poverty by permanently giving them liquid resources.

We permanently help someone out of poverty by giving them the drive, tools, intangibles, and connection that reminds them of their purpose and drives them toward that purpose.

There may be a season where we provide finances for them, but that is not a permanent fix. In order to fix the root problem, we have to help them get at the spirit, the clown, the mindset of poverty that they are stuck in, and root that bastard out.

And we must be willing to play our best long game at helping them out and overcoming.

This is why I ask so many questions. Not so anyone can question my motives, but so we can have a framework to discuss artful solutions to emerge from the mindset that is poverty.

It takes not merely a one-time in-the-black monetary surge. It takes perseverence when you have nothing. It takes forward movement when all you have is a two-dollar yellow pad and a nub of a pencil.

There are scads of unlocked resources in between your ears, in between your lungs, and in your gut.

And your thoughts and emotions, coupled together, can work massively.

We are often taught in the church, by too many people, in two broad and broadly opposing segments among Christ-followers that thoughts are primary or emotions are primary.

The first six redemptive gifts do lead with and work out their problems through the mind, while the Mercy leads with and work through their emotions.

And G-d is trying to couple these two with the kidneys and adrenals and create a trifecta of solutions.

And, indeed, a Mercy can work through their mind effectively.

And a Teacher can work through their heart.

As both should. We lack no resources, and neither does our great King and Father who fathers us through that bevy of resources.

And G-d connects with all seven redemptive gifts on the level of the spirit NOT the level of the soul.

Our trouble is that we have such a hard time unpacking the light G-d put into us, and we desperately need to.

So, here is a blessing to that end.

A Blessing With Respect To Resources and Authority

Beloved,

Richly blessed, tenderly-endowed, bridally-endowed, corporately-destined beloved friend,

I invite the fullness of your spirit to come front in all of it’s 6-and-1 glory.

White, Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, and Purple…..

Or your chosen color set.

Massively given to parallel the variously named spirits of G-d, led by the confluence of the six called the Spirit of the L-rd, paralleling the Prophet portion.

And I bless you to shine all the confluence of that prismed light toward the path across the stars Father has you on, richly-treasured and endowed with the resources of the King of Glory, for whom the gates open up.

I bless the broken-apart system in your soul and spirit, for those who have parts and those who are the victims of ritual abuse.

I bless you with the love of infinity. I bless you to be safely moored in your desired haven, aboard the ship the King gives you to conduct business and Kingdom affairs.

I bless you like Solomon, who trafficked in a bevy of resources, ivory, gold, silver, bronze, cedar, apes, peacocks, science, proverbs, wisdom, writing, medicine.

I bless you, even in the hardest and worst of seasons, to find something that is of use, and to celebrate that something of use. I bless you to fly with the wings Father gives you. I bless you to synch with the weather Father gives you.

I bless the storehouses of snow, and that Father puts every flake precisely where He wants it.

I bless you with knowledge of the galaxy that Father put into you, and the marshalling together of every resource you have, including the wilderness that is given for your quietness.

I bless the seasons of barley, and the seasons of wheat, and the seasons of both burlap and cashmere.

I bless you to recognize the reality that like the Scarecrow and Tinman in the Mercy continent of Oz, Father has, completed aspect as seen from the present, given you a New Heart and a New Mind.

I bless you to know that you are His son.

I bless you to fight and, with the resource of supernatural strategies, to know how best to allocate your warring resources.

I bless you to know on the battlefield when you are to conserve resources.

I bless you not to react to the clowns and donkeys.

I bless you to RESPOND to your KING’s agenda.

We were not made to react to anything the devil does. Rather, we were made to flow in step with the King’s agenda.

I bless your resources that have been made subject to the negative heads of Leviathan to untwist, and I bless you with the resources that are untwisted and undefiled by the negative heads of Leviathan.

I bless you to fight in accordance with the L-rd’s mandates.

I bless you to find the untapped treasure.

I bless you with the moxie to recognize when it is a season for material and fianancial resources, and when it is a season for immaterial resources.

The Wright Brothers started with a bicycle shop. That bike shop, their day job, financed their mad scientist lair and shed behind the shop, where they ran their experiments. And the city of Dayton MOCKED them at first.

Spirit, at first, people ain’t gonna take to kindly to your thoughts and words.

Do not heed their idiotic kvetching.

Be aligned with the glorious King’s adoration of your initial cries. Even if they sound like infant screams or cries.

I bless you spirit, to grow, as the garden of the L-rd, like the cities of the lush Jordan plain. I bless you to grow like the land of Egypt, which was described as lush and fertile in Genesis 13:10.

I bless you to be comforted with His comfort when others say you are not worthy.

I bless you to ignore the stupidity of others’ soulish counsel.

I bless you to find and execute for the good of others, and as you earn greater authority, even if you are not in elected office, as Deborah, others will come to have you decide their cases.

When other politicians are squadering their official authority, the authority of their offices, I bless you to earn authority and to not squander your authority, so you can steward greater authority, an authority that flows out of love and compassion.

And as you pick up and ask the king to cleanse the authority that others have wasted, I bless you to flourish in the deep places. And I bless you to not just have the authority that gtives you warm fuzzies.

But, rather, I bless you to have measureable, verifiable, sustained change in the areas to which you speak.

Spirit, you are the one in authority that Romans 13 speaks about. May you govern for good, and not evil, or selfishness, or vain ambition.

May all of y’all govern as builders, spirits, collectively, where every politician, including the President, Vice President, and others, have wasted whole swaths of their birthrights.

May you know deep and transofrmational change, and not mere warm fuzzies.

May you experience ROOTED CHANGE in the spirit that is permanent, and in accordance with the finest the kingdom has to offer.

I bless you each with the concordant authority that is each of y’all’s collectively and corporately, and ruggedly individual as well.

May you do the dance between the individual and secret on the one hand, and the corporate and public on the other hand.

I bless you each, spirits, with those blessings, and revelation, in the name of Yeshua ha-Mashiach.

Sincerely and Badly Executed

16 December 2019 by theparacleteshammer, posted in The Kingdom of God

I would like to take credit for the following.

But it would be dishonest of me to say that I didn’t get prompted to write the following after I read a piece by Arthur Burk and Margaret Lehman from the Sapphire Blessing Application available for smartphones.

The link to the Google app is here. The link to the iPhone app is here.

Seriously, gang, this is one app that is worth the charge of a few bucks per month for something that would provide a deep piece of life.

With that disclaimer and credit out of the way, onto the heart of the post.

More Than Sincerity….Effectiveness.

It takes more than our own capacity to do something that is the object of our dreams.

In order to take on a dream and to bring it to fruition, we not only have to dream and see the good thing Father has given us. we must also undertake and understand the process by which the dream comes into being.

It is not just something that God merely does without our assistance, or something that just happens.

It takes work….considerable work…on our part, and the setting together of many different principles to cause something to happen.

Bringing a vision to pass is not just about having the vision. It is about writing that vision down, and seeing what parts are your responsiblity, and breaking those parts of yours into measurable principles, weaving together those principles into tasks, and the tasks into something sustainable.

We don’t do more of it faster and harder if it is not working.

Rather, we change our tool, our principle that is not working for one that may work.

We were made for something, and the Lord does not bring it to pass unless….

Moses climbs the mountain.

Solomon forms a political alliance with King Hiram of Tyre.

David kills a lion and a bear.

David sings in the fields with his flocks.

Jesus learns masonry and building construction in the stonemason’s shop.

John the Baptizer dwells in the desert.

Samson keeps his hair long.

Adam communicates to Eve.

Eve comes against the serpent.

The eleven tarry.

Saul asks for Ananias.

Orville and Wilbur understand birdflight.

And make several trips.

And care for their colleagues more than their flying contraption.

And hours of being ridiculed behind closed doors while they experiment behind the bike shop.

We move into our realm of reality.

And stay in a church that does nothing for us.

Or with people that are little more than obstacles.

On the way to an assignment.

And flow outward to a church where you are not fed, but rather you do your work in feeding others.

And remember what He did for you.

Gang, we must move past sincerity, to the place where we embody principles.

Because dreams become reality when vision moves into principles.

With credit to Arthur Burk for catalyzing this concept repeatedly.

Stop being a sincere, slothful idiot (from the Greek idiotes, meaning “unlearned” or “someone who does not understand”).

You were made for more than just drooling and waiting for God to do it.

You were made for partnership with him.

Partnership means you bring some of the resources and capacity to develop skill to the table.

Why Some of Us Are Tired of the Popular Tripe Regarding the Angelic Realm: From The Desk of Michael Heiser

9 November 2019 by theparacleteshammer, posted in Biblical Studies/Exegesis, Uncategorized

Dr Heiser writes,

This is some of the most solid work on the topic of angels. Dr. Heiser’s book on angels adds a welcome weight of obsession with the canon of biblical text that counterpoints our touchy-feels, charismatic foolishness.

Indeed, what is needed is more of an understanding of the fullness of what Scripture is saying, not less, and not necessarily more merely of what the traditions of Christianity and Judaism are saying apart from the informing plumb line of the canon.

Mike Heiser is precisely the exegetical breath of fresh air on a number of topics that we need.

From the Desk of Stacy Sims: Women Are Not Small Men

29 October 2019 by theparacleteshammer, posted in Design, Principles

Plyometrics and Resistance Training….

Principles Vs. Correct Thinking/Philosophy/Doctrine

For a biblical studies blog, it might seem unusual to y’all for me to post a video that deals with kinesiology. But, if you will look at the category of this post, you will see it listed under “Principles”.

A principle is a universal, non-optional, cause-and-effect relationship.

So, let’s explode your thinking that your prime job is to correct false theology and bad doctrine. Your job is to build the right thing, and fight the right enemy. True, exposing false teaching is a part of the Christian/Jewish experience. But it is only a part. And many of us have come to believe that it makes up most or all of our job description as Jesus’ followers.

The Bible teaches a principle-based faith that executes beyond mere doctrine, what we believe. We move past expounding on what we think, and we move into expounding on how we respond, act, grow, and build, in response to what we believe.

We move into the arena of cause-and-effect.

Stacy is countering a lot of bad thinking. She is verbally warring, and in her life, practically meleeing, against improperly-executed principles: widely-held, cause-and-effect relationships that are completely unrelated (message to women: eat soy and engage in low-impact cardiovascular activity in response to not losing weight during perimenopause). And she combats it with real execution of real principles that have brought real results.

And principles are what we are followers of Jesus Christ build with. Not theology. Not doctrine.

Protecting Fences Vs. Using Them and Building Other Things…

Do we erect fences at times? Yes.

But do we build everything in our lives using the materials that are designed only for fences? Absolutely not!

Theology and doctrine are a fences. They are not a comprehensive set of building materials.

And fences make a great boundary marker, but a lousy airplane.

As Christians, we need to move merely beyond protecting theology and defending theology. We need to move into using principles to build with.

Again, what are principles?

Answer: Universal, non-optional, cause-and-effect relationships.

If we are so interested in how false everybody else’s theology is, but we are not interested in doing anything that is of practical value, we cut out about 90% of what we were designed to do with Scripture, which is FULL of principles, and all of Reality, which is also FULL of principles, and we reduce the life Christ purchased for us into an anemic shadow of merely erecting a dead edifice that is only constructed of the propositions we agree to, and we don’t bother scaling the mountain the culture has placed before us by using the principles to build the ladder, rope bridge, or carved staircase.

And how do we use the principles (ALL of the principles) to effect and produce change.

We need to desperately understand the principles Scripture teaches, such as:

how women teach and preach, vs. how men teach and preach,
how men parent vs. how women parent,
how singles parent vs. how marrieds parent,
how we connect with one another differently based on sexual differences,
how we connect based on our varied designs from man to man and woman to women,
how we weave the principles together to build: an auto, an airplane, a ship, and a shoe,
how we each connect with various aspects of creation,
those who connect with animals or plants vs. humans,
those who connect with individuals vs. groups,
how different people lead their companies, churches, countries, families, and schools differently, based on their unpacked design (Saul’s leadership vs. David’s Leadership, vs Solomon’s Leadership),
how woundedness stunts our growth vs. how sin affects our growth vs. how demons, Leviathan, Nephilim, unclean spirits, or alien human spirits affect us (NEWS FLASH: it is not one or the other, but it frequently is facets of a couple of things. Your over simplification of a problem to only all sin, or only all demons does not help matters,
and why a man’s body responds differently than a woman’s body when exposed to identical activities.

How Change Comes

If we want to produce change, we do not accomplish it by building more fences in order to show others how we are different from or better than them.

If we want to produce change, we do that by building cities, buildings, roads, professions, vehicles, communities.

Take the analogy, listen to. this video, and consider where you have been erecting fences instead of building homes, gang.

We Preach What Jesus Is Preparing…And It Ain’t Merely Fences

To finish, consider the following. Jesus never said, “I go to erect a fence in heaven to protect my very vulnerable kingdom”, nor did he say “when you preach, make your primary focus showing others their fences are in the wrong place and showing them how your fence is superior to their fence”.

And, before you shout at me, yes, I know there is a wall in heaven, and a fence, and a gate to keep undesirables out.

But that was not the sole focus of Jesus discourse on the kingdom.

Kingdoms are all about building, building blocks, and other masculine-type work.

They are not merely or only or primarily about fences.

Rather, the focus is:

What does that wall protect?

Instead, Jesus said:

I go to prepare a PLACE for you…

That place, though protected by a boundary, is, in fact, a home not built with fences, but a whole host of raw materials.

Gang, are you only erecting fences, or are you making a difference? For the focus has been on building fences. And it has needed to always be, instead of fenses (see what I did there?).

Are you driving others and impacting them to focus on returning home, or to merely obsess over whether or not they are engaging with the fence the way they are supposed to be?

Are you building with fence pickets, or are you using EVERYTHING THAT HAS BEEN GIVEN TO YOU?

Are you incorporating both the fence and the building blocks.

It is time to grow the whole property, and the whole of what he has given you.

Not just the fence, which is a fraction of what Father has given you, but also the home he has given you the raw materials to build.

What are you protecting? The protection device, or the building and city inside? And what percentage of your time should be devoted to protecting the kingdom instead of preaching its nearness and impact? I dare say…..
Very little

Concerning the Redemptive Gift of Prophet (Revision)

8 August 2019 by theparacleteshammer, posted in Redemptive Gifts

In the previous post, I discussed the concept of Redemptive Gifts and lightly touched on how they are tied to the other groupings of seven in Scripture. We covered one of those groupings, the Seven Days of Creation. However, there are others, such as:

The Seven Signs of Christ in the Gospel of John
The Seven Parables of the Kingdom in the Gospel of Matthew.
The Seven Last Words of Christ
Seven of the Ten Compound Names of Jehovah
The Seven Trees of Isaiah 41:19
The Seven Items of the Believer’s Armor
The Seven Things the L-rd Despises
The Seven Items of Furniture in the Tabernacle
The Seven Gifts of Joseph to Jacob
The Seven Letters to the Seven Churches in Revelation
The Seven Names of Christ in Revelation 2 and 3
The Seven Treasures of Christ in Revelation 2 and 3
The Seven Spirits of G-d
The Seven Pillars of Wisdom
The Seven Actions of Wisdom in Proverbs 4:6-10 (Wisdom will keep, guard, exalt, honor, give a garland, give a crown, give many years)
The Seven gifts of a godly woman, the serial entrepreneur, which array her home, from Proverbs 31:13-26. (Understanding in textiles, food, real estate, vintage, fitness or self-stewardship, dexterity, and instruction)
Seven Questions of Moses to the Burning Bush
Seven I AM Statements in the Gospel of John

The groupings, most of which form a pattern tied to the Redemptive Gifts, have themes and patterns that repeat, and we refer to any pattern that repeats as a fractal.

So, as a refresher of the last post, let us leap into a brief description of the gifts.

DEFINING OUR FRAME

So, what exactly are the Redemptive Gifts? And what is their purpose?

They are the gifts mentioned in Romans 12:6-8, which reads:

Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith; if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching; or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.

Some call these the Motivational Gifts.

They are called Redemptive, because G-d uses our hardwiring to redeem creation. They are called Motivational, because they describe our motivation.

There are seven different types of hardwiring that each have a different motivation.

And they are motivated to share the King of Kings in a different facet, and each of those facets is good.

From the business side of things, because businesses are often extensions of the people who receive the vision for the companies they found, I have mentioned various people and organizations that I think have this or that gift. This post series will not address the business side or the land side of things.

Before I get into the expression of how the gifts work in individuals, however, I need to address three items so our heads and hearts are in the right place.

THE THREE REALITIES OF UNIQUE HARDWIRING, FILIAL IDENTITY, AND WHOSE TEACHING THIS REALLY IS

1) Unique Hardwiring: We are discussing that special hardwiring that G-d put into each of us when we were conceived and then born, that purpose and role that we each have in effecting G-d’s ultimate plan of redemption. I don’t know how many of y’all realize it, but all of y’all were put on this earth to solve a particular problem USING YOUR UNIQUE HARDWIRING, and not someone else’s hardwiring. A Prophet is designed, for example, to drill down with a simplistic worldview. A Giver, on the other hand, is designed to see the shades of gray and complexity and not to be black-and-white. We are not supposed to be forcing the black-and-white person to see the shades of gray and vice-versa. We are supposed to see the unique designs, embrace them, celebrate them, and see them set up to succeed, not cast stones at them or tell them how they have to be part of a sausage factory and become like everyone else.

2) Filial Identity:

fil·i·al

ˈfilyəl/

adjective

of or due from a son.

There is no mold for the kingdom work. G-d makes us, knits us, and crafts us. One mold per person, and then G-d breaks that mold. You have a unique design, it is good, it is unique, and while it is one of seven (because that is reflected in creation), there are an infinite number of ways that each unique son of the Kingdom expresses himself or herself in their unique design.

And yes, I did use the term “son” and “herself” in the same sentence. We are sons in the kingdom, and we are each the bride of Christ. Congratulations, life is uncomfortable for all of us.

Woman of G-d, you are the son of G-d.

Man of G-d, you are the bride of Christ.

And I am sorry, but I will not sugarcoat that reality.

3) Whose Teaching: There are people who assume that this teaching is solely the product of Arthur Burk. This is not his signature teaching. He moves from research project to research project, looking at new paradigms. Further, he does not rest on his laurels. It is a teaching of his, and it is not the center of his teaching, though it is a major part of his paradigm. And while many of us that have accepted the Redemptive Gift teaching are friends of his and track with SLG, it does not mean that we are his groupies or that we hang on his bell waiting for him. The teaching on the Fractal of Seven and the Redemptive Gifts belongs to all of us, and it is the responsiblity of those of us who walk in the light of those revelations to find our own place in the constellation that was articulated by both Arthur and Bill Gothard, who, if you recall what Arthur said on the original Redemptive Gift teaching, was provided the original source material that Arthur used for about 25 years.

This is the teaching that was gifted to the body of Yeshua ha-Mashiach. It’s not one man at the top and we all sit at his feet, nor is it one man at the bottom and we all stand on his shoulders. Rather, it is one of our number who shared this with us, and we walk along side him as just fellow believers. It is G-d’s revelation that G-d gave to some men and they in turn, dispensed it to us in order for us to become factories and produce new revelations and paradigms using the same principles.

Do not put either Bill or Arthur on a pedestal. And do not put any one of your friends on a pedestal either. I will explain with each of the gifts.

Now, having said that, let’s jump into first of the Redemptive Gifts.

THE PROPHET

I would like to start by covering the first of the seven gifts, the Gift of Prophet, which is different from the Office of Prophet in Ephesians 4 and the Manifestation Gift of Prophesying in 1 Corinthians 12-14

BEHAVIORAL CHARACTERISTICS

Binary, Didactic Worldview-everything is black and white, right and wrong, in and out, up and down.
They decide what they like and do not like and they are quite comfortable telling you in a hurry what they think and why, even if they have not spent as much time as you would have spent thinking about that issue and question. And they don’t care if you think what they said took them 2.5 seconds to say.
Prophets think in terms of absolutes. So, when you are dealing with those kids that are absolute and black-and-white, DO NOT CURSE THAT PART OF THEIR DESIGN. DON’T force them into a mold and DON’T CURSE them by saying “once you grow up, you will see there are shades of gray” and “you can’t be so black-and-white”. THEY ARE NOT INTERESTED IN YOUR GRAYSCALE. Loose those young Prophets and let them go.
1. Now, at some point, it will help them when they have a friend or three that is patient and willing to help them see some complexities in life, but they are very good at taking the complex and boiling it down to a practical solution.
If you want a problem-solver, make sure to make friends with a Prophet, because they are the ultimate problem-solver, bar none. They eat, drink, breathe, sleep, and live problem-solving. In fact, by the time you have gotten your first cup of coffee to your face for a sip, they have solved twenty-five problems that no one asked them to solve. It is just that the problem-solving engine was conceived running. G-d conceived them in their mothers womb, and gave them a V12 with 28 speeds in the transmission, and that engine runs faster than a Formula One car.
They may suffer from an insufferable amount of tunnel vision, as in the case of George Washington Carver (go to this video link and watch from 2:10 to 5:30). They may not see any other dynamic or detail on the way to solving the problem that they are focused on and passionate about with a laser-focus.
Because of their intense drive, they also have to go somewhere. They have to have a point, an objective, a reason, a purpose, or a goal. They cannot just be not moving along without know where they are going and why. The need to have a destination is usually a non-negotiable for them. They are always going somewhere. They have to be proceeding. They have a direction. Frequently, they are in motion.
And about these goals and purposes, Prophets are legendary for, and are usually reviled for, being turbocharged in terms of their intensity.
They are designed to see the results of cause-and-effect relationships, and as a result they use those cause-and-effect relationships to solve problems. Think of George Washington Carver and the Peanut as the solution for the soil depletion. Think of Thomas Edison and the light bulb as the solution for creating light after the sun went down. And as a final example, Henry Ford who was an inventor, shut down his factory so that he could work on this new thing of which he had conceived and called it “the assembly line”. It revolutionized the automobile industry. And that was Ford’s gift to the automotive industry.
Prophets make decisions very quickly and can shift to the execution of those decisions with blazing-fast speed, not always realizing the full implication of those decisions and executions. George Washington Carver and the peanut and then creating the mess of not having an economy for all those peanuts.
They are often seen as bold and brash, but that is because they readily see far and have vision for the distance, which means they often lack at seeing broadly.
The Prophet also does not do fear. Everything they do they do with confidence. They are no-fear with respect to their relationships, with respect to solving problems, and with respect to their giving. They are often are the most generous of the gifts, even more so than the Giver, because unlike the Giver who will give wisely and with an eye toward bettering infrastructure, the Prophet will bypass his brain in his impulse to give. They will lead the charge on all sorts of things.
Prophets will initiate the building of new things, the articulation of new ideas, and the expression of new things. Nicola Tesla, for example.
Prophets are interested in the new way more than they are the old. They like a blank sheet of paper to do something new. If they are put in charge of something existing, they will enlarge it, improve it, fix it, change it, or quit from it. They don’t do maintenance. They fix. If you try to give a Prophet something to maintain, the odds are high that, if he doesn’t do one of these above things, he or she will break it.
Prophets direct and show direction. They direct the church and show the path or many paths, depending on if direction is needed, or if options are needed. Think of the skills necessary in driving versus chess. One path versus survival on many fronts.
They move toward brokenness and chaos, in order to bring order out of that chaos. Broken people, broken situations, broken spirituality.
Prophets will move toward the darknesses that intimidate other gifts.
They will care compassionately for the broken and for the roadkill.
Their greatest battle is with bitterness, offense, and the maintenance of their joy.
They have the greatest range of emotions and volcanic expression of those emotions.
Because they are intense fixers, they will see what is wrong in a situation and they will judge what is wrong and make a running list of all the things that need fixing, and if you let them fix, they will fix those things.
Prophets have an intense judgmental spirit typically.
Prophets can be completely condescending without realizing it. Because they are usually right in their assessment of a problem given a set of principles, they know they are right and this can irritate some of the less sure gifts.
They take the initiative to judge. They will judge situations, things, and also other people, and themselves. Because of this tendency to pass judgment, they can come across as judgmental. This can lead to straining and fracturing of relationships.
They are also brutally honest to a fault and while they may also be harsh with others, they are even more harsh with themselves. When they do wrong, or when they sin, they beat themselves up, and they will seek to root every single detail out. Their mindset can turn into a graceless or merciless one where they say to themselves, “it must be because of this or that sin that I am getting punished this way”, and they will hunt for all the sins they recently committed plus the ones they thought about committing but never got around to doing.
Coupled with the compulsion for honesty, is the personal ethic to which Prophets hold themselves, in all dealings. In the parlance of today’s culture “a man got to have a code.” They hold to a set of unwritten expectations and ethics/morals that they will not violate. This also ties back to their intense sense of right and wrong.
When you are dealing with relationships, you have to divvy out the Prophet and the other six. The other six gifts are relationally-driven, and the Prophet is ideologically driven.
They extrapolate based on a given set of principles to predict future events. And they see at a distant. Because of this tendency, paired with the quickness of passing judgment, they will often be treated with contempt or wonder by others. “Why are you freaking out over such a small change here?” He or she is not freaking out over this minor deviation here. He or she is freaking out over the implications over there in that MAJOR catastrophe.
As a result of being misunderstood, one of potential results of that is the bitterness above.
They are very hard working as a result, and sometimes may slip into the sin of trying to help G-d out through their capacity to work very hard.
While your right-brain dominant Prophet presents as very emotional and very expressive, your left-brained Prophet is more reserved. Yes, I know a lot of people that would say, “a Prophet is very verbal-expressive”, but I know a particular Walking-Tall Prophet, who sets the bar in my eyes for all Prophets, and he is L. E. F. T. B. R. A. I. N. E. D.. He definitely skews the curve for the tribe as a whole. Also, because he is left-brained, he is very reserved and has patience to listen to everything. Very, very tender.
Laterality (the study of left- versus right-brained thinking) is a huge marker for how these gifts present. In your left-brained Prophet, you are going to have analytical thinking and more computer-y, sense-oriented thinking. In your right-brained Prophet, the presentation is going to present more emotionally, more intuitive, more gut-thinking, etc. They will both be able to solve problems, and they will both have a truth indicator, but their method for arriving at that truth and solution will differ radically.
Following the pattern that sets out the combined teachings of RGI, RGC, the RG YouTube videos, and MOHA, (all of which you should really view) coupled with my own observations, the Prophet and the Exhorter both flow in principles. The difference is how they use them. While an Exhorter points out cause-and-effect relationships to move people in the Principle of Reality (A/K/A Principles of Sowing and Reaping) dealing with realistic usage of time to accomplish a task, the Prophet will use principles woven together to build and move into something new. Think of Wilbur Wright, the Prophet, and his Teacher brother Orville, and you have the weaving together of a massive amount of principles to achieve something theretofore unachieved:fixed-wing flight.

So, how do I know when someone is a Prophet? Easy. He eats, breathes, drinks, sleeps problem-solving.

A couple of those characteristics to hit here. First, hopelessness. Hope is the gas for any prophetic gift. When hope is not present, despair and destruction that set in. Destruction of the Prophet’s spirit and soul. If despair overtakes this person when there is no goal purpose or point, then the odds are high you are dealing with a Prophet.

Second, when a Prophet is high-functioning, he or she can be very good with relationships, if he is careful to guard against running and fleeing at the first, second, or third sign of trouble, and if he has people who understand those temptations and will be life-giving to him.

Turn On The Magic of Colored Lights….

You know, imma throw out my thoughts on the colors of the rainbow and the Redemptive Gifts, though they may stir up some controversy and though Arthur may disagree with me.

I am of the opinion, and current science will read this way as well, that there are six colors in the rainbow.

The Prophet then, because he runs with Principles, and flows in them, parallels the Principle of Design. Now Design is another way of saying Principles.

“The Principle of Design is foundational to all other principles. In fact, the very phrase, ‘the Principle of Design,’ is redundant. There can be no Design without Principles. There can be no end product without the underlying, abstract concepts that supports that product. So Design is the art of weaving Principles together in order to produce change” (Arthur Burk, The Seven Principles, Disc 2, Cut 1, 0:48-1:10).

“The challenge for the Prophet is to embrace all of the Principles” (Arthur Burk, The Redemptive Gifts of Individuals, Disc 2: Prophet, Cut 1, 0:25-0:29).

Therefore, the Prophet’s color of light is White.

The weaving together of all the colors of the rainbow produces white light, so the weaving together of all the Principles that produces change is the reality of the Principle of Design.

Second, the Prophet, because he is designed to flow in all the principles, is also designed to flow in the Principles that govern human relationships. If a Prophet is high-functioning, he can really engage well in effective and strong human relationships. He is not designed to fail in his relationships.

Third, my mother once heard from Father, when complaining about the color white the following statement:

You have no idea what white actually looks like.

And as I ruminated on this conversation between my mother and the Almighty, I saw white the way the L-rd envisions it in part.

Like unto an opal that is dazzling in its array of many different colors.

Heaven’s white might be likened to something that is like a mixture of pearlescent softness, and opalescent, rainbowed brilliance, with the spread of colors hidden just beneath the surface of the unified white, but always looking for an excuse to shimmer in polyvareigated radiance.

This is the beauty and majesty of white, and the beauty and majesty that MAKES the Prophet the spectacular picture of holiness that reflects the unstained robes of the King and parses out between the black on the one hand and the….

WHITE….

on the other…..

And in the inky blackness of utter darkness shines the brilliance of His white, very colorful light.

#LetThereBeLight

So, there are some things for y’all to think about. Just my take, gang. What say y’all?

Dog-Walking Ruminations: Human Relationships

1 May 2019 by theparacleteshammer, posted in Principles, Principles Of Relationships

Following the usual disclaimer, gang. Seriously, apply only what applies. Don’t apply what does not apply.

DOG-WALKING RUMINATIONS

It has been 22 years since homeschooled Josh Harris messed with my generation (January 1, 1997, and now we are starting to pick up the pieces.

For the record, homeschooling is not THE solution to society’s ills, and public schooling does not guarantee your children will be sacrificed on the altar of agnosticism.

For the record, I was raised in public school bye a whole time Public School English teacher. My father was Discipline Coordinator for Metro Nashville Public Schools. I have walked the last 34 years very comfortable connecting with everyone from feminists and home educated to Young Earth Creationists, Old Earth Creationists, and Evolutionists.

I have personally survived all of that, and I can affirm that it can be done no matter how dark the days are. If you teach your kids how to light a candle and follow you as you run into the darkness, provided you are doing exactly what the father has instructed you to do, in the end your kids will survive and have a legacy that is life-giving to pass on to their kids.

If you raise your kids to know and understand and walk in the basic principles of life, and to recognize the cause-and-effect relationships, they can be made ready, no matter what kind of a school situation in they find themselves.

Darling, Freud, and Jung, no matter your opinions or research, hunted for meaningful principles. They may have found some.

There may have been things that they got right in the midst of all that they got wrong.

But before you adjudicate, do a smattering of reading as Father leads.

Make sure that you don’t cede your responsibility as parents to raise your kids in the nurture and the admonition of the L-rd.

Surrendering those rights and responsibilities to the school system, the Sunday School System, the church or synagogue system, or to your kids themselves is a surefire way to ensure that they have been raised in accordance with the stronghold of selective responsibility.

For those that are believers, your family is your ministry team and they are your primary responsibility and congregation and synagogue.

It is your job to instruct them in the art and science of seeing things in accordance with reality.

Responsibility for the current status of the relational scene in the faith of Jesus rests with individual families, those who ceded their responsibility to instruct their kids when it came to the principles governing human relationships. It is time, check that, Beyond Time, for us to recover that responsibility and take an active role and teaching our kids principles that are necessary.

Feeling guilty over having to send your kids to public school does not fix the problem. Taking an active role in instructing your kids and allowing their teachers to assist you in that process and embracing the Principle of Responsibility will help fix the problem.

it was never Josh Harris’ responsibility to raise our kids in the area of Human Relationships.

It was never our job to shove a book in their faces and hope to G-d that some of what was written in those books would sink into them.

Don’t get it twisted. I am not attempting to condemn anyone for their parenting style.

This is the Russian epic of Cinderella; if the shoe fits, wear it. If the shoe does not fit, don’t wear it.

If this applies to you, then apply it, and if it doesn’t apply to you then FOR G-D’S SAKE, DON’T APPLY IT.

In other words, if it offends you simply because I wrote it and stated my opinion, then you might be allowing yourself to be cut for the wrong reasons.

Any reasonable person should be able to eat the meat and spit out the bones. If I said something you can take and use, then please take it and use it.

But if it is not useable or applicable, then understand it may not have been meant for you.

It is my job, your job, our job as parents to raise our kids to know all of the principals governing Human Relationships.

Let us quit naively assuming that one methodology of schooling or education or resource is going to be the simple, Silver Bullet, quick fix.

Neither a homeschooler not a public schooler nor a private schooler has a corner on all truth in an area.

Life is complex, and the Faith of Christ is complex.

This time for us to develop multifaceted complex solutions, that weave together a boatload of principles in order to fix a multifaceted problem.

The Wrights were not successful in manned flight because they followed a quick-fix simplistic answer to get the Flyer off the ground. Rather, they WOVE together a plethora of concepts and did a boatload of research and rumination AND THE SCIENTIFIC PROCESS OF MEDITATION on the work of birds and kites and gliders (Flyer 1 was AN UNPOWERED GLIDER) before they put engine to wings, ailerons, elevators, and rudders.

Just because Christ has a Simplicity to him does not mean the solutions to life will always reflect that simplicity. Simplicity applied to every problem will bring applied to every problem we’ll bring a follower of Yeshua to frustration and utility.

Stop approaching your face with and anemic Silver Bullet. There is not a one-size-fits-all solution to every problem that you may face. and if God has called you to conquer a complex problem, then giving up just because the problem is complex is a sure-fire way to lose out on your Birthright and your calling.

Exodus 14:11 and One Point of the Wilderness

17 January 2019 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.