Our relationship with our Father and each other: pillars part 15

1 John 2: 12-19

12 I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake.

 13 I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father.

 14 I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.

 15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

 16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

 17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.

 18 Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.

 19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.

John gives to us three examples of Christian maturity little children, young men, and fathers. Each of these maturities has the results of our ever increasing faith becoming a living thing within our everyday experience.

If we think of these maturities as increasing the life, working, and power of Messiah in us we miss the reason for John using this symbolism. If we were to look at a man’s life when He was seven, twenty one, and sixty three there are certain foundational things that are unchanging. In all three examples of His life he is fully alive; he would not gain more life by living to maturity. We are either baptized into His death in Messiah and raised by the quickening of the Spirit or we are not Also unchanging is the way in which life is continued at each intersection he must eat (the true bread from God), drink (the blood of the covenant), have shelter (hidden in Messiah), rest (come unto me…I will give you rest), and expel that which is harmful(purge out the old leaven of man’s teaching by the renewing of your mind). What does change is our understanding of why we are alive, what living well consists of, and the very reason we are alive.

John has shared with us who Messiah is, what it is to have Him living in you, and what true fellowship with Him is to the end that we may see who we are as His. The language He uses fuses our relationship as a son of God with marriage language.  God is not only our maker but also He has joined himself to us making us and Him one.

little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake.

Even the youngest and least immature in the Kingdom of Heaven is betrothed to our creator. A bride takes her husband’s name signifying she has left the family of her father and has become one with her husband’s family.  We leave the father of our flesh Adam and the brotherhood of fallen men and join our self as one with the bridegroom. The bridegroom’s Father becomes our Father and His brethren become our brethren.

Jesus proved He had the power to forgive sins while ministering on the earth, and He showed why the Father had given Him this authority; for He paid the debt of every sin Himself. Therefore when we are joined with Him this same forgiveness is ours because He has given us His name.

, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning

Paul would say to the church you have many instructors in Christ but few Fathers. Instructors draw others to themselves and their teachings while a Father seeks to show a child how to have all life offers.

 An instructor is a hireling who sees students as a source of provision for himself and of course they should provide since he is instructing them from his great knowledge. A father instead has no gain from the child other than the joy of seeing him have a fullness of life; though he will teach the child to work beside him that the entire family may share in the provision of their labour.

Why is the father able to be so different? As the spouse of the bridegroom fathers have not only made an agreement to become one but has consummated their marriage. The two have become one. A fathers life is not his own in possession or source but it is the life of THE FATHER through him

, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.

A young man has begun to understand the authority and place of his family and how that name means that he also has this authority and power available in his life. This is the place where he begins to walk in that authority. A young man sees himself as one that must bring honor to his Father and family through the manner and conduct of His life. Duty honor and love for his father is the life of a young man.

It is the nature of a child to speak of being grown. It is the nature of a young man to believe he has need of nothing more. It is the nature of a father to by love and caring show how to live where you are and help you to become what you will be.

The master builder of the church concluded the work of a spiritual father when he said “I determined to know nothing among you but Christ and Him crucified.”

15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

 16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

 17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.

The world, all that is in and of this world, is the family and possession of the father of sinful flesh Adam. Our Heavenly Father has no love for the things that the flesh seeks. Those things bring only death and destruction. Our Fathers love is men and to seek and save men must be our love also.

All the things men desire and strive for shall dissolve into nothing leaving behind only vexation and eternal death. The life our Father shares with whosoever will is His life and shall never fade away or have an end.

18 Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.

 19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.

The time of the patriarchs has been and passed, the time of the promise to come has been and passed, the teaching of the life God wishes to share with men has been and passed, the manifestation of that life and giving of redemption has been and passed, it is now the last days

when God calls to everyman to partake of His provision of life. Each of these times before has had a set time in the foreknowledge of the Father as does these last days.

Men from the beginning have sought to change the teachings of God to their own ways and they have not changed. God gave the witness of sacrifice and Cain made it a false way to elevate His own works; even refusing the grace to repent. It should surprise no one that when the living manifestation and true sacrifice has come men would once more pervert it to a means to elevate themselves. These are the anti-Christ teachers and doctrines. Jesus has warned us that in these days would arise many false Christ claiming to show the way to God while drawing men to themselves.

These teachers have left Moses witness of life and the apostle’s witness of that life manifested. They make our relationship with the maker a work of our own hands and a way to obtain the things that are passing away. Witnessing of themselves that they have not the life that abides beyond these things.

John says to be real: pillars part 14

 

1 John 2:1-11

1My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin , we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:

2And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

3And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.

4He that saith , I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

5But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected : hereby know we that we are in him.

 6He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk , even as he walked .

7Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning.

8Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past , and the true light now shineth .

9He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now.

10He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him.

11But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth , because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.

John here gives us the motive behind the writing if His epistle “that you sin not” followed directly by the assurance that if we sin Jesus is our solution.

The modern church has accepted in many circles various teachings of a grace that are false. Most of these false ways have at their root the reasoning and thinking of men trying to align the scripture with assumptions about how our lives should be lived. The very way we define grace is often the reason we develop understandings that frustrate grace from being effective in our lives. So what is grace?

We often hear grace defined as an undeserved gift which while being true leaves much to be interpreted.

Many view it as synonymous with forgiveness. There is no denying the forgiveness in grace but it is in no way the sum of it. It is as if I asked how does a car run and was answered with you put fuel in it. Fuel is vital to the answer but it is not its sum. Grace is not a precept of God as to our position in Him nor is it a declaration of our innocence by Jesus sacrifice but it is His life actively living in us.

Paul would say we have been made partakers of the promise established with Abraham but what is that promise? Our thinking and our teaching often go to Abraham’s promise of land, influence, importance, progenitor, a heir, yet these things are a result of the promise. The promise of Abraham came directly after His separation from Lot and it was this; God said “I am thy shield and thy exceedingly great reward”. The Father has given us far more than what is in His hand but He has given Himself. His very life all He is now has been made one with us.

This is grace; the experience of God living in and through us a shared life. When we see this then it becomes obvious why John says if we say we are walking in fellowship with Him we do not walk in darkness. So how is it possible we sin if it is God living in us.

Mercy is like a blanket which covers all of my actions but the grace of Gods breath in us is a vitality of life. Your life before you came to redemption was the result of every moment, every decision, and every thought all active in your flesh. This flesh generated life can, whether desire is for good or evil, only steal, kill, and destroy both ourselves and those around us. To some degree it is the revelation of this from God that brings us to repentance.

At the moment of conversion we are forgiven and justified by our faith in Messiah but the grace that we walk in is a moment by moment walk of faith. In a perfect walk we would immediately live as our messiah lived by complete dependence on the Father to act and speak through Him. However the believer has strongholds in their mind of a trust in the self or others to provide in certain ways and times.

This trust causes us to sow in certain ways to our flesh and when that seed has grown it produces fruit. This is the way that a true believer can in some way find himself committing sin. “The just shall live by faith” means in essence that the life of God in us is only as active as we are trusting His life to live through us.

The chastisement of the Lord is when the Lord allows the trust of the flesh to produce works of the flesh in the Christians life. This becomes how He reveals our heart to us. The sin of Adam that brought death to men was simply to trust that by his own ability He could produce life just as God does. This trust in self is the seed of the plant called death and the works of the flesh Paul gives us in Galatians 5:19-21 are its fruit. So it is that when we see this rotten fruit in our living we know that the seed is present.

Paul says lay aside the sin that so easily besets us, this does not mean to ignore it but rather that when we see it place it in the death of Messiah by faith and trust the Fathers life in us to be our life.

For when Messiah who knew no sin carried our sin to the cross that it should die along with the results of that sin described in the curse of the law. Jesus has brought to us the good will of God by destroying in His body the power of death by His own death on the cross.

So Jesus went to the cross to die and we as His believers come to Him to die therefore He forever stands as a legal reason for our acceptance before the judge of all the earth if we are found in the faith that He has become our life.

How is it that we know we are one with His life being our own we keep His commandments. This word causes problems because we perceive it as a rule but the deeper meaning of the word is that it is a precept or description. It is not a description of an action to attain to life so much as a description of the effect of actions occurring because life is present.

For example it is not a rule that my heart must beat but for along as I am alive it is my nature to have a beating heart. So when we seek to perform the things of live we witness that we do not have that life naturally. By our trust in His life living in us we do as Paul said the things contained in the law by nature.

If we say we are living by His life in us but we walk in sin we lie for God cannot sin. As we trust Him he takes us from trust to more trust and from more trust to even more trust and as Paul says from faith to faith the righteousness of Messiah is revealed in us who hold this life in earthen vessels.

This is the commandment from the beginning; trust Gods life in you and commit yourself completely to love for Him. This is the command to Adam to not forsake the life breathed into Him and attempt to become his own life. This oldest of commands to love God with all we are is made alive, effective, and new in Messiah.

The light of the Fathers presence has through His Son Jesus been made to abide in men once more bringing us back into sonship. If we love God and His love is in us then we also love our brethren and there is no place in love for sin.

However if we lift up the self we will hate our brother whether by trying to rule over him, take from him; to envy, to covet, and to lust are the only tools of the blind because Gods life and the light of His presence is not in them.

I once heard it said that the worst liar is the man who lies to himself...are you blind?...Jesus still heals blind men who call on Him.

John asked what lives in you:pillars 13

1 John 1: 5-10

5This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

6If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:

7But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

8If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

10If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

The new age movement is many things but new is not one of them. The packaging is often redone and stated in various ways but the basic precepts are as old as the tower babel. Oprah speaks of the many ways to god but the truth is that scientology, Native American spiritualism, Buddhism, universalism, psychology, self-help teachings, humanism, false christianity and a thousand variations are at their core the same teaching and all will bring you directly to the door step of the god of this world. We see Christ and anti-Christ in that as Jesus is the door that brings us to the light of becoming one with God so there is a door that brings us to the darkness of Adams iniquity to make himself as god. This door is the self.

The religion of man, for they are in truth all the same, states that at the core of a man is either god, the universal spirit, a clear consciousness, goodness, or whatever description and that by enlightenment or removal of wrong emotions, desires, thinking and understandings man can become what he is intended to be. When the bells and whistles are removed it believes in short that the knowledge of good and evil is sustenance to become as god is.

Though the scripture is often used by those who hold such beliefs to validate their teaching it pieced, parted and modified scripture pulled out as if it can stand on its own without relationship to all else in the scripture.

John tells us God is light and has no darkness in him at all. Not only does this statement of truth stand against the religion of self-improvement but it raises the question of how can the darkness of this world exist and at the same time God be omnipresent. The answer to this is by a covering or a veil.

What happens to darkness when it is exposed to light? It ceases to exist. For this very reason when Adam choice to be his own illuminating force God enveloped this world with His mercy to prevent men from ceasing to exist. This is the positive of a covering but there is also a negative; if something is covered it is separated from our presence.

So it was that Adams choice to be self-generated caused us to be separated; God calls this separation death and darkness. Our God added to His mercy the gift of redemption. The effective working of this redemption is that Gods life becomes once more the source of life for those who place their trust and dependence on Him. We call this process of His life being restored in us grace.

This grace is the means by which the dependence on the life generated by the flesh is removed. It has its basic principle shown to us in the token of circumcision. Once the carnal thinking of man could take hold of the precept of a covering of flesh needing to be removed in order to be in the covenant of God with man then God would build on this teaching.

The teaching of a veil, both over Moses face as the glory of God emanated from him and by the veil in both tabernacle and temple separating even the ministers of God from His presence in the most holy place, shows us our separation.

 In genesis God has said “And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh”. The prophets expand the teaching of circumcision by showing the separation of our flesh with uncircumcised lips, ears, eyes, and heart. Until we are brought to Messiah and how He has carried us into the removing of the flesh by His death, which is true circumcision and removing of the veil, on the cross making us dead to the life generated by our self but living to His generation of life in us by His Spirit.

 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:

So John tells us if we are still in the darkness of trying to generate our own life but claiming we are sharing in His life and light we lie. Our being is not as His being

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

However if we rely, depend, and expect that our life is Him living in us then we are one in His life and thereby one with the Father and also one another. In this fellowship we are not merely covered by mercy and forgiveness but rather we are cleansed. For sin is when we do that which is in opposition to the law but the law is a description of the life of God. When we trust Him to share His life in us and live through us our old sin is crucified in Messiah and we are cleansed of our old bondage to that sin.

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

If we allow ourselves to believe that we can produce actions and desires that are pleasing to God from the flesh of the self which we received from Adam then we deceive ourselves and the truth of who we are and our separation from Him is not in our mind and heart.

If we will believe and confess not only the uselessness of ourselves to produce life but also that the very attempt to do such is a result of the prideful sin that brings only death. Then we find His forgiveness and that he cleanses from all unrighteousness; for His life shared in us is the same life described as righteousness.

If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

How often have we heard others or ourselves say “I am a good person” or claim compared to the next guy their wrong is a little thing. To say such a thing is to call God a liar. Do not think within yourself that such a thing only applies to the lost; our churches are filled with those who will say they need Jesus but then list all the good things they do. Our Lord would not make such a confession despite His perfect life but instead asked “why do you call me good there is none good but the Father” for it was the Fathers life through Him not produced of or by himself.

Is His word in us?

John and the Word of Life: pillars part 12

1 John 1

1That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;

2(For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)

3That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.

4And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.

5This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

6If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:

7But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

8If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

10If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

With the phrase Word of life the apostle John makes a pretty good summery of His message to the church.

 John’s teaching is like an energy storm around an atom where it seems that an electron disappears and reappears further in its rotation. The other authors of the epistles are analytical dividing mercy, justification, redemption, salvation, righteousness, and life and dealing with each as to how it affects the whole. With John you better strap in cause it’s all one.

 Reading his epistles is like a jolt of static electricity that shocks you and leaves you stunned trying to understand what just happened. It is as if the Holy Spirit waits excitedly for your understanding to catch what has been said then plunges back into the storm.

The word of life which John speaks of is not ink on a page but it is instead a man that had the breath of God I Him. We read in ink the witness of both prophets and apostles of who He was but John saw his face when He was grieved and when He was joyful. Where we read the things He said; John has heard both compassion and sternness in His voice. He has tasted the fishes and loaves, seen leapers given new healthy flesh, heard the mourning for Lazarus changed to praise and astonishment, smelled the dirt and sweat and blood mingled at His crucifixion, and seen His resurrected body ascend into Heaven. With all these things experienced forming in John a knowledge of who His Messiah was his testimony is He is the Word of life.

If we ask a man to describe his life it is very likely we will hear about labor, accomplishment, achievements, family, or desires. However life is who you are; all the things we list when asked are the result of the life in us but they are not that life. The life in us is experienced. In this same way the description of life cannot bring us the experience of it.

Jesus said only the Spirit of a man can know a man. It is for this very reason that we have been made partakers of the Spirit of God, that we may know Him. The scriptures say also that from the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. Consider with me what this means.

Those who love deception speak deception. Those who love a lie speak lies. Those who desire to have honor of men speak flattery(this does not mean appealing to another’s vanity but to your own. If my vanity is that real men take what they want then my flattery may well be insulting and demeaning). If Messiah fills our heart we speak of Messiah.

If we see these things then we see that the living Word being the only begotten goes far beyond the creation in Mary’s womb. The Father spoke from that which was who He was; so because He is truth His Word is truth, because He is the vital force of life His Word is Spirit, and because the Father is I AM the existing one the being which we call life His word is life. The sum of these things is when the Father spoke he reproduced Himself. So before the foundations of the world the Son was born. All things where created by Him. One more thing to remember The Father does not have words as of many but the word as in one. The manifestation of that word through the prophets and later through the apostles is merely description of the Word who is the first and the last the beginning and the end.

So the express image who has said if you have seen me you have seen the Father Has also said me and my Father are one for I am in my Father and my Father is in me has become the word by which the life of the Father is restored into those who believe. Saying that we too shall be one and as such be one with the Father and the Son and also our brethren.

In short the Word of Life is born of the Father and is one in person with the Father but still His Son. It is by this same Living Word that we who by faith place ourselves in the death He endured can come into life. The same life that is in the Son, is living in us making us brethren and children of the Father.

The Word of life.

Peter's new heaven and new earth: pillars part 11

1This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance:

2That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour:

3Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,

4And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.

5For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:

6Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:

7But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

8But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

9The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

10But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

11Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,

12Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?

13Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.

14Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.

15And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you;

16As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.

17Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness.

18But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever. Amen.

Peter ends his epistle with an encouragement to set aside that which is of this temporary world and instead to trust the promises of YHWH of the new heavens and earth in which there shall be no corruption of any kind. This stirring up of our minds to the purity of belief in that which has been promised by both the prophets of old and the apostles of new is not without a warning of those things which will try to undermine that trust.

that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,… For this they willingly are ignorant of

I would suppose that any believer who has ever spoken about the Lords return has heard “that has been claimed for two thousand years and still the world goes on and He has not come.” Peter concludes two things about those who scoff at the scriptures warning and promise of a future judgment in which the things of this current world shall be done away with.

 The first is that such men are looking to obtain their own lust for the things of this current world.

The other is that they willfully ignore that the scripture is plain that the world of Adam, Cain, Seth, Enoch and all those who lived prior to the flood lived in a world that perished by that flood. The same word of God that tells us of these things tell us this present world shall be destroyed by fire in the day of judgment and loss of soul to ungodly men.

We hear the voice of men accusing God “If He is real, if He loves us why is there so much suffering in the world?” The answer is He is longsuffering and forbearing to the end that all men have the chance to repent. Despite this there is a set day when this present world of darkness will be consumed by His light and every soul not gathered into His life shall be no more for death itself will cease to be.

We by His promises look for this new heaven and earth in which only righteousness will be found. Since we look for this day of His perfect way then Peter stirs us to trust in Him to purge us and make us at peace with Him in the life that is of His breath.  For the life that is generated by the will and way of men is an enemy of God.