Amazing grace...

I found   this beautiful word when going through some saved files, and thought it was not to be hidden away  my computer (not sure who the author is) .  No, it is His love, being expressed in an unusual way.  Therefore, I share it with you...
"For Tophet (altar) is ordained of old: yea, for the king (the kingship or sons of God) it is prepared. He has made the pile thereof deep and large, fire and much wood. The breath of the Lord like a stream of brimstone, does kindle it." Isaiah 30:33. The fire is Spirit, the wood is humanity, the breath of the Lord is the Holy Spirit. Remember Jesus breathed on His disciples and said, "Receive ye the Holy Spirit, " Jn. 20:22, and when the day of Pentecost was fully come there came a sound from heaven as a rushing mighty wind. Acts 2:2.
This breath of the Lord, is none other than the Holy Spirit. Yet is like a stream of brimstone! The New Testament speaks of fire and brimstone. This word brimstone is "theion" in the Greek, aken to "Theos" God, and "Theon" divine. Brimstone was always associated with Deity. This is a godly fire ("pur" in Greek, where we get "purge," "pure," Purify" etc) of purging sulphur ( soul-fire) consuming the sacrifice on the altar (Tophet means altar).
According to Jeremiah, Tophet is in the midst of the valley of the sons of Hinnom Jer. 7: 31. The word hell-fire in English is Ge-henna in Greek, taken from the valley of Hinnom in Hebrew. When we realize that there is an altar in the hell-fire it is wonderful, but to know that it is the altar of Grace is most shocking! Yet the very word Ge-henna means "valley of grace!" The henna flower is known for its grace and beauty the world over. Yet Hinnom is plural in the Hebrew. Grace be multiplied unto you! Ge-henna is the valley of the sons of Grace, multiplied Grace, and there is an altar there! Tophet (altar) is ordained of old for the King!"
Amen...

HE seeks us...and HE always finds us...

Where are You going, Shepherd?

To find My sheep.

How far will You go?

As far as My sheep.

How far may that be?

To the world's end.

How long will You seek it?

Until I find it.

When You find it, will it come to You?

No, it will flee from Me.

Where will it go then?

To the rocks and the sand.

When will it stop?

When it can run no more.

What will You do then?

Carry it home. 

The importance of opposites!!

In the garden, Adam and Eve were created  innocent - which means they had no knowledge - NONE at all - about good and evil (one wonders if Adam fully understood what God meant when He cautioned him about "eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil," and what would happen if he did - "...in dying he would die."  What was death?  What was good and what was evil?  All they know was the care of God in that garden - they never praised God, nor thanked Him, or expressed appreciation for anything that they had.  And so...there was a "learning process" provided, and planned!, for them...These words that follow do help us understand what was necessary...and know that it was God who had them make their choice (yes, God takes full responsibility - read Rom. 8:20):
The philosopher and scholar Jacob Boehme wrote that in order for Yes to be Yes, there had to be a No otherwise Yes would have no meaning.  He called this Dialecticism.  Norman Grubb, who studied Boehme extensively, called this the Law of Opposites.  Simply stated, the Law of Opposites says that in order for growth and maturity to take place, there must be an opposing force that resists or contradicts its opposite. For example, a muscle in the human body cannot grow unless there is a resistance or force applied to that muscle. This resistance first weakens the muscle actually breaking it down; however, with rest and proper nutrition, the muscle grows bigger and stronger. A child cannot understand what cold is until they touch something that is hot--they learn and become wiser by experiencing the opposite. Applying this to the spiritual, good cannot truly be understood until the effects of evil are seen and experienced. Obedience means nothing to us, until we see the results of disobedience. We cannot understand the holiness of God until we see the ravages and effects of hatred and selfishness in our lives and in the world around us. This is the Law of Opposites and it is the learning process that God has ordained for us. All we need to do is look at our own experiences to see if this is true. Does not a sunrise give us a great sense of peace and security only because we have experienced the loneliness and fear of the night? Can anyone really appreciate the joys of life until we have tasted the sorrows of death? Do we not appreciate the sweetness of His grace only because the law first condemned us? Is not the Cross of Christ embraced by us because we were first separated from God by our own sin? We must experience the evil in order to appreciate the good! I quote Don Godfroy:

 However, they (mankind) will not be as they were originally, but in a higher dimension.  When Adam gained the knowledge of good and evil, he gained resistance that would also grow him up.  You can only build muscle by repetitive motion against resistance.  Adam was innocent and immature.  He now could experience the power of love against the power of evil.  He now had something to “overcome.”  He would find that he could only be an “overcomer” by the infinite mercy of God found in Jesus Christ.  In this, he would have the experience of knowing the love his Creator had for him, by the depth He would go to save and restore him. He could also build spiritual muscle by carrying the disciple’s cross.  This is why Paul cries out in Rom. 11:33, “Oh the depth of the riches of both the wisdom and knowledge of God!” What a master plan!

 Adam was created in the image of God, but that does not mean he possessed the knowledge of his Creator.  A child is created in the image of his or her parents, but that doesn’t mean they are exactly like them.  They may look like them and have some of the same mannerisms, but they do not possess the same knowledge and wisdom that their parents do.  Parents cannot pass those things onto their children at birth.  While children certainly inherit physical traits from their parents, the knowledge of good and evil is not one of them.  This has to come through a long process whereby their offspring learn by their own trials and experiences—their own triumphs and failures.  It was no different with Adam and Eve.  God had a plan for Adam (man) that would involve a long process of struggle (good versus evil) in order for him (mankind) to be brought into full maturity (sonship).

The fate of the dead - according to orthodox Christianity, or according to God?

 

Which Account is True?

Christianity’s account?

The number of people who are condemned in Adam to date:
Approximately 109 billion

The number of people who are redeemed in Christ to date:
Approximately 5 billion (taking liberty)

The number of people being tortured forever and ever by a loving “God” to date:
Approximately 104 billion

Success rate of “the Savior of the world:”
Approximately 4.59%

Or, the Scripture’s account?

“For even as, in Adam, all are dying, thus also, in Christ, shall all be vivified. Yet each in his own class: the Firstfruit, Christ; thereupon those who are Christ's in His presence; thereafter the consummation, whenever He may be giving up the kingdom to His God and Father, whenever He should be nullifying all sovereignty and all authority and power. For He must be reigning until He should be placing all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy is being abolished: death. For He subjects all under His feet. Now whenever He may be saying that all is subject, it is evident that it is outside of Him Who subjects all to Him. Now, whenever all may be subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also shall be subjected to Him Who subjects all to Him, that God may be All in all” (I Corinthians 15:22-28).

Harsh Bhavsar?

This piece came across in an email from Daily Goodies (from Clyde Pilkington), and demonstrates the gap between what man (Christian doctrine) says, and what God says.  To believe man (orthodox Christianity), we serve a God who is either powerless (He can't save because He gave man more power than He has; the "work" of Adam is greater than the "work" of  Christ Jesus), or indifferent ("I gave him a chance, and he turned it down"); and surely His "final solution" for man is on a par with Hitler, and worse (Hitler could only kill the living, while God  continues to burn and torture for the eons to come).  PTL that the good, glad, glorious news that makes a man leap for JOY is NOT what man spews out, but the glorious truth that ALL will, in the end,  be vivified (made alive, with the life of God - zoe), and GOD shall be ALL in all.

Let GOD be true (HE IS) and every man a liar.

"Spaces in our lives..."

This is from a writing by John Ruskin which has a very helpful truth, and a reminder about those times when there are spaces in our lives which seem empty and silent:
"There is not music in a rest, but there is making of music in it.  In our whole life-melody, the music is broken off here and there by 'rests', and we foolishly think we have come to the end of time.  God sends a time of forced  leisure - sickness, disappointed plans, frustrated efforts - and makes a sudden pause in the choral hymn of our lives; we lament that our voices must be silent, and our part missing in the music which ever goes up to the ear of the Creator.  How does the musician read the rest?  See him beat time with unvarying count and catch up the next note true and steady, as if no breaking place had come between.  Not without design does God write the music of our lives.  But be it ours to learn the time and not be dismayed at the 'rests.'  They are not to be slurred over, nor to be omitted, nor to destroy the melody, nor to change the keynote.  If we look up, God Himself will beat time for us.  With an eye on Him, we shall strike the next note, full and clear."

Throughly furnished...

2 Tim. 3:17, "That the man of God may be throughly furnished unto all good works."
It is NOT thoroughly, but THROUGHLY, which expresses the idea of something or someone who is permeated totally through and through.  It is saying God is in the process of fully imparting and saturating our lives so that every part of our beings - SPIRIT, SOUL, and BODY - in the depths and core of all we are, is to be INDWELT BY HIM, inside and out, every nook and cranny, NO place in this "house" that is not furnished to the uttermost by HIM.  Nothing left of Adam or the earthly control, all is in place, all done to the utmost perfection BY Him, and FOR Him, and THROUGH Him, and TO Him.
This is what GOD IS DOING in each of us.
Yes, we are His temple, a temple not made with hands, a living temple, corporate, the ecclesia.  NEVER again will God  have His rest in a house made of stone and mortar. (Which thought, which truth, brings into question all those buildings we call "churches" which most certainly ARE made of "stone and mortar.")
Jesus Christ as the house, the resting place of God, is the CENTRAL POINT of scripture.
Amen.

Patience...Impatience

The first quality of love mentioned in 1 Cor. 13:4 is "patience"...or, sometimes, long suffering

In Strongs, it is "to be long spirited, that is, (objectively) forbearing or (subjectively) patient: - bear (suffer) long, be longsuffering, have (long) patience, be patient, patiently endure."

In other words, briefly, not IMpatient.

The Lord is patient with me as, over the years, He has been steadfast in giving me opportunities to learn patience, to not be impatient (which, alas, He did point out to me is the equivalent of complaining - quiet murmuring).

He uses different ways of achieving His purpose (and how thankful I am that He is tireless, unyielding, determined to accomplish this, for He shall (!!!) conform me into the image of His Son...which I ardently desire). There is tribulation (all kinds of pressures, obstacles, interferences in my plans, and lots of "little" bumps in the road)which teaches patience ...and then.....there is time.

Yes, time. Today, everyone wants things to be done NOW, to move NOW, to be corrected NOW, to be ready NOW. God forbid that we do not have the fastest computer, quickest response on the telephone...and how about the fellow on the highway that "dawdles" (isn't going the speed, or greater), or doesn't move quickly enough after the light turns green.

And to see our impatience illuminated, all we need to do is to observe the check-out line at our favourite store (or any store). Yes, here indeed is a sampling of our hustled impatience - finding the shortest line; inwardly steaming when someone (gasp, choke) needs to have a price check or (even worse) wants to write a check!

Yes, we have come to a time when we now quantify almost the whole of life with...TIME.

Even in "Christian teaching" there is the idea of impatience, for are we not to "redeem the time"? Important to realize that this "redemption of time" has nothing to do with moving faster, getting more out of a day. It has to do with "the transference of earth's time-value into celestial (heavens) value by utilization of the Divine viewpoint; thus we redeem its worth for the present, and for the age to come."

My Father has dealt with all this in a very simple way - a reminder, forcefully made, if you will, that MY times are in HIS hands, NOT the other way around. HE rules in ALL things, and that includes my time - each second, each minute, each hour, each day...yes, every nano-second, to be exact.

And so...this reminder, ever present, has made a significant difference in how I view time...and thus enables me to become ever more patient, and therefore, much less impatient.

And knowing Father, there is more to come. How thankful I am for such insistent, amazing, unrelenting, incredible love...

Thank you, Lord.

First fruit...

In his book, Sit, Walk, Stand, Watchman Nee speakls about looking out over an orange grove and seeing dots of orange colour on the trees - the first fruit to ripen and be ready. However he assures us that EVERY orange, every piece of fruit, shall be harvested. None thrown away, or wasted.
And so it is with God's "first fruits" - the "fruit" that has been made ready to pick in this age. Now. Yes, those that He has called and chosen now are His "first fruit", part of His Body now. However, He assures one and all (as did Watchmen Nee) that ALL will, in his own order, be "picked". HIS time, HIS way.
Being a "first fruit" does not mean that we are special, better than any other (i.e., any one orange doesn't decide to be "first" - that is up to God)...it simply means that God has so ordained our "order". 1 Cor. 1:26-30 makes it clear (and The Message is delightfully blunt): "Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life [a first fruit]. I don't see many of "the brightest and the best" among you, nor many influential, not many from high-society families. Isn't it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these "nobodies" to exposé the hollow pretensions of the "somebodies"? That makes it quite clear that none of your can get by with blowing your own horn before God. Everything that we have - right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start - comes from God by way of Jesus Christ..."
Surely such makes it clear that we are a "first fruit" because of what HE did, NOT because we "made the right choice," or were wise enough to accept His "offer" (such a word is not in scriptrue. Salvation is NOT an offer). No, it is because HE chose us - in His time, and for His reasons, and for His purpose.
Therefore, I can/do rejoice that while I am a first fruit, in time, in the ages to come, ALL will come...to Christ Jesus, triumphant and victorious Saviour of ALL; and then God Almighty, Sovereign Ruler of the universe, shall be ALL in all.
Amen!