God is Love

““ God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus.” - 1 John‬ ‭4:16-17‬ ‭NIV‬‬

God is love 

God is Love! Love is God! Jesus Christ is the physical manifestation of God’s love. For God so loved...he sent his son. Jesus makes it possible for us to live in love, and for love to live in us. We didn’t know what love was until he first loved us. Jesus is God’s love for us. When Jesus was in the world he was the light of the world, he was the means by which the world could see God, if the world would see God, he is the means by which the world could see love. Now, we are in the world and he has given us his light. We can know love and his love can live in us. We are the light of the world, in as much as his light shines through us. We are the light of the world in as much as we love one another. If the world be dark the church burns dimly.

Jesus prayed that we would be one with him as he is one with God. Oneness with God is to love as God loves, to be love as God is love, to have God's love living in us. To be one with love is to deny, resist and cast out all other spirits that are not of love. Recognizing these spirits is crucial to spiritual growth because our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual forces. We are tempted from love the same way as Eve. Our desires are prodded until something in us is found to desire and to hold to sin. We reach out for sin and hold on to it. Sin has no authority over us because the chain is broken. The offer to have all of this world’s treasure, it’s fame, it’s  worship, it’s power, is a temptation. These forces darken our hearts and conceal loves light. If the light that is in us is darkness, how great is that darkness? The spiritual forces of darkness hate the light and will do all it can to obscure it. If darkness lives in us we will hide sin. To come into the light is to have our sins revealed.

The light is their enemy because it is their undoing. In order for the world to see the light they must see God, in order to see God they must see his love. We must seek God with all our hearts for we are the bearers of this love. If the light of God ceases to shine though those who have his truth from where will the light of God shine in this present darkness? Therefore We must not quench the Spirit of God. Every man that has the hope of being love purifies himself as God is pure. We must buy the truth and sell it not, we must set our hands to the plow with single purpose and never look back. Not out of necessity, guilt, compulsion, or fear, but because we have tasted and seen God’s love, because God has revealed it to us and bids us come.

Those with ears to hear can hear because they hear what the spirit speaks. All who hear the father hear the one who speaks the words of the father. When we speak from God's pure love we do not speak our own words but the words of Him who lives in us, we speak as the oracles of God having the mind of Christ.

Jesus is the word made flesh, he is the revelation of the word. He is the fulfillment of the law because he is the physical manifestation of the law. He is a law unto himself because he is love and love is God. He does not break the law because he is the law. The law defines the external qualities of love on a physical dimension. The law is not the thing itself but a description of what the thing is like. The law says do not steal, because love does not steal, stealing is of another spirit. The act of not stealing does not make one the same substances as love, it is only the outward display of a similar characteristic in the physical expression. There can be moral people who are not as God in Spirit, but like God in outward actions. Yet these are still not born of Love. Man cannot be justified by the deeds of the law.

One may imitate the works of love and not be the same substance. The reason for not stealing can stem from fear of punishment. Another may not steal for the fear of losing reputation and the esteem and praise of his fellow man, like those religious leaders of old that loved to pray on street corners to be seen of men, he has his reward. Reasons for being moral can be many. The one who fears he will not be liked if he doesn’t meet the expectations of others will strive to be liked, because he loves the praise of men. 

Perhaps a man wishes to earn his own salvation, thinking he can achieve the perfection of his own soul and reach nirvana by his own efforts. Yet when he reaches the threshold of the eternal he would not find himself becoming God, but find there one who is God already, and there he would find himself not as God but different from God in substances. His heart would condemned himself for his pride and God would say I never knew him.

Man can not obtain the eternal by efford, for his effort will never transform his substance. Jesus makes the heart new, he says you must be born again. There is one door by which man may enter into the substance of love and that door is Jesus Christ.

let love out 1

Matthew 5: 14-16

"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. 

Hello

Hello, my name is Travis and I am “rewound a cassette with a pencil years old.” I think this is a great way to tell you my age because it forms an instant connection with if you’re of the same generation. We know the pain of dialing a phone number with more than one zero. We went through it together! We grew up with three channels, one of which was pbs. You feel my pain...or you don’t. There’s a good chance you could be  “hid under your desk to survive a nuclear attack,” years old. And some of you, (He-man, thundercats, years old people) like me, have kids that say pause when playing tag. When I was a kid! (I hoped I would never say those words, but here I am,) “When I was a kid,” we said, safe, or base, or timeout; we never said pause, because it didn’t exist in that context. Now, I know why, when I tell my kids to stop, they don’t seem to understand. They don’t really know the meaning of the word stop, The spirit of this age speaks a different language, one generation passes away and another takes it place. They step into this world out of the innocents of the garden, though we see the pain and evil of this world: to the pure all things are pure. But their day is coming when they too will be ejected from the garden and a flaming sword will block their re-entrance.

It doesn’t bother me that I am getting older. I’ve watched my oldest boy (9) watching a vcr tape rewind. I said, “Dylan, what are you doing?”  because he was just sitting there watching this movie rewind. I thought maybe he’s scanning the old Disney movies for hidden messages, but He didn’t know... he didn’t know that he could press stop, then rewind, and it would go faster. The idea of winding-up, rewinding, and unwinding is falling out of the intrinsic understanding of this generation. There is no old clock in my house and my watch is my phone. When do we speak of winding in a way that they would understand its meaning? Perhaps baseball and stairs will save our winding words for us, but how shall they understand?

I got my first Walkman for Christmas in 1981, I was 8 years old, and I remember walking into my Grandmothers trailer, headphones blaring Ozzy Osborne's “Blizzard of Oz. I listened to that tape over and over, only “pausing” to take it out, flip it over, and stick it back in. I stood in my Mom-Mom’s living room, where her mom (my great grandmother) Mama, laid bedridden in a hospital bed in the corner of the small room. Mama had suffered several strokes and was paralyzed on the left half of her body. She was picked bushel baskets of tomatoes for a nickel years old. I remember looking at her and thinking, there’s no way she can understand what a Walkman is, not alone headphones. I mean, she was  “wind up” the Victrola if you want to play a record; years old. Four years latter In 1985 Marty McFly would use a Walkman to wake up, George Mcfly, in 1955, dressed as an alien named Darth Vader. Some of you are “don't know what I'm talking about” years old, and that’s OK. The point I’m getting at is this: Technology is changing the way we think.

Elon Musk, believes, “We are most likely in a simulation.” He says, “If you assume any rate of improvement at all, games will eventually be indistinguishable from reality,” Sane, successful, people believe all this “life” could be a program. The real crazy thing, Hebrews 11:3, says, “what is seen is not made out of what is visible. The things which do appear are not made from the things that are.” The things we see; wood, bricks, flesh and blood, bone and sinew, are not made from the things that they are, but this reality is constructed from things unseen. “Through faith we understand that the worlds are framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.”  

The Bible clearly tells us we are to walk by faith and not by sight. So the real challenge before us is to see the unseen. To Fix our eyes on Christ so that we will not grow weary in well doing. To take heed to our life and the word of God, and continue in them, for in doing this you will both save yourself and those who hear you.

Technology helps us to see the meanings of words differently. We can understand how it could be the God spoke everything into existence, but having this understanding doesn’t necessarily bring us closer to God, but closer to thinking we are god. Can we see how spoken language creates code that forms programs. Can we see how the cells of our bodies duplicate themselves by direction. Do you know the only reason we eventually die of old age is because it’s written in our DNA of our cells to stop reproducing at a certain point. Flesh may go this far...but there’s a virus in the programming, do you think that some rich men would give every cent they have to unlock the secret of immortality to rewrite the code. Have you heard of crisper? It's a scientific breakthrough by which though an injection man can rewrite his biological code. 

Some people see the future as the utopian society in which we will reach our greatest achievements, We will overcome the curse and man will no longer have to toil with labor by the sweat of his brow. We will all receive a universal basic income and be happy. Most science fiction writers see the rise of the machines, or 1984, or a brave new world, or the hunger games, or a zombie apocalypse. The vision seems always to be a dystopian society on the verge of self annihilation. Why is it the prophets of this world can only see its destruction? Isn't it something, that none of the Scifi prophets predict  a utopian society that breaks the code and reaches immortality. And if immortality is achieved it’s corrupted and serves only the rich. There’s corruption in the programming.  

There’s a virus. 

One thing I’m sure of, is that we will never achieve immortality. Genesis‬ ‭3:22-24‬ ‭NIV‬‬ says, “And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.”  

I want to 'Pause' here as we reflect that the thing that protects a network from a virus, is a firewall. It’s a wall that divides that network from the larger world and protects itself from malicious software, viruses, etc. We have been separated from the source of eternal life. Between us and the eternal, there was a firewall, a flaming sword, a wall of separation between the holy and the profane, between that which lives forever and that which is a dying ember.

We can't desire to be more like Jesus until we know who Jesus is.

         Ignorance kills and a limited understanding can greatly hinder our spiritual lives. Jesus said, if you hold to his teaching you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. The first step to this freedom that Jesus holds out to the world is knowledge. Who is God really and what does he want from me? Too bad the light shines in the darkness and the darkness does not comprehend it. I mean here Jesus is just standing here where everyone can see him but no one see’s him. No one is interested in what he has to say and the worst part is that most of the people who are listening to him don’t really understand what he is saying. That’s right believers lost in the darkness too, to a degree.
         1 Corinthians 13: 12 says, “For now we all see through a glass, darkly.” What this means is that even though we have the truth, sometimes we miss the boat. Like Jesus’ disciples asking Jesus if they could call down fire from heaven to destroy those that oppose them. They were way off base. Or how about the time they ask Jesus to sit at his right hand…way off base. What about when they were asking Jesus to show them the Father. Jesus said, “have you been with me so long and still don't know me?” Darkness affects us all. For a believer, believing the truth is the only way to overcome the darkness, and to believe the truth we have to first actually take the trouble to learn what the truth is. (Reading our Bible) Man can not live my bread alone after all.
         From the time I was 8 till about 24 years old, my understanding of who Jesus was, was that he is the Savior. And that was all I knew. (and that is more than most, Thank God) I knew I needed to be saved, I knew I was a sinner, I knew I needed the blood of Jesus cover my sins before a holy and just God. I knew if they were not covered, I would stand guilty before God, and I would be dammed to a fiery eternity in the torments of hell for ever and ever. (The bible calls such a person a baby in Christ)
         Around the age of 13 /15 church became the most boring place on earth for me. I mean I still enjoyed going to see the girls, playing on the playground, eating the dish to pass meals, and even some of the “special music” but when it came to the churchy stuff, I was bored out of my mind and I can tell you why. I knew “Jesus Saves” (I even had a pin that said so) and I knew that I was saved. There was nothing new to learn. It was like learning basic math. After you get addition, subtraction, multiplication and division down you don’t need to hear it again. I got it, 2+2 is still 4 just like it was last year and the year before that. But imagine if you had to continue going to this perpetual math class once a week for the rest of your life. Yet again, 2+2 still equals 4. The thought of heaven being an endless church service scared me to death; I couldn't wait for church to be over! What was heaven going to be like? Honestly, I really didn't want to go to heaven, I just wanted to go to hell a little less. I suppose heaven was the lesser of two evils?
         Anyhow, my limited understanding of Jesus, who he really is and what he really wanted from me, limited my growth as a follower. I believed in Him, but my understanding was that I just had to trust that he was my savior. That he is risen from the grave and is in heaven and someday I will be there too. This faith, my belief in Jesus, required nothing of me. I mean, of course, there were the commandments but even if you broke one of them, or all of them, you just had to ask Jesus to forgive you. As long as you did not commit the cardinal sin of denying Jesus as lord there wasn't much to worry about. Because of Jesus I had limitless credit with God. I was good to go and go I did. Church was over and life was waiting to be lived. Thank God my parents are making me go there anymore.
         My limited understanding of Jesus eventually led me to living life completely separate and devoid of him. I mean, who's going to keep going to church when it’s that boring, (God will forgive me for not showing up anyhow. Maybe when I strike it rich I’ll send in some money.) In my deepest understanding of who God is I saw no need of him in daily life. God was a Sunday thing and Sunday was about getting saved and I was saved. I never saw God as being interested in having a daily relationship with me. I had no idea that he had a plan for my life to transform me from the inside out. I only saw God as being interested in providing an eternity for me and that was done. So, little by little I drifted farther and farther from God, till the day came that I realized God was in none of my thoughts. In fact, the day I came back to God I prayed, God if you're real, I have to know. If you are God, what is the point of life? 

Clean Hands

Walking in Him

Abiding in Christ; means walking in the rawness of His love.

         This is the place where we see our self as the chief of sinners. Here our guilt is real, our shame is real, our condemnation before God is real, and we know that there is nothing good in us. Here we stand before the one who is holy and all our pretentious thoughts of goodness and uprightness melt away. It is here; when we see ourselves as we really are, when we see the depth of depravity in our own heart, when we let go of all our vain attempts to justify ourselves, that our hardened calloused heart is made raw and pierced through by the love of God.

         This is the place where we see Jesus upon the cross bearing our sins, making us pure before a holy God. It is here that we see we have slain Jesus, we are the reason he dies, our sins, not his. It is here that we hear Him cry out to God, “forgiven them father, for they know not what they do.” This is the place where our heart turns in on itself with heavy bitterness and grief.

          This is the place that must become the conscience focus of our lives. Though we are absent from Him we must walk always with our heart touching His love. We must walk always with his love touching our hearts. This is the place where we keep His commandments. It is not because we are working to be good people, it is because the one who is good works in us. This is the place where the darkness of our hearts is pierced through with his light.  This is the place where pride cannot take root, nor can any selfishness grow. This is the place where utter brokenness meets divine love. This is the place where our flesh in undone and the spirit is brought to life. This is the place where we are one with the father. This is the place where God picks us up

If you don’t have anything nice to say…

          I imagine we've all heard this before. It’s a matter of being polite. It’s what we tell our children because it’s what our parents told us, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” It seems like good advice and would probable save a lot of people a whole lot of trouble. How many people do we know who’ve gotten themselves into trouble with their big mouth?

             But we should consider whether or not this advice is biblical. The word of God calls us to bring captive every thought that exults itself against our knowledge of God and this “Proverb” does just that. For it to be biblical it would have to say something like, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, repent.” Why? Because Eph 4:29 says, “Don’t let anything unwholesome come out of your mouth, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” When we have nothing nice to say we have a heart problem.

          In fact, if we search the word of God we will find a heavy weight placed upon our words. It says that life and death are in the power of the tongue. It says we will be judged by our words. Jesus said that what condemns a man is what comes out of his mouth, because what comes out of our mouth — comes from our heart.  A mouth with nothing nice to say is born out of a heart that is far from God. A heart that knows God, has received his gift of salvation, that is continually walking in his truth; will be a heart filled and over flowing with gratitude, regardless of circumstances.

          It's interesting that the bible tells us the deceiver appears as an angel of light. His lies sound like truth. He doesn't come at us with a preposterously tall tales. He gives us something that’s believable, something that sounds true. But, if we believe that half truth, we've believed a whole lie. And in doing so, we can somehow feel good about ourselves because we’ve learned to keep our mouth shut. We know better then to tell someone how ridiculous they look or how dumb they are.  When we’re disgusted with or despise others, we keep it to our selves; we go and tell others who will agree with us. Wouldn’t Jesus tell us the same thing he told the Pharisees, “You make the outside clean, but your inward part is full of greed and wickedness.”  So, if you don't have anything nice to say, it's time to get right with God. Be a doer of his word and not just a hearer.

It's not about going to church, it is about being the Church!

 1Co 12:12-13  

For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.  (13)  For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.

It is easy to be a Christian who is just like everyone else. It is easy to coast through life doing the things we have always done. Habits formed form religious acts may bring us to a certain consistency in our lives were we attend church, give to the poor, and such. But  in this world there are many moral people, many compassionate and caring people who deny the power of the cross and deny the need for a personal savior in Jesus Christ. And, if you have been in a church for any time, you many have found that other Christians may be some of the hardest and most difficult people to get along with, but to love others the way Jesus loves us, to love those who are “unlovable” as God loves, we need something supernatural. We can not love as Jesus loves in and through our own power as natural men. We must be filled with the Spirit of God.