Challegeing our Courage

Not so many years back God gave me a vision, maybe call it a dream, which set a course in my life that changed just about everything, and the way I viewed them. The impact of this vision was crucial in the growth of my life, and wanting to share it with others, it became essential to reveal it with folks that want to grow in the life of Christ and are weary of the hoop-la that’s going on in these things that man calls ‘church’. I wrote a book called “The Two Trees Within”.

As a writer, I’m not all that good at; as a speller, there’s not many that are worst; but to relay my message of what God was giving to me, I’ll let you decide. This book has several typos, misspelled words, and is written in the southern slang of this author, but it does have something to say that is crucial to those that want their life to grow in the Spirit of Christ.

I’ve have had, over the years, several people that have expressed to me what God was saying to them through this book called “The Two Trees Within”, and thought it noteworthy to again share to those that have read; read it again. To those that have not read it; download it off my web-site and see what God can change in your life. The book is at no charge.

Religious Dysfunctions

It amazes me to watch so many sincere folks either lead or follow in the antics of religion. There is no doubt that many have had a life changing experience with the Lord, thus moving in the direction of the only earthly entity that promotes themselves as the ‘house of God’: i.e. a religious center. These people are sincere with their encounter and are drawn into the Spirit of Gods’ Love and have an inward desire to fulfill that which the inner Spirit man is tugged to do; learn all there is to learn about the things of God. There is nothing wrong with this. But, to enter the doors of these so-called industries called ‘church’ can sequester any contentment that the Lord is calling them into.
Their man made promotions of worshipping in the flesh, singing their ritualistic songs, preaching their prepared sermons of intellect, praying their rehearsed prayers, and let’s not forget to pass the collection plate, stifle many that just wanted to learn about and share the deeper things of God. But the things of God come second when they have ensnared another one into their web of advertisements that the flesh has invented. Although God loves these folks with the deepest of Agape Love, He has little else to do with the antics of religion.
The old adage of “if you ain’t got right, make it look good” just won’t work. God is not something that you can put in a box of four walls, pay a person to preach about, elect committees to delegate functions, count their idols of attendants, or deposit their coveted tithes into the bank on Monday: This is the work of man’s empire to promote himself.
Why do we continue doing the same dead works generation after generation? Because of the longevity of the traditions that carnal man saw many years ago that was working for them; it worked. It is true that man was placed here to follow, but to follow Jesus Christ, not these self-promoted leaders that need to have their egos stroked. If these factories called ‘church’ were to adhere to God’s call in 2nd Chron. 7:14, nothing about these carnal rituals would exist. “If My people that are called by My name, shall humble themselves, pray, seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I shall here from Heaven, forgive their sins, and heal their land.” Our land is our own individual being.

If these outward fleshly expressions of what these things call ‘church’ are recognized as worship, then why are we baffled about a people that’s dependent on the system rather than the TRUTH?

Religious Deceptions

Although I have a tendency to expose Christendom, all religions fall into the same category of being flesh man’s inventions. When God’s Holy Spirit is not moving within a certain format or institution, and carnal man continues to forward his own agenda, this is deemed religion. (Remember, the word religion literally means method.)

I too ministered within this system called ‘church’ for many years until I began to conform to the Spirit’s call to “come out of her My people”; Rev. 18:4. The habit and addiction of being seduced by this thing called ‘church’, and the shame and guilt that was being placed upon me for considering to leave that system, kept me there for several years longer than I knew was suppose to happen.

The strict adherence to the set of rules and regulations that each religious system invents, are designed to keep their flock within a standard to be controlled; whether it be obedience to their doctrines, or conducting yourself within their fleshly parameters, each denomination has more than a few rules that are not scripturally sound.  But, when one is found suitable within their system, which means he has outward fleshly works, and pays his tithes and follows as asked, he is then quickly promoted up the ladder to a higher status.

This industry called ‘church’ is a far-cry from that which Jesus is building upon His Rock.  We are so caught up in this ‘thing’, and blinded by our own self fulfillment that many think that attaching themselves to this corporation is the right path to travel; it’s all that many were ever taught.  When we look like Babylon, think like Babylon, walk like Babylon, and quack like Babylon, wonder what and where we really are?

To many the status-quo is all they ever wanted, but for those that want to live a richer Life, understands that John got it right when listening to the Lord in Rev.18:4.

Having a relationship with Christ is entirely different than that of this social club called ‘church’.

A Foolish Diet

As the Pharisees of old, the folks around the temple were inundated with repetitious legalism and a foolish diet of useless rules and regulations that brought nobody closer to the Truth of God. Their formulas, doctrines, and man invented habits of their so-called worship were engineered more for show and self indulgence than to bring a single soul into the Truth about our living God. They flaunted themselves with intellectual power and religious zeal that knew nothing about the intimacy of God that our Father desired with His people. They missed it. Their legalism was contrived to bind people to their set of rules; their way of interpretation of what God really wants had nothing to do with bringing a people together in Spirit. It was all about the hierarchy of man. Each wanted to be seen; seen in the upper rooms, seen with their elegant robes, and seen with their long public prayers that did nothing in the forwarding of God’s Kingdom.

We today, with more than a few centuries of these historic habits, we are paralleling with precision the exact same antics of bringing attention to our silly ‘church’ programs, committees, building projects, and any other scheme that the flesh of man indulges in to make himself look bigger and better than he really is. When you don’t know what your doing one becomes innovated.

It seems that carnal man thinks that if he’s called to preach or pastor, that God has placed him a couple of notches above the rest; folks, I hope you know that this just ain’t true. We are called to serve those that God has placed before us; to feed His sheep, not feed off of them. It is an honor to serve Christ in Spirit, and it’s usually done by being last, by becoming joined in Christ with lowliness, and a heart willing to step out of the way and let Him take the lead.

I realize that many who minister the Lords’ Kingdom message had an experience with Christ and a desire to share that message, therefore entering into a ministry with a pure heart; but with the foundations that modern carnal man has laid before them know no other way to give that message but to travel that same old useless road called “THE MINISTRY”.  We can share what God has given to us without having to join our heart to this ‘thing’ that we have been calling ‘church’.  These corporations that we call ‘church’ are busy about selling their wares, their restrictive platforms, their social promotions, and most anything else that the flesh mind of man can produce, having no understanding that God is seldom a part of it.  When these ‘things’ compete to increase their customer base, ignoring the weightier matters of why people’s hearts aren’t coming to Christ, then we have again missed the boat.  Our piety and self-preservation to look good for our own name sake, has lead many into believing the same false rhetoric that this is the way it should be; after all, it all they’ve known for these past several centuries.

These club houses that we call ‘church’ looks more like the world that they belong to than they do the House of God that they should be.  It far better to have a few seeking the heart of God than these institutions with all their misled masses.

One does not have to look very closely to see that the Pharisee has again taken over.

The fleshly religious leaders of today also have an appetite to consume their followers.        What’s in your diet?

What lies beneath?

I have attempted this subject before, but I think with my abilities, did little to articulate what I really wanted to say. This too will be a feeble attempt to express what I want to speak.

It is true that God gave us His only begotten Son Jesus as our Gift from Him to us. It is true that Jesus is our Redeemer, our Healer, our Deliverer, and He came to make the atonement for our sins, but I’d like to look a little further as to why God sent Him to us at the time that He did, and why it was so critical that His timing was exactly when it was.

Before the birth of Christ, the Pharisees, Sadducees, scribes, and the chief priest of the temple, in fact all those that adhered to their practices, had very little idea of who our Heavenly Father was. The many centuries of their interventions with their man-made doctrines, rules, regulations, and their fleshly needs to hold power over the people, and their silly formulas to ‘live life right’, did nothing but make a mockery of what God was establishing on earth. The Truth of Who and What the Father truly is was perverted. This is well documented in the Gospels that they, the above mentioned religious leaders, were constantly at battle with every word that Jesus spoke. In fact, they attempted to throw off a hill, trick Him by their cunning words, disclaim everything He said, belittle everything He did, in fact they sent many to find ways of catching Jesus in the very act of blasphemy, they wanted Him dead.  Of course, none of these tactics worked.

The rituals and doctrines that these religious leaders were teaching, and had been teaching for centuries, had perverted Who the Father, in Truth, really is. There were few, and I mean very few, during this time in history that knew much of anything about our God.  The above mentioned religious leaders were so involved in their own doctrines and rituals, that through the centuries, God was being pushed away and the intimacy of His relationship with us was almost nonexistent.  God was willing in this intimacy, but man through centuries of training, no longer knew that our privilege to have a relationship with Him existed.  The pollution of mans’ order of religion had distorted the Truth of everything about God.  The scribes and Pharisees were so involved in their man-made laws and regulations, and keeping their power over the people that man was being lost in himself.

Why did God send His Only Begotten to the world when He did?  One would think, but in truth no one knows, that had He waited a few more years before Christ was sent into the world, that none of the teachings of the TRUTH would have existed.  Man would have ordained himself so far from God with these ingrained teachings that we’d no longer understand that God Himself wants a relationship with us.  The timing of God sending us His Son was not an accident, it was crucial.  The world, at this time, needed to be saved from itself, before all was completely lost, we needed to be rescued and preserved.  These religious sects, and there were many of them, all had one thing in common, that was; that each sect was promoting their own agenda, their own method, their own formula of what God ‘truly’ is, and of course we can easily look back and see that their perversions kept mankind from knowing the Truth about our Lord that truly Loves us.  “God so loved the world that He gave…”,  And His giving of His Son was at the exact right time.

Jesus was sent to show us the Father, the God of His creation.

Now, look at us today.  The piety of our high-minded religious leaders that are pushing their fleshly agendas to promote these counterfeits of what Christ was building on this rock, has completely failed the same way.  Again, when the ‘worlds so called ministers’ clothe themselves in piety and religion, and are blinded to their deceptions of Truth, then we, as a whole, must look  elsewhere- Gods’ Kingdom reconciles us in His bosom, and certainly does not bring about separation.  These institutions built by the brain power of carnal man has positioned the world to parallel history precisely the same way.

But, God cannot, nor will not, be defeated; He has a plan.

change

They say; the only thing on earth that never changes, is that everything changes. Tradition and established religion has been doing the same things over and over, especially in the last hundred or so years, but with little results in the forwarding of Gods’ Kingdom. Denominations, with their slight differences, think they each have a hold on the truth, but it’s evident they don’t, or what they are doing would show some results in this world in the understanding of Who and What God truly is.
Their sign reads: if you want to know God come to our services; or We love everybody; or God is where his people meet; or Pray for those that don’t attend church. or any other clever saying that you might read on the many marquees up and down the road. “If my people, that are called by My name, shall humble themselves, seek My face, and pray, and turn from their wicked ways; then I shall hear from Heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” 2 chon 7:14 Folks, our land is our household, our individual being, not necessarily the country we live in. It takes little effort to figure out who are people that are called by His name
God is met, and kept, in the heart of man, that unobstructed and unhindered place within man that only he and God knows. When Jesus said upon this Rock I shall establish My Church, He was speaking about the revelation that the Holy Spirit had given Peter. He was speaking about the unrehearsed proclamation that came from a man speaking without thinking it through.
God is everywhere, and He certainly cannot be contained in a box with four walls, a ceiling, and a floor to stand on, nor can any one group claim to have all the answers.
When asked about the Kingdom, and when it was to come, Jesus said that the Kingdom was already here and is in the heart of man.

Their methods, that is their religion, has truly carried on their traditions for the past more than several centuries, and again I say, if it was going to work, don’t you think there would be more evidence than this morally declining world?  These silly programs, and holiday plays, and well rehearsed sermons, and their Sunday morning routine that strictly adheres to the bulletin, don’t work, nor will they in the future.  God never changes, He never does, but the man invented ‘things’, of these carnal minded structures, has too.

 

Playing church?

For many decades I was involved in this ‘thing called church’, (and no, I wasn’t run off, nor did I leave mad,) and with my involvement I saw many, many folks going through the motions, but were not dedicated to the things of God, but instead, their dedication was directed towards tradition, religion, their denomination, appeasing themselves, and/or the building they met in. I realize there are more than several sincere folks that want to learn and grow in our Lord, and I also realize that many are stifled by the traditions of playing church.

When a platform, a doctrine, the services themselves, the same-o rituals with the same formalities are done day after day, week after week, and has been done this same way for a century or more, we have then fallen into the category of ‘playing church. And what astonishes me the most, is that so many of these sincere folks think it’s pleasing to God.

I’ve seen so much competition between one denomination with the other, it has even gotten to the point of showing off their parking lots, stained glass windows, attendance rates, the education of their pastors, and many other carnal facades, that their ego are so caught up in their fleshly deeds, that God is understandably pushed to the side.

Just because a certain religious way has been done for eons, doesn’t make it necessarily the right way. Just because it’s more familiar, and has a strong backing from the past, cannot make these formalities more than what they are; the incorporations of the mind of carnal man.

God is alive, He’s moving, seldom coming in the same door twice, He’s a mystery than pleads for His people to worship Him in Spirit and Truth. His Grace has tolerated us thus far, and He is merciful, but how long can His people, that are called by His name, remain in the same-o rhetoric that is going nowhere? For if it was changing people lives, bringing many into the Truth, then why have so many fallen away, and now can’t understand that going to this thing called ‘church’ is a substitute for the worship of our Lord.        These ‘things’ are counterfeits.

Adversity builds !

We live in a world that likes to whine and cry every time a situation doesn’t go our way, every time our selfish fleshly desires aren’t met. We were programmed from youth to learn tactics to try to control situations to meet our own selfish needs; as a child, what else could we expect? A child thinks like a child, but when this same pattern carries over to adulthood we end up thinking this is the norm as so many others are doing the same thing, especially in the western world.

The scripture says; “All things work together for good to those that love the Lord…” Love conquers all, and covers a multitude of sin, (missing the mark), and we understand through scripture that tribulations are given to us for the building of us saints, so why are so many belly-aching because this worldly life dishes out its bitter pill? Strength, wisdom, patience, and hope comes from adversity. So in the long-run, we gain more from our enmities and that which we count as bad, than we do from those familiar faces that go along with the same rhetoric of looking out for number one.

At times the United States was the strongest nation on earth, simply because it had the most enemies, with those that were willing to fight us, thus making this nation look deeper for solutions. We as children of God, have sit on the side-lines crying about our bruises, wringing our hands, and not knowing what to do, when in truth, God has a plan for every situation, whether good or bad, to bring each of us to His next level of growth. It’s not us that’s in charge; it’s God, so why not look beyond the tribulation at hand and see the mysterious Hand of God working behind the scenes to create a Life of Faith within each for His purpose?

If we look at each character of people in scripture, we will see that all, not just a few, were sent overwhelming circumstances, but by faith over came them by the Hand of God moving greatly. Abraham, Moses, Joseph, and David, and the others, did not balk at the adversity at hand, but saw through it to another Land.

This crap that we’ve been taught, even by religious leaders, has malnourished a people to starvation, a people that thinks that all has to go well before victory can be had; but that is non-sense. We are His people, peculiar and His chosen generation, a royal priesthood, called out to overcome that which the flesh screams about.  The things we read and learn in books, or even blog pages, can never compare to the learning that comes from trials and tribulations.  Truly, God turns all situations into ‘good’ for those that Love Him.

Think about it

We have had a continuous format thrown at us by this ‘thing called church’ for the past nearly two thousand years, and it hasn’t worked; and it never will. The things of Christ will endure, always has, and always will, but the powerless rhetoric that’s spilled from these man-made pulpits has fallen by the wayside. Yes, a few seeds will germinate, but the bulk of the seeds are either being choked out by this world, or haven’t taken root and are withered when tribulations come along, but the True CHURCH, headed by the Spirit of Christ, will continue to grow as long as man keeps his hands off of it.

God is not just filled with Grace, God is the entirety of Grace, and without this tolerance from Him, these club houses and corporations that call themselves the headquarters of Christ could never continue and get away with their soulish, fleshly, and carnal schemes to get folks in their doors and then empty their pockets.

Religions, and there are hundreds of different religions, let’s call them methods, all have the same platform that they are built on; that is, an invention of the mind of man, with their strict set of rules to keep their followers in check, and the universal theme of growing to satisfy the ego of those that promote it. The christian church, with their traditionally enforced formulas, do the exact same things.

Gods’ CHURCH, with Christ’s Spirit as the Head, will continue to grow, but at a stifled rate, because of all the noise that these ‘things called church’, and their desire to dominate, promote an accepted status that it has taken millenniums to create and is now accepted as the standard of belief, but God has kept a remnant that holds fast to His Truth.

These trillions of dollars that’s been stuck into these cathedrals and so-called ‘church houses’ have not changed a single life toward God; but one man hung on the cross two thousand years ago can.

These traditions won’t change, but we can. God is the entirety of LOVE.

A little time to just talk

There are a lot of what I call nuts out there that want to eliminate anything pertaining to God, (religion) out of the sight of man; but I’m not one of them. I certainly do see that these man-made religions are not at all relating to God, and at times detrimental to the forwarding of His Kingdom, but I don’t want to take away any of our God given rights that can build us to a people that will show the Truth of who God really is.

Religion has failed, but the Gospel as God has given it to us will always prevail. If these carnal-man theories and doctrines were going to work, there would seem to be some evidence of it by now. These so called ‘churches’ are, for the most part, losing more and more of their customers each month, and will continue to do so until they’re willing to turn from their fleshly ways, and turn to what Jesus has given us through the Holy Spirit of Love. When a great name, or the power that folks give to their preachers, or the number of people occupying their pews, or their strict rules and regulations of their programs, and let’s don’t forget that coveted money called tithes, take precedence over the Way, Truth, and Life then what else can it do but fail? But these formulas have been going on for so long, and accepted as Godly, that this system of entertaining can not change easily. Like the folks of Babel, when building their tower, were of one accord and united, spoke one language just like these ‘churches’ do today, then also will it have to fall, and fall it will; but God is keeping a remnant that is spread throughout the world that is alive and willing and will continue to bring the Truth as God has given It.

There are people, world-wide, that are waking up to the real WAY, TRUTH, and LIFE that God is giving to us, and I want to be a part in it.

I’d like to remind folks to scroll down on the Home Page and listen to the music that my good friend Kirby Dies has written and sang, and see if it will also give you a greater perspective.