Aaronic Blessing

We often superimpose our Western culture upon Scripture. But, Scripture was written in a Near East cultural setting. It is therefore better understood with a Near East context. In Hebrew culture, most of the abstract words that we use today, like faith and bless, had concrete meanings. This is the Aaronic Blessing from Numbers 6:24-26. First it is abstractly written in ESV. Then it is written using the Hebrew meanings of the words, which have concrete definitions.

The Lord bless you and keep you;

the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;

the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. 

YWHW (he who exists) will kneel before you presenting gifts and will guard you with a hedge of protection;

YHWH (he who exists) will illuminate the wholeness of his being toward you bringing order and he will provide you with love, sustenance and friendship;

YWHW (he who exists) will lift up and carry his wholeness of being toward you and he will set in place all you need to be whole and complete. 

http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/27_home.html

The Bible

The Bible alone is not true. It was not true in the hands of the devil when he tempted Jesus. The letter kills but the Spirit gives life. It is the Bible plus the Spirit that is actually true. Truth is a person. His name is Jesus Christ.

Perversion is the truth taken out of context. Out of the covenant of God. We take Jesus and attempt to manipulate him.

The Bible doesn't always tell us what God thinks, rather how God thinks. All the Bible is in God, but not all of God is in the Bible. The Bible cannot always tell you what to do in your life; but, it can tell you how.

Jesus said, "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life."

The goal of the Bible is that it takes you into relationship with God. The Bible is purposefully written in paradox so that when you read it, you have to have the Spirit leading you. Having a relationship with God is a requirement for receiving Life from the Bible.

http://www.kvministries.com/podcast/2011/12/05/truth-about-truth-part-1

Unity of the Spirit

All who follow Christ compose His body. A body at a very basic level is composed of cells. Each cell is self-governing but submitted to nerves which connect eventually to the brain/head. Each cell interacts with its surrounding neighbors and even at times with distant messengers, but it is not ransacked and manipulated, nor should it assume the role of another cell lest it should leave its post. Cells functioning in a group are identified as a tissue. Tissues group together to form organs. Organs group together to allow a full body to function. For all to function together, it is not necessary that each cell is direclty in unison with one another, but rather that each is in perfect unison with the head. Maintain the unity of the Spirit. 

From Abstract to Concrete

Reality is a house. We intellectually know that a modern house is built with beams and cross beams. Now I want to hang a heavy painting. I know (thoughts) about the beams. I can feel by knocking for a hollow or non-hollow sound where the beams are. By physically gathering evidence with my sense of hearing and touch, comfort and assurance fill me (emotions). That alone does not hang a painting. Now, I am a nail. I decide to drive myself into where I think and feel the beam is. If it holds firm, then my thoughts and emotions led to the voluntary action (will by faith) of pounding into truth. Everywhere else there are no beams. To drive myself into any other part would be to exercise my faith upon a lie. The fruit comes when the painting is successfully hung on the nail. Faith is not emotional or intellectual ascent, but rather action. Faith operates on truth, and lies likewise. 

Wounds

A wound draws attention. It demands attention. Overwhelming pain is felt. The mind is overloaded with thoughts and feelings. The soul is immediately and powerfully prompted into action. If one is cut, one isolates the cut, stops the bleeding, cleans the area to help prevent infection, and seals it. Careful and conscience care is taken to ensure healing and complete restoration. To do nothing is to ask for death. And not just death, but a painfully slow and gruesome decline.

Wounds of the body are obvious. We respond with our 5 physical senses. The spirit is different. One cannot visibly see the wounds and thus, they continue living ignorantly while the wounds vary in size and number, infection enters, and the inner person rots. Even though symptoms are present, (anger, depression, cowardice, lust, etc.) one chooses to suppress them because it is a bloody and wicked scene to peer into one's rotting self. We choose to walk by sight rather than faith and remain ignorant to our slow demise.

We must be awakened to our spirits and the Spirit by faith. We must be born again. This body of infection and death is beyond repair. There is no turning back. We must die. Who will resurrect us and bore us anew? Jesus Christ bids us come and die. Life begins with death on the cross. 

Friends share secrets

"that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ Himself,  in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." (Colossians 2:2-3)




"that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.  Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us..." (Ephesians 3:16-20)


"No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you." (John 15:15)


When I read verses like these, my heart aches to know God more deeply. God wants to reveal so much to His Bride. Friends share secrets about each other. But, we are hard of hearing and would rather play religion. We are satisfied with half truths and word play, "philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ." (Colossians 2:8) But I am not satisfied. I repent of these things. I desire to press forward, in maturity, "forgetting what lies behind; I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let us hold true to what we have attained." (Philippians 3:13-14,16)

God: Gentleman

You are a gentleman. You knock at the door. You don't barge in and kidnap anyone. You're a lover, a romancer. You are looking for marriage. One of your commandments is, "Thou shall not steal." When we teach that You alone choose people and we have no decision in the relationship, we portray You as some kind of Needy Thief. Not true. Jesus says, "Come to me. Follow me."