I’ve often wondered why the Protestant churches don’t teach history- not even church history. It’s for the same reason that the Catholic church issued Mass in Latin, and didn’t want their parishioners to read the Bible. It’s all about CONTROL! And it still is about CONTROL in many ways: in morality, doctrine, culture, and civil behavior. All the while though behind closed doors $600,000,000 crimes are being committed. It’s not limited to the Roman Catholic Church though. A real definition of church or government is CONTROL. Continue reading ‘History Will Transform You!’
Monthly Archive for July, 2007
July 20, 2007 - We have been offered a new nature that makes us joint-heirs with the divine. However, the church has put off the Kingdom of God (which has already come) by it’s laws, doctrines, creeds, and practices. It’s time to recover the old which has been lost, combine it with the new which is being NOW revealed, and share the Kingdom life by revealing it in the way WE live.
I hate to say this, but it is so much a part of the life that I am now living that I can’t refrain. I love what I think the CHURCH should be like; however, the church has so screwed up the real Jesus, the historical and spiritual Jesus, that she (the church) no longer represents Him accurately. The church is now the bad PR agent for Jesus, the Christ. And when I say church, I am talking the fourth order house, universal church. The move from 16200 Hwy 249 to 10225 Woodedge also marked the name change from LRC (last letter church) to LRC (last letter Community). Church stands for too many bad impressions. Two weeks ago the Catholic church comes out and pontificates about how everyone who is not Roman Catholic is deceived, defective, and degenerate. Then last week, the Catholic Church in Los Angeles shells out $600,000,000.00 to compensate victims as a result of criminal priests, who face no jail time. Talk about “defective”. Enough! Continue reading ‘Jesus Needs A New PR Agent!’
I am glad that I have moved from being a “pastor” of and institutional church to a “spiritual guide” of a local community of believers. I, me personally, no longer believe in the hierarchy that I found myself attached to for six decades. I don’t know what that means about the future, but I am thinking that it is GOOD!. Only time will tell. However, the point of this 38th theses being nailed to the internet airways (and not the church door as in the days of Luther), is that church has lost it’s way, and I’m not sure that it has the courage, interest, or resources to find it’s way back to Jesus! Continue reading ‘# 38- Religion Need Not Be Mediated!’
No, this isn’t the introduction to a TV Quiz Show, and I’m not Bob Barker! This Friday I am going to try and take a look at the panoramic view of the last 2,000 years and bring us BACK to where we started- which was good. But as for NOW as I write this, I’m reminded of what it’s like to fly at 50,000 ft. in a private plane: most commercial planes usually fully around 33,000 ft. or so. But, here’s the picture. Continue reading ‘Come On Down!’
I want to follow up on my last commentary with a side bar regarding being intellectually honest as well. The religious will be more interested in what I am NOT SAYING here than what I say, but those that want to hear will. I don’t recall Jesus excluding people- even His enemies! His “stories“, such as the Good Samaritan say far more than the exclusivists want to admit. I don’t know why it is so hard to love people- ALL people, especially since God is LOVE! We have this religious disposition that wants everyone to have to abide by OUR LAW instead of abiding in the vine (love of God). Continue reading ‘Honest & Loving’
Jesus got it. He walked in it. His contemporaries and peers thought of Him as either the coming and contemplated Messiah or the Son of man depected in Daniel 7:13-14. Neither of those two characterizations carried any thought of divinity. They were human, kingly, material, or maybe a bit super human concepts. Jesus preferred the title that He most often referred to Himself as- Son of man. Can you say Joseph’s boy? It is indeed hard for some to grasp that. When se read of the miraculous works that Jesus did, we automatically switch subconscious mindsets and think of Him as fully DIVINE and not HUMAN. But, here’s what I see in Jesus and what I’m envisioning for myself and everyone. Continue reading ‘The Divine Presence!’
Is there any wonder that a person who is told of Jesus, that lives in a third world country, sees many signs and wonders while we here in America suffer from a deep spiritual drought? We have had 19+ centuries of theological presuppositions, imaginings, concepts, paradigms, and eventually creeds! Theology: two words combined into one. Theos for God and logos for words or ideas. Nearly 2,000 years of man’s verbage, words, and formulated doctrine “about Jesus“, and there is no end to the interpretations or formulations. The GOOD NEWS is that Jesus isn’t hemmed in not encapsulated by our mere thoughts. He IS Jesus! Continue reading ‘Layers Of Theological Window Dressing’
Most “religious people” are not in fact intellectually honest when it comes to their BELIEFS! They believe in their beliefs and you must also if you want to be saved! Truth should be that which is open to discussion and debate. Truth, like the Kingdom, cannot be shaken (Heb. 12:25). Truth should welcome critique, skepticism, and inquiry. However, you know as well as I do, to QUESTION any doctrine is to be called a heretic. To have doctrine that’s different than others is a cult. Sad, especially in light of the One who IS the TRUTH (Jesus) and the one we say we’re following, but certainly not in Spirit. Continue reading ‘An Intellectually Honest Faith’
# 1- The Kingdom Is NOW
This is what I plan on making a five part series on the importance of living in the NOW! The message that Jesus brought was that the Kingdom was near and would be upon us SOON. That SOON came nearly 2,000 years ago and yet people are still looking for it. We should be living the Kingdom life here on earth; however, over 2,000 years the church, through it’s religious teachings, have postponed what should not be, and isn’t IF we’ll awaken to the reality of the Kingdom. “They Kingdom come ON EARTH as it is in HEAVEN!” So, let’s take a 2,000 year journey (in five commentaries) and see how e got off track. Continue reading ‘# 1- The Kingdom Is NOW’