Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Magnify VII (4-3-09)

Do we really believe in the work of Christ? If so I ask myself “should a man like me run away?” (Num. 6:11) I hear all my critics (some using the misnomer “friend”) rail upon my choices and encourage me with all the daggers. It is easy for coach potato Christians to comment on the woes of battle while they sit on the sidelines with their intellectual comfort of mental ascent acquired from their readings. Faith is an action verb that is far more than mental ascent.

Last night as I left the chapel with a man I never met before. He was obviously in deep distress. His 14 year old daughter Tomica died this day. How can you comfort a man in this distress? What empathy can rise to the tragedy. I ask myself “Can a man like me run away?” from a situation like this. I had no social obligations to this man, Michael, I could have easily gone about my business and walked right past his tears.

When I ask myself like Nehemiah “can a man like me run away?” What am I asking? I search myself and ask do I really believe in the redemptive work of Christ? Do I more than comprehend but have a gnosis which incorporates the action of faith into experience? Am I truly a new creation in Christ Jesus? Not at the expense of my personality but in the complete fullness or capacity of my personality. The old man which was Kurt is to selfish for Michael’s need, but the new man which is Kurt is living in a different capacity. My father told me Scotty led his new celly to the Lord. A high ranking member of Hells Angels. Can a man like Scott run away? What of you, can you run away?

Fears and phobias and their agents would have us never commit to a battle unless the outcome was certain and the trek was painless. These are the methods of the devil. God will bring you a faith challenge with no further insight except this is my path walk ye in it. Nehemiah knew God to be faithful and that God was his all in all. He knew this before the revelation of Christ. Shame on us if we shrink back. Have you ever pondered this truth He who does not gather with me scatters? Notice there is no neutral.

Who exactly should God send into the frey of battle in this fraudulent mortgage industry. One who thinks he knows God or one who does. Imagine the strange scenario that arrives in battle. Bow down to me or go into my furnace. You think Alsup’s offer to me was any less? He made it abundantly clear I offended him with my contempt of his authority. TO gather with Alsup was to scatter with Christ. Now making a stand the furnace gets fired up 7 times hotter as though the original heat was not enough. This is precisely where those who do not know the Lord who called them to battle can never meet the Lord who shows up in the furnace. No matter how hot the battle gets the Lord is present. Even the evil men cannot take the effects of their own weapons. Should the furnace make me run? Should the tyrant make me run? Should the delays and disappointments make me run? Answer the questions yourself. If God be for you and present in any danger, supplying you to the full capacity of the work of Christ you were called to walk in, for the eternal glory and testimony of His Son, can a man like you run?

I cannot! I know I will see victories never imagined by the scatterers because I am gathering.

There was the man born blind whom Jesus healed and there was Elisha (2 Kg. 6:16-17) having God open the eyes of his servant. I like all of you have been born blind to God and His kingdom yet if we pray and magnify the name of the Lord perhaps like these men our eyes will be opened and we will see how silly it would be not to enter a battle or to fear the hordes of the enemy and run.

Hebrews 11 talks of those who subdued kingdoms, received their dead and other wonders of God they were called to walk in. Not one name is a coach potato. The mortgage fraud industry is a front for a spiritual sickness and battle. The wall street guys can be champions of the world if it can afford their price but who will bring down the strongholds of the enemy that fortified the hearts of wicked men? Isaiah said Lord send me. I, among all the mocking laughter and shameless ridicule, am glad of my calling and hopeful in the purposes of the Lord who calls and equips. I magnify His name as the name above all names and glory in His work. I shall not run. If I perish I perish, but I think it will take more than this hot box blow hard furnace of Alsup and his minions.

Friday, June 26, 2009

Magnify VI (4-1-09)

I know that it is my desire to evict some of you from Smallville. To have your hopes fixed upon the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ. I do not use Christ as a typical religious figure head or Christianity as a comparative religion, Christ or Christianity in truth do not provide this to the reason of man. Christ is either who He claimed to be or was a worthless fraud. He is the only way to regeneration of our being and resolution with God. If He is not the way Christian thought is the most foolish, vanity in its highest. I cannot evict you from Smallville only God reaching towards you to implant revelation in your soul can quicken you to life. That is why my words will always find a critic. Why the FBI will always be populated with agents. Why innocence will continue to be prosecuted. Few is the number that are led into Christ and many the number who dwell in Smallville awaiting their damnation. I speak to you few at the insult of the many.

You few I ask to shake off the stupor of this world. You are not chosen to be a vessel in God’s house just so He can cater to your whims and fancies for comfort in this world. Adam was personally entrusted with a spirit alive toward God. In pride he gambled that away in disobedience for the wage of death. All of us have inherited this wage, this condition. Christ the last Adam came to give this life back but not in the same measure He now possesses that life giving Spirit in trust on our behalf. In essence our nature has made us incompetents to be trusted again with the gift of relationship to God. That does not leave us hopeless but utterly dependent. This is why Christ being a fraud destroys any hope. We have to be in Him who possesses the life giving spirit to be alive. He is the trustee competent to administer the gifts of God without destroying the beneficiary. Though we have been quickened we are naive to think regeneration is not a life long process. Constantly Christ is an active trustee with the care of the beneficiary as His constant concern. Quite frankly I am forced in the Dorean model to follow His example. Sure I have my material temptation, my spiritual temptation, and my compromise temptation, but if I resist the devil and rebuke him through Christ I can have a hope of victory which is in Christ. Being entombed by circumstance is not our defeat. It is where we discover the truth of the power of Christ. How many times have we become forgetful of His power. I think most of you are falling prey to this bad habit during this long delay within the Dorean process. I don’t think you truly understand your salvation.

Using the Hebrews as an example from scripture let us try and gain a clue. Shortly after Joseph a Pharaoh arose who remembered him not and put the Hebrews into slavery. The 2nd, 3rd, and 4th generations knew nothing of freedom. Along comes a deliverer (Moses a type of Christ) empowered by God to restore the truth to their nature. Still they couldn’t shake the shackles of Smallville. Only two out of the whole lot saw the freedom promised and could not look back to slavery with comfort. The rest died in the desert outside of Smallville but still in bondage. You were born into Adam (the founder and Patriarch of Smallville) and this means you were in bondage to sin and death. Not just the physical death but also the second death which is eternal. Scott and I as your trustees are in a very dark bottomless pit with victory unrealistic from any human means yet our circumstance is no where near as desperately hopeless as our Smallville citizenship. It is easy for Scott and I to have a hope of victory, to sense the everlasting arms of God below our bottomless to lift us up, because we can remember the power displayed to evict us out of Smallville. Do you truly comprehend what put Christ on a cross and in a tomb and what loving power it took to blast through that rock alive forevermore? Perhaps you need to revisit this thought when your circumstance is large and crushing. In Smallville everything appears large and looming. Seated with Christ in heavenly places gives a completely different perspective.

Let me be honest with you a minute. I write this magnify series and these blogs more from my need to encourage my faith than benevolence for you. I am as frail as any of you. I am as carnal minded and prone to make God my servant. What I have learned from my trials before Dorean is that God is faithfully reliable. His ways may be painful but boy are they delightful. I have cried all the tears, been perplexed, cast down, and fatigued but my trustee has gifts for them all and I can go to Him in prayer and He always answers. Trust our trustee and indentures of the trust will be revealed to you in good time. Then like Scott and I you will say to serve the Lord is good. Slavery creeps into your psyche but a right spirit placed into your changes that psyche. Can any deliverance needed be greater than how we began this race? I think not and looking back I see the smoldering of Smallville condemned by the Lord and with thanks look forward to a life time of deliverance.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Magnify V (3-31-09)

About a month ago as I was seeking the Lord for a definite word I was met with silence. Most would be disheartened by this silence as indeed I used to be. But now I have come to cherish these moments not for themselves but what they hold in promise. As I sought an answer I was gently nudged not to seek an answer but to seek God alone. This was brought to me by the recollection of Samuel. (Friend of God) Thought I sought God alone the silence continued.

There is a story of Mary and Martha petitioning Christ in utter desperation over the terminal health of their brother Lazarus. Most of you know the story but do you know the truth therein. Jesus delayed. To them He met them with silence. When He came their thoughts were “too late.” Why do you suppose Christ behaved this way? Was He cruel, too busy, disinterested? Perhaps as the scriptures make clear His care for them was His constant concern. (like ours) Also though is the ordained work to glorify the Son. Are we without benefit by the Son’s glory? Did their prayers get answered? I would say exceedingly, abundantly, beyond all they could ask or think. (Eph. 3:20) Actually what could easily be construed as a shun in the spirit was a promotion. God knew He could trust Mary and Martha with the silence. Their prayer was aright. They were wise to rely on Him. God’s silence was the answer to their prayer as it was for mine. To seek only a visible cause and effect prayer life is a very elementary state of grace. God’s ways and methods are to exceed our comprehension. When He is unfathomable we should be on the lookout watching and praying because His redemption draws near.

Another example is Mary seeking the dead body of Christ at the tomb. She was asking a living, risen, impossible-to-die-Lord. Was her prayer answered? She did receive the body of Jesus but exceedingly, abundantly, beyond her wildest imagination. Can you magnify the Lord with me? Even if your imagination expands He is BIGGER!

Some prayers are met with silence because they are wrong. You don’t need a fruit inspector to tell you this you know. All the others if God be not a liar are answered. Most of the time answered better and bigger than your prayer request. Mary and Martha got Lazarus back but they also got a revelation of the resurrection power of the Son. He answered their prayer according to their need but forever changed their knowledge of Him in their sight. His glory and esteem all rose with their knowledge.

Do you think Mary and Martha even pondered the thought of receiving their brother from the dead while he lay stinking and Jesus remained far removed? Of course not. Neither can you imagine what work Christ is up to while we at Dorean lay stinking and ridiculed for our reliance on Christ. Thought He be afar off He has heard our prayers and when time and place converge into the ordained work for the Son to walk in what new revelation will we receive? Will it be any less spectacular than Mary or Martha’s? I think not! What will be the report to this generation of the mighty works Jesus has performed? You are important and so are your struggles and needs, but not so exceedingly important that their will be exalted over the Son. Nor should we desire this because it is clear by God’s practice that He knows my needs better than I know them myself.

To think Scott, Kurt, Alsup, prison, foreclosure, fraud, are outside the control of our Creator is the folly of our fruit inspectors. Don’t dwell in Smallville with the faithless. They don’t pray or understand what a high privilege was bestowed upon you when God gave you prayer for Him to answer. This knowledge is too great and too intimate for the strangers of creation. Adam brought disobedience to your soul and Christ brought you trust. Choose now who you will serve. If you choose Adam even a stupid fish will rebuke you. These are our critics? Please! The next silence God gives you could very well be the silence of your enemies.

Monday, June 22, 2009

Magnify IV (3-31-09)

I have seen the comment here to many times to count “what benefit does all this religious talk bring,” or some variation thereof. For the commentor none but for those of you who are going to magnify the Lord with me it shall be a great deal of importance.

A lot of attention is paid to my works by these foolish fruit inspectors. I want to use this idea of works viewed through a Biblical perspective to magnify your understanding. There are basically 3 Greek words used for works in the New Testament I will spell them in English phonetically since I’m not certain this blog is capable of Greek letters. (1) Is the work Ergon its cognates have entered our language as the root for energy. (2) Dunamis which entered into our language as the root for dynamite. (3) Praxis which is equal to acts or practice.

When my fruit inspectors talk of my acts in judgment they are really thinking of praxis. It is funny that God’s word uses this word in context much like they apply it but the attributes are severely misplaced. In Mt. 16:27 God judges MEN according to their practice. Nothing mentioned of men judging men but that’s just a minor detail. This is further explained in Mt. 25:31-46 lest you be confused by a small text. The most prevalent word used is dunamis to address the work of Christ. This is a holy dynamite power ordained for Christ to walk in. To us these works are revealed as miracles. We are not called to do works. We are to live by faith and that faith being the faith of Christ. This not of yourselves it is a gift of God. Study the works of Christ and you will see that God the Father uses these works to authenticate His Son and to bring revelation to man. If these are the parameters of Christ work what makes you think your prayers, imaginations, or works outside of them net any benefit. In practice my critics say I am a thief and a liar. Yet they fail to allow Christ to judge me. If they are judging me with the judgment of Christ why do they fail to see the work of Christ in my words and deeds? Is Christ’s judgment as feeble as a man’s?

Here is my perspective challenge for you. Are you using feeble human judgement concerning your involvement in Dorean? Could it be that Christ has already been ordained to do dunamis work through your life at this time in history to bring revelation of the Son? Oh yeah this is all about you and your idea of how Christ shows Himself to be your God. This is my imagination speaking here so I admit in advance that it falls far short of the actuallities of the true work of Christ.

Suppose my imagination is correct that God hates injustice. That He looks down upon the poor, weak, and needy. That He hears their petitions for mercy and justice. That He will act according to His will to address the issue. That He has (like the man born blind) ordained a work for His Son to do at this time, in this situation, that glorifies the Son and reveals the redemption plan. If this short sighted imagination can stretch just a little perhaps it can at least see the clouds which are the footstool of our God.

Perhaps then Scott and I created Dorean to enlist enough witnesses to the fraud that God could trust to be faithful with His Son’s glory. All of us called as saints given over to the glory of the Son being willing to make no claims upon our life except to bring honor to Christ are now firmly planted in the controversy. Now our petitions are a true report brought by the body of Christ to the Father. Suddenly and in an instant when ideal for the revealing of the Son and His redemptive plan God ordains a work, a work only God can do with His dunamis power. WE become like the 153 fish. They were schooled against their nature in shallow water at a time of day not to their liking, fattened and made large, all to be consumed in the work of the Son ordained to bring Him glory. Will you allow yourself to be given over fully, to be ensnared in this net called Dorean? Perhaps you were called for such a time as this. This is the one act or practice you can perform; will you give yourself over to God’s work? The fish had no choice but we do. If we choose right how much more will God glorify His Son through our life than these simple fish.

The world makes its plans to fix the problem in remedies contaminated by greed, fraud, and corruption. None of these methods are remotely equal to how God wants to redeem the situation. I am eagerly watching and praying with my eyes fixed on Christ as He agonizes out His plan of redemption. What will God have me do in His work. I stand already because with tears of blood I see Him concerned about deliverance. Do not fall into temptation but enduringly keep watch. Our Lord will act soon, that is His practice!

Friday, June 19, 2009

Magnify III (3-30-09)

It is said in Ps. 34 to magnify His name. What is there to the name of our Christ? I remember when choosing the names of my three children that I searched for names representative of the primary character traits the spirit indicated to me. Others choose out of respect for another family member. What's in a name? Why not call Him John the Messiah or Brian of Monty Python fame? Jesus is the English version of the Hebrew name Yehowshuwa which also branched down to Joshua. There is no "J" in Hebrew so the "Y" came into our language as such. Yehowshuwa, Joshua, Jesus all mean Jehovah is Salvation. This is a powerful name. It is the "I AM" of Moses with this added office of Salvation incorporated. It includes in name by reference "Christ," Messiah" and all other prophetic labels of identification.

There were a few Joshua's in the scriptures. Is Jesus anymore significant than these others? First let's look at Joshua Moses' servant. He was a great leader and obedient unto God. He brought a level of deliverance to the people of God but he did not bring them rest. Though he was an excellent type his failure was indication of the need for a greater Savior. The other was Joshua the high priest found in Zac. 3:1-10. He likewise is a faithful servant unto God but he has to be delivered from his own filth. The text makes it clear a "branch," one greater, would come to ultimately deliver what these saviors lacked. That being the rest of God. This is spoken well of in Heb. 4:1 - 5:10. The very name of Jesus is the hope to all men of God taking on our need for salvation. He is by His show in the flesh upon this earth all about the redemption plan of God. Jesus Himself never used prayer for His selfish ambitions or desires. He always kept His prayer life in submission to the redemptive work of His Father. Obviously we can't pray as Christ did but how are we to pray? Jesus tells us in Luke 11:1-13. Our need of bread is present but if you'll notice it is co textually within a prayer consistent with God's redemptive work. Many pray and never see their answer. Is this truly possible if this text be true? I've learned from the Lord's prayer in Jn. 17 which is answered that if we actually pray by the true redemptive definition of prayer, praying is the answer. For by it we become one as God is one with God. Is God not the answer to all our prayers? As I sought God recently for His word He drove me into that Samuel spirit of friendship. The word I was seeking was Smallville compared to the answer I received in His presence. How much larger was my answer when the revelation of God entered the equation. Suddenly it was not ab out me or my imaginations of the work before me, it was God's work in me and me in His work. He is about things for superior to my imagination. So great is His work that my request actually appear silly and off point to me now.

I'm beginning to see Dorean outside the windows of Smallville. Let me ask you a question; if God truly directs and makes firm our steps (Ps. 37:23-24) and delights in our way is it possible for Dorean to exist and for your involvement to occur by happen stance or mere chance? If you have come to this knowledge that you are in this by God's design let me ask you another question. Is it Smallville thinking just to concern yourself with economic stability for this life? Have you invested any time in knowing what God is doing? Could it be that your petty little concerns might just be swallowed up in the greater work of God? Let me give you an example from scripture. In Jn. 21:1-14 we have God's disciples falling back on their own talents in fishing. They have seen the resurrected Lord before but they are not prayerfully "watching" this strange redemptive work of the Lord. They fish all night and catch nothing. In the morning against all proper fishing techniques the Lord tells them to throw their net over the side. Foolish to their skill set but done as an accommodation. Now they catch 153 fish. Why 153? 153 is the sum total of 1-17. 17 is the number for victory. 153 represents the number for the sons of God. Right in the midst of Smallville ordinary is a significant revelation of God's redemptive work. Think how this truth was recorded so 30 generations of men could read it. This was not just a catch of fish there was eternal truth about God within. Think also how God maintained and fed those fish until their use in history. Everything is placed into service for God's purposes. In your ordinary life, in your ordinary mortgage scenario, in your ordinary financial struggle is there an extraordinary event just on the other side of your boat? How can you know if you are not watching and praying with the Lord as He agonizes over His redemptive work? Magnify the Lord with me and let us pull in all the fish around us to the glory of our Lord.

Monday, June 01, 2009

Magnify II (3-29-09)

Prayer, what is it? To most people it is petitions for the desires of our heart. This is not prayer! This is the genie in the sky to which we make our wishes.

Prayer is a great privilege. Most of us measure prayer at what it cost us. How we must sacrifice time and emotions to petition. Rarely do we ever contemplate what it costs God to give us this privilege. Without understanding the cost it will be impossible for one to understand its purpose. How foolish to think Christ agonized in His spirit just to give you a spiritual credit card you could use to transact all your carnal and selfish desires. This is the style of the devil not God. What did Christ agonize over? Was it just the physical pain of the cross? I think not. If that is your belief it is a product of smallville. I do not want to diminish His physical agony but just to think of God’s motives at the limits of your comprehension of pain is vision that needs magnification. Prayer is easy to the childlike saint. The person who tries to explain why God answers prayer on the ground of reason is already chasing vanity. God answers prayer on the ground of redemption and no other ground. This redemption is our gift but that does not mean what is free to us had no cost. Equally silly is to think it can’t truly be free so I must add something to it. These are those who think if I am earnest and sacrificial God must take heed to my prayers and answer.

Let us go to Gethsemane (Mt. 26:36-46) and see if this historical text magnifies our vision. Here we see our Lord in prayer and disciples commanded to “sit and wait.” Many love to think of the Christ of redemption as “Savior” or “advocate” but they miss what is made obvious here; He is Lord and Master. Are you the master of your prayer life?

If we accept Christ as Master a certain strange set of conditions must come with it. “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” Already my will is subjected. My desire to do something, to help God or help myself is outside this command. Redemption is at the foremost thought of God’s heart. It is what He is praying for and at the heart of His commands. Notice here that not all the disciples were present. Only three were invited into this private moment of our Lord’s redemption work. This was a privilege. What was the purpose of these three appointed to “Stay here and watch with me.” First I will say that these three represent the three temptations our Lord faced. Peter for the sensible, material temptation for help. James for the ritualistic super spiritual temptation. And John for the temptation of compromise. It is fitting that these three be witness to the agony of doing it God’s way. Each represented the shortcut which is the human temptation to run from pain and confrontation. At the beginning of His ministry Christ set His heart as an over comer of the shortcuts and now He brought His disciples to that place. Yet for their own sorrows they slept. He, Christ, is agonizing over reversing the fall of Adam, dealing with death, sin, and redemption and for their own sorrow they slept. Do you understand the truth in this text? Are you asleep toward the will of Christ? Do you even have a clue of what Christ is agonizing over in your situation? Wake up: lest you fall into temptation! There is no room for smallville in the work of the Lord. You have been invited into Dorean. Why? Just so you can agonize over $1,000 or your house? Surely Christ as Master also controls the circumstance of your life. Like He invited these three He’s invited you into this mess. Are you watching and waiting or falling into temptation?