I'll give you $100 U.S. for your $100 of Monopoly money

"No I won't! I like my Monopoly $ too much!"  Can you say, "idiot"?  (Well maybe in these days the Monopoly $ would buy more, but for now lets not go there.)  Yet we often have that response to God.  We will keep what we have and refuse the real stuff!
John 1:16 And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.
My previous interputation of this verse and I think some versions actually say "grace upon grace".  The word "for" between the graces in verse 16 is, in the Greek, "anti" -opposite,  i.e.  instead  or  because of (rarely in addition to):--for, in the room of. Often used in composition to denote contrast, requital, substitution.
 So I feel pretty good about saying..."And we get His fulness if we would just exchange what we can do in the natural (habits, thinking, strengths and talents) and in it's place take His ability".  Why do you think that it says in  2Co 12:9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my(God's) strength is made perfect in(Paul's) weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
Our habit is to do what we can until we reach our limit and then call out to Him, but if we realize that we just can't do something we are  usually more apt to first call out for His help. 
Would you rather have your wisdom or His?  His healing or yours? His power or yours?
Do we need to think about this for awhile?
.

Just what does God require of us?

Just what does God require of us? 
 Mt 22:37  Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
 38 This is the first and great commandment.
 39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.  
 We tend to make the demands of God more complicated than this simple formula. (I think because it makes us feel better because the more we do, the better we feel).   If we were to concentrate on these verses to do them, we could pretty much forget what the rest of the Bible has to say.  The rest of the Word is there to help us in our stupidity and selfishness (which stops us from just doing these two commandments).  Please note: to do the second commandment you must do it out of understanding and the doing of the first.  Everything must operate out of love and not duty.  Love-compels us to do, which is the opposite of how we normally act: doing-which causes us to feel loved.

Ro 4:4 Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.
(Whoa, upon editing and rereading this I finally understood something, if you are working as this verse states, you are doing it under the understanding it is a debt, to which there is absolutely no reward-because it is a debt.  So you are working to get, but the result is you get... nothing)
Instead of being first... (love) we first try to do... (work).  The work of GOD changes us to be and act love.  Love gives... "For God so loved..."  (selah...stop and think about that shall we?)
Are you trying to get approval (love) from God (the key here is to find out that you already have it) then you must work for that approval (love). If you are trying, you are working. You are thus denying that the work that Jesus did for you as not good enough.  The end of it is you have just put yourself out from under the power of  grace, that  Jesus provided by fulfilling all the requirements of the law, and into the bondage of the Law of doing (read Galatians).  So now you must DO (WORK) ALL the law. 
If you are able to do it all and have a large supply of livestock, go for it! (My recommendation is to rely on the work of Jesus and do it that way)  If you must work, work on developing your love life.  It will become that fountain of love that will spring up from that core of life that is in you.
  If you are looking for a current day example of someone that seems to be love... check out Heidi Baker  (I am sure she is not perfect, but love seems to ooze from her).

On the Lighter Side

John 1:4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men

             5  And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

To get fuller meaning of these two verses we have to first look at the end and in particular the word “comprehend”, so we can get a glimpse into the power of darkness compared to the Light.  The Greek word that we see translated comprehend also could be: “apprehend, attain, come upon, find, obtain, perceive (over-)take”.   

1.       Darkness cannot understand the Light or God, (you could say he is a little dim compared to the Light… he is dark after all!) Also he cannot really conceive or perceive how God operates or why He does what He does or what God is doing in you other than creating light and thus dispelling the darkness.  You could say he is ignorant of the things pertaining to God or the Light.

2.       Darkness cannot overtake the Light.  There is Light in you, guard that Light, maintain that Light and you’ll be untouchable.

It’s up to you to keep an inroad of darkness out.  

 Let me give you an example of something that happened in a church body that gave an inroad to that body and pastors for sin and much darkness (some of you will understand more clearly than others because you were there).  Years ago a fairly well liked pastor was kicked out of serving a body by the boards.  Bitterness and /or offense came in (you could tell because even after 15 years the topic of the ouster seemed to always work into his special meeting messages that he preached, during the denominational gatherings).  He left with quite a few people (I am not saying what the boards or what he did was right).   Instead of being subject to one another he decided to make the pastor and pastoral control a priority, an ungodly reaction to an ungodly action.  (You’ll note that the NT verse actually says… “Be subject to one another except pastors, who are above it all”.)  Then came all the doctrine and twists of interpretation to support this and years later came the abuse, control and manipulation by the pastors he raised up (along with the hundreds to even thousands of hurt people).  A road (or inroad) for darkness, created by an offense, followed by a sin that has affected and infected others.  Maybe some can relate to this:  a glance, a thought, a look, a thought, a desire, a lust, a decision, an action, more thoughts and then the affair.  You may say it is not that simple, but if you were to look at it at the core it really is, sin always starts small and builds. “Keep or guard your heart with all diligence for out of it issues life (or are the issues of life) Prov 4:23.”   Look up blindness or darkness in the NT and you can see how darkness comes to limit a person to the Light.  **Please note it is only by the person’s consent (through sin action or thought) that Satan can bring darkness in.

I think I will close with this verse.

2Pe 3:14 Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot(or darkness), and blameless

Back to Galatians 2

Ga 2:19 For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.

The news is… the doing is not to be your focus.  Your focus is to your relationship with the Father.  I need to stop here because I just realized something.  I have known of Catholics that say they pray to Mary because it is easier and less threatening than praying to God.  A not worthy mentality… and you weren’t worthy either until what Jesus did for you to make you acceptable to the Father.  Here is my realization:  relating to Mary…okay I guess, as far as that can go… relating and having a brotherly love and friendship with Jesus, may seem odd to some… but to get past the God Almighty image, is just too hard for most.  Can you get to the position of Jesus where He could honestly say “Abba Father” or Daddy Daddy.   I remember hearing someone calling Him “Daddy” and I baulked at it , it sounded strange, foreign, pushy and childish.  A little later I remembered the verse, “Unless you become as a child…” …Selah (stop and think about that for awhile).

I am not belittling the Almighty God that we are now in relationship with, by any means, but there is an intimate side that to “live unto God” takes.  If you try to “live unto God” without that developing the open and close relationship first, you’ll find yourself into works still trying to get acceptance and trying to make yourself worthy to Him.  If you start with relationship then what you’ll end up doing is not for acceptance, but out of love and wanting to be part of what He is doing.  At this point we can see Paul’s logic to the Galatians when he called them foolish. “Hey! Did you get the Spirit because of what you did or what you believed?” (my phrasing). 

Saying a “Daddy” prayer is one thing. Can you say to someone “You want to know what my Daddy God said to me?”

A Shocking Verse

I recently found the Bible on mp3 (a free download version too) that didn’t want to make me gag, (it’s just sometimes the voices just are  intolerable to me).  Anyway, if I get up in the middle of the night I will turn on my laptop and start it playing.  The other day I woke up half groggy to this verse that I could not place although I knew it was in the book of Revelaton.  So here is what I heard:   "And I will kill her children with death”.   I could not determine the context, but  I knew it was Jesus talking and it just seemed a bit strong.  Not only was there a threat of killing, but as it says, killed with death!  I wanted to know  whose children and what's this killed with death bit.   As it turns out it is Jesus talking to the church at Thyatira, Rev.2:18-29.  The analysis of this church seems to start off pretty well, but then it turns not so pleasant:

20… to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.

 21 And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not.

 22 Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.

When it comes to these judgments and proclamations to these church groups I believe that: it was a real part of the Church at the time of writing, but also can be a for individual bodies that exist today and last each church represents  a church age.  As I looked as to when people thought the Thyatiran age was, it seemed to be placed between 600AD to 1500AD.  As I thought about this and the “killed by death” pronouncement I thought of the Black Plague which was active in the 1300s. During the plague  the conservative estimate is that  1/3 of Europe died and up to 75% in certain cities.  The plague not only destroyed the people but also the economy of those cities.  So not only did the people lose family members but the ability to buy and sell even food became hard if not impossible.  Killed by death indeed…  ouch.

Although I do like the end and hope presented:

Re 2:26 And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations:

 27 And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father.

 28 And I will give him the morning star.

The good news is no matter what the “Christians” of the age are up to… you can go against the flow and overcome and get a special reward for those that make their relationship with God their priority.