Wow, have I been busy and I know Joian has been the same, working, praying and occasionally making a forum post. I like to chide her after she posts a rare forum message, by calling her "God's princess warrior" (lol). Her messages are always wonderful and well placed. And it is sure good to have a friend show up to lend support in some of these places which can be pretty hostile to the Truth. Often times I go it alone for long periods and then God will send another and then sometimes there might be a gathering of three or four of us sharing Jesus. However it goes it is all good as Jesus is being praised and given preeminence where ever we write.Lately we have been taken back and even heart broken as so many are leaving the saving presence of the one true God for the strange fires of the "New Age" and "New Tolerance" movement. This New Age thinking has become epidemic in the ranks of those espousing Universal Salvation and I hear reports that it is even beginning to pervade the Eternal Torment fundamentalist churches. Is this the great falling away before the coming age? I might think so but I also take comfort that all is in the control of our sovereign God. There also need be heresy to test the hearts of those that are His and also to serve as a dark backdrop for the Light of His Truth.
The one thing I know of these wayward souls is that they are looking for a way around the Cross. I am not afraid to tell them so and although I love these guys I speak to the spirits that drive them and I have had God tell me a number of time to give them no quarter. You see they mix Truth with all kinds of weirdness which includes eastern religious thought, reincarnation, trances chanting, breathing exercises and use of crystals amongst others. These foul spirits desire to gain credence by any way possible, always looking for another compromising soul to entice and capture.
That said I thought for a few days to share some more posts from a heavily New Age leaning forum made up of believers mixing a poisonous elixir of Kingdom Truth with New Age thought ......... always a mixture of Truth plus falsity. Often, as I write these posts God reveals something new to me and I believe there are some real nuggets of His Ways and Being in these messages.
This first message is a reply to fairly well known teacher of this Christian/New Age mixture. For once this man upon being challenged shared the Christian side of his mixed message and with hope for his lost soul I replied.
_ _ _ _, I appreciated your message and I know well the way of religion. It is religion that killed Jesus and it nearly killed me as I practiced it for a hard dozen years. With humility and well knowing the Source allow me say that today as I walk by the Spirit I have few opportunities to share the Gospel with the unregenerate of my city. However I do love and I believe if you were to ask those that know me in Jackson Hole they would say I am more than anything a kind and sympathetic lover. That said, I have also shared much the same as far as the "seed of Christ in every man." My old friend George Hawtin shared with me this truth decades ago and then Preston Eby wrote what I think is the benchmark message concerning this truth. It is titled "The Seed in Every Man." I have shared this paper with many over the last five years and here is the link if any be interested.
This first message is a reply to fairly well known teacher of this Christian/New Age mixture. For once this man upon being challenged shared the Christian side of his mixed message and with hope for his lost soul I replied.
_ _ _ _, I appreciated your message and I know well the way of religion. It is religion that killed Jesus and it nearly killed me as I practiced it for a hard dozen years. With humility and well knowing the Source allow me say that today as I walk by the Spirit I have few opportunities to share the Gospel with the unregenerate of my city. However I do love and I believe if you were to ask those that know me in Jackson Hole they would say I am more than anything a kind and sympathetic lover. That said, I have also shared much the same as far as the "seed of Christ in every man." My old friend George Hawtin shared with me this truth decades ago and then Preston Eby wrote what I think is the benchmark message concerning this truth. It is titled "The Seed in Every Man." I have shared this paper with many over the last five years and here is the link if any be interested.
http://www.kingdombiblestudies.org/seed.htm
As far as the topic of the crucified life that you ended your message on. You seem to infer that we can't crucify our flesh and I would agree. However there are those that are His in this age and they find that God can do a pretty good job of it. The crucified life is for those that have been called to suffer and share in Christ offerings and sacrifices. This I believe is the mark of separation as most have not been given a heart to suffer and thus look for other avenues around the Cross. This suffering as a son is a Divine calling very few will receive and I often think of that which James shared in Acts 15 about God's purpose in this age which is the "taking out a people for His name." These people that bear the markings of His cross and His name are a remnant within a remnant and there is nothing elitist about finding one's call to this group as it has nothing to do with one's worth but only His calling. I often think of the "last will be first" verse in relationship to this remnant of sons whom all creation groans for (Rom 8). These are the servant king/priests after the order of Melchizedek spoken of in Hebrews. A priest is one that grabs hold of God with one hand and with the other hand holds humanity. With this he brings both together. These servant priests can be typed in the Old Testament as standing with the Ark of God's presence as the others pass by them and through the parted waters to God's promise. This picture I believe does give new meaning to the "last will be first" and the "greatest the least." These priests of today have a heart condition like Paul as demonstrated when he said, "if possible he would be willing to be accursed that his brothers could experience Christ's salvation." I used to look at that scripture and say, "Whoa!", but today after much of God's workings on my stony heart I believe I am slowly coming to that same heart condition.
While many back up from the cross and from being partakers of Christ sufferings, I know it is for lack of the "Father's hedging them in, where there is no place else to go." This painful "hedging in with no escape" comes only to God's sons. With most, God has left a way around the cross and we see this as many of late relish in a false and temporal liberty. This New Age idea of discovery of every liberating avenue outside of Jesus is afar from the sharing of the sacrificial Life of Our Lord and Christ Jesus. Channeling, breathing exercises, trances, vibrations and chants of "I Am that I AM" is not going to do a damn thing to redeem and free mankind. Oh, these things will makes one feel "good" and give a false sense of "worthiness" however this life is not about gathering all the feel "good" experiences you can. There is only One that is Good and Worthy and only in Him do we find the same. The peaceful good feeling and the worthiness found by abiding in Christ is of a supernal nature and differs from anything this world and self can give. This life is about being enjoined unto Christ Jesus and dieing to this temporal vaporous world and our self. When we experience this death we then see and enjoy that which we have died to on a whole new level that cannot be rivaled nor can it really be explained. This new level of experience is the very substance our resurrection is made of. It is the meeting of Heaven and Earth and it is all found in Jesus.
Any way _ _ _ _, that's what is on my heart this morning after reading your response. Now if you would, please allow me to share some scriptures and comments that support the idea of the Father's sons sharing in Christ's continual sacrificial offering for all mankind. And oh my, I would be remiss if I didn't say, "how my heart swells when I run across a rare cross marked servant son that knows something of the intimacy of sharing Christ's sufferings and sacrificial work."
The sacrifices and offerings of Christ continue today and are being manifest within the lives of the Father's sons.
*We are God's sacrifices and offerings for the church and a dieing world. We present our bodies, a sacrifice:As far as the topic of the crucified life that you ended your message on. You seem to infer that we can't crucify our flesh and I would agree. However there are those that are His in this age and they find that God can do a pretty good job of it. The crucified life is for those that have been called to suffer and share in Christ offerings and sacrifices. This I believe is the mark of separation as most have not been given a heart to suffer and thus look for other avenues around the Cross. This suffering as a son is a Divine calling very few will receive and I often think of that which James shared in Acts 15 about God's purpose in this age which is the "taking out a people for His name." These people that bear the markings of His cross and His name are a remnant within a remnant and there is nothing elitist about finding one's call to this group as it has nothing to do with one's worth but only His calling. I often think of the "last will be first" verse in relationship to this remnant of sons whom all creation groans for (Rom 8). These are the servant king/priests after the order of Melchizedek spoken of in Hebrews. A priest is one that grabs hold of God with one hand and with the other hand holds humanity. With this he brings both together. These servant priests can be typed in the Old Testament as standing with the Ark of God's presence as the others pass by them and through the parted waters to God's promise. This picture I believe does give new meaning to the "last will be first" and the "greatest the least." These priests of today have a heart condition like Paul as demonstrated when he said, "if possible he would be willing to be accursed that his brothers could experience Christ's salvation." I used to look at that scripture and say, "Whoa!", but today after much of God's workings on my stony heart I believe I am slowly coming to that same heart condition.
While many back up from the cross and from being partakers of Christ sufferings, I know it is for lack of the "Father's hedging them in, where there is no place else to go." This painful "hedging in with no escape" comes only to God's sons. With most, God has left a way around the cross and we see this as many of late relish in a false and temporal liberty. This New Age idea of discovery of every liberating avenue outside of Jesus is afar from the sharing of the sacrificial Life of Our Lord and Christ Jesus. Channeling, breathing exercises, trances, vibrations and chants of "I Am that I AM" is not going to do a damn thing to redeem and free mankind. Oh, these things will makes one feel "good" and give a false sense of "worthiness" however this life is not about gathering all the feel "good" experiences you can. There is only One that is Good and Worthy and only in Him do we find the same. The peaceful good feeling and the worthiness found by abiding in Christ is of a supernal nature and differs from anything this world and self can give. This life is about being enjoined unto Christ Jesus and dieing to this temporal vaporous world and our self. When we experience this death we then see and enjoy that which we have died to on a whole new level that cannot be rivaled nor can it really be explained. This new level of experience is the very substance our resurrection is made of. It is the meeting of Heaven and Earth and it is all found in Jesus.
Any way _ _ _ _, that's what is on my heart this morning after reading your response. Now if you would, please allow me to share some scriptures and comments that support the idea of the Father's sons sharing in Christ's continual sacrificial offering for all mankind. And oh my, I would be remiss if I didn't say, "how my heart swells when I run across a rare cross marked servant son that knows something of the intimacy of sharing Christ's sufferings and sacrificial work."
The sacrifices and offerings of Christ continue today and are being manifest within the lives of the Father's sons.
Rom 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
*One gives sacrifice by dieing. We die daily:
1 Corinthians 15:31 I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.
*The only way to have Christ' Spirit living within us is to be crucified with Christ. We are crucified with Christ:
Galatians 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
*We suffer for the church. We fill up the afflictions of Christ:
Colossians 1:24 Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church:
*We are God's continuing offering and even the sin offering. We are as He is:
1 John 4:17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.
O, Lord, help us to see ....... help us to know your ways ......... and more so increase in us your loving sacrificial heart.
Jack
Oprah has become the great promoter for some the New Tolerance/New Age self help gurus such as Tolle, Dyer and Rhonda Byrne. Some one the forum shared a scathing expose on Oprah and I felt led to share this short message in response. It is not an endorsement but a picture of Oprah coming to the end of herself.
Ah, and one day the Cross of Christ will fall upon that wealthy, vain and self aggrandizing woman. She will weep as she has never wept before. She will weep for all those, that she has led down so many Primrose paths. And when she is completely sick to her heart because of her misguided deeds the nail printed hand of One, Who had not even a place to lay His head, will lift her tear stained face. He will look into the windows of her heart and tenderly whisper, "you could not have done anything different my love for you were created vain and full of futility. Because of your vanity and your futile condition I died that you might have my very All, my Life." With those healing words from her new found precious Saviour she will bow and confess that Jesus is her Lord.
Isn't that how it works ......... it did for me.
He kills in order to make alive and I am so grateful for it,
Jack
PS. Lord willing I'll wade through a pile of my latest forum message tomorrow and publish a few that I think will bless you. Please pray for Joian, myself and our friends Florian and Card as we share our precious Jesus on these forums. Hundreds upon hundred come to view and I know some find encouragement in our message, knowing there are still those that know Jesus is enough.
.
