11th hour

11th hour: This is what God said to me Sunday morning. What? It's the 11th hour. Quick switch on, where am i. Google: wait

Matthew 20:6
And about the 11th hour he went out and found others standing. I'm not feeling it. Not the laborers and salvation and all getting the same. Got it. Not worried about it. But then the evening comes. hmm and the owner re-enters the picture and makes payment. Not interested in the payment (well payment is good but this is not about the payment). Interested in the owners' return. That's it. Pay attention. The owner is returning. Now what. We all labor. Some for longer than others. We all are in the vinyard or working for the master and we get paid the same. No worries. (look up rewards though) But it's the 11th hour. One more hour to go. That's it. One more hour to go and the master returns.

Romans 13:11
Know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.

Matthew 24

⁴ And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you.

⁶ And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for ^[a]all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 

⁷ For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, ^[b]pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. ⁸ All these are the beginning of sorrows.  

The beginning of sorrows. Got it

and I go back to sleep. . .

And then i sit and wait and then what? And then I forget. I stop. Not stop following, not stop believing. (maybe sometimes wondering. Maybe that) That was 2018. That was on a Sunday nearly three years ago when God sent the vision and said "It's the 11th hour" But I start praying at 11pm. Only thing I can think of. I do it for weeks and then I stop.

and I go back to sleep. . .

Matthew 24

¹⁰ And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. ¹¹ Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. ¹² And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. ¹³ But he who endures to the end shall be saved.   

WAKE UP. . .

It's 2021. It's covid 19 for 10 months. It's BLM Riots. It's Antifa riots. It's after chaz. It's still Portland. Maybe forever Portland. It's after the capitol invasion but before the inauguration which is supposed to be the biggest riots of all time. It's the start of vaccinations but before I get mine. It's after some people in Norway die after the vaccine shot but I'm told they would have died anyway. (So why give them the vaccine?) It's the rise of critical race theory but for sure not at the pinnacle. It's the rise of the harlot of babylon religion. It's all in the bible but no one believes. 

 It's post the beginning of my year long Nazirite vow. It's mid a three day juice only fast. It's while I am crying out "I want to see what you see. I want to hear what you hear." It's chaos all around. It's the most at peace I have ever felt. These are open heaven's and God among us. This is the garden and this is my joy made full that God has given me this time. He has given me 10 months of stop and listen. 10 months of stay at home and listen. 10 months of a picture of more of him and less of me. Less doing and more waiting, more sitting, more crying out. He has paused my life and shown His face to me. It's the 11th hour.

Things you can learn from Genesis: Part 12

On hanging out in a desert and building Altars (Still)

Genesis 13

So Abram gets the heck out of Egypt. He is back at the Altar, back talking with God, back where he is supposed to be. Notice the clear back track to where he last encountered God. In fact after they arrive at the Altar Abram calls on the name of the Lord.  This is important for us as we hopelessly wander away from God. We need to backtrack to the last place of encounter. Run don’t walk. We so often hide in shame when we need to return to the altar and begin to worship again. Next sentence, quick transition: Abram has another little problem. He has got a lot of stuff post Egypt fiasco. He looks around and it occurs that Lot has a bunch of stuff as well. Apparently they both have so much stuff that it does not all fit in the new place they have settled. Lot and Abram have got an old fashioned problem: Too much stuff and not enough space. Time for a new place? Abram approaches Lot, “Let there be no strife between you and me, and between our herdsmen, for we are kinsmen. Is not the whole land before you? Separate yourself from me. If you take the left hand, then I will go to the right, or if you take the right hand then I will go left.”

So this is not rocket science. Lot looks around and he makes his choice based on sight. One direction is the Jordan Valley. It has super cool vegetation. It has a water source. It is the obvious choice. We can go all religious here or we can see the choice he made as the one we would all make. Quick pretend thought process. That land over there looks good. God is blessing that land so there I will go. Lot does not have to be thinking in the flesh, he just has to have an understanding of God that leads to prosperity. That makes him pretty normal. So it does not matter what is motivating him.  He can be in the flesh like most scholars argue or he can be following God the way he thinks God leads. (More on this problem in a moment) At the end of the day it does not matter. Lot is not God’s man(Hard Word), Abram is. Lot could have chosen the other direction and the story is unchanged. God is still with Abram. That is the truth of it.   

So depending on all sorts of circumstance the irony is that Lot does not choose left or right but chooses the way they are facing. He chooses East.  So on to what is God doing with Abram. Abram will now go Southwest, which is of course is the direction he is supposed to be headed in any way. Oh this God. Southwest is not fertile yet. It is not fertile until Canaan.  For now west is desert, still. So by taking Abram to the desert God protects him. He brings him into deeper revelation and need of God and he removes him from the place that man would choose. Oh sure Abram has plenty of shenanigans in him but that is for later. And sure enough Lot goes hanging out where man would pick and meets up with all kinds of trouble. This sounds like us a lot. We are more often Lot than Abram. It is just true. We find ourselves entangled with the ways of man more often than we even will admit to. We often do this because we have a fully man created understanding of God. We do this because if we get a little off correct understanding of God then we will follow that path in a very straight line, which with a very small understanding of simple math will lead us forever further from God’s path. (think ray.Think moving away from the point for infinity.) Pretty soon we are explaining all kinds of things that are crazy. Pretty soon we are rearranging all of God’s truths to make sense with the culture that surrounds us.  Pretty soon we are explaining how God is all love and grace and then we are moving God’s morality to be more modern. We are helping God update so he does not sound like some disgruntled grandfather. Pretty soon there is no hell and people just need to be kind and have good hearts and as long as we are loving pretty much everything is permissible because God understands that we are all just some sinners after all. All this happens with one simple choice to go east, just one choice to angle away from the point. Sure I am this crazy person and I get that, except that well, I’m taking my chances with what the Bible says is correct. I’m hoping I look more like John the Baptist than Lot. That’s what I’m going for anyway. So I am leaving it there.

God tells Abram, “ I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth (Oh God and dirt) your offspring also can be counted.  As far as we can tell God does not talk to Lot at all. This is God. He talks to who He wants to talk to. Lot gets to deal with all the crazy people and Abram picks up his tent and moves west. He puts his tent down in wherever nowhere is and he builds an altar. He does this because putting down an altar is hypercritical. Here is the deal. If we don’t put down altars to God all we have is our memory of God. But when we can see where we’ve been with God and see where we are going with God we can choose God far easier than say, oh I don’t know, trying to remember if God ever spoke to us in the first place.(while surrounded by unbeliever and believers who say God doesn't really talk does He?) Think Satan, "Did God really say?" Without the Altar we start wandering back to where all the fertile ground was.  But if we have put down something external from ourselves that says, “This is where God is.” Well we can run to that. Even when it seems to make more sense that God must be with all the people having all the fun in the fertile spot. God gives us place so we can find the light when we’ve edged back into the dark. Make it tangible. Always make it tangible. God understands this. That is why He thought of the altar in the first place.

Things you can learn from Genesis: Part 11

The point of Building Altars

Genesis 12 -13

So when God chooses He also decides the course. This is the thing. It is the thing that we can put our faith and hope in. It is also the same thing that puts us to the test. For some reason we want to be chosen and then we want to choose what comes next. But that is not God’s way. He chooses us. We say yes. We become His; same thing every single time. We do what comes next when He says what comes next. Think Jesus in John 5:19, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.” Think John 12:49, “For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak.” Think  John 5:30, “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.” It’s consistent this way. Just do what He says to do and things will go the way He wants them to go.  So God has chosen Abram and off he goes. He is heading to the land that God has chosen for him. When he gets there the place is full of other people. Umm It’s a big world God so there must be a place where we can do this garden, make a great nation thing in one of those places. But this is God’s plan: This place where these other people are. God does not seem too concerned by who got where first. He tells Abram, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So Abram builds an altar. You would think he sets up shop here but instead he moves on. So here it is unclear what is happening. Is he in disobedience?, is he reading God incorrectly? It is difficult to know. He moves on to the hills east of Bethel and he sets up there for a bit. He is still in Canaan, just further Southwest, nearer to Egypt. He builds another altar. But here again he moves on further in the Negeb. And it sort of ends like that. We  are told there is a famine and then Abram takes Sarai and they head into Egypt where he causes all kinds of problems with some antics produced from fear. He and Sarai do this sister/wife thing and it causes havoc for Pharaoh.

So here is where we can relate to the brutal truth of Abram. He is chosen by God and he is walking whole heartedly. He is all in. He leaves home. He is talking with God. He is building altars and he is making sacrifice. It seems that there is no wrong step to be made. In our mind this man should be blessed. After all, we are pretty sure that we should have blessing as we draw nearer to Him. And yet that is not how it plays out. Abram builds two altars in the land and he settles with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And Famine ensues. This is so God. This is consistent God. He chooses, He marks, He leads and then He introduces the desert place. Abram you are chosen so what will you do in the hard times?  Abram heads to Egypt. It is not clear if Abram has entered into sin with this choice. The bible is not obvious with this. However, there are some interesting events that occur while Abram is in Egypt that seem to reveal a separation between Abram and God in this time.At least it seems clear that Abram has altered the relationship on his end.

From the time Abram leaves his home he is in constant communication with God. He also builds an altar everywhere he settles. Finally, he never seems to be worried about the land or who occupies the land. But contrast all that we know with what we see in Egypt. He enters Egypt and he does not set up an altar. He enters Egypt and he does not speak with God. He enters Egypt and we immediately see that he is afraid for his life. This entrance to Egypt is so radically different from his entry to any other place during the journey. So what ensues is a series of odd events. Abram and Sarai pretend they are brother and sister. Pharaoh thinks she’s pretty hot so he decides to date her. He hooks Abram up with all kinds of wealth.  God shows up and plagues Pharaoh’s house with all kinds of troubles. Pharaoh learns that Sarai is actually Abram’s wife and he runs them both out of town. Nobody gets hurt and Abram has improved his bank account by quite a bit. We are told he is very rich. They leave Egypt and head for the altar they set up between Bethel and Ai.

Wow! So here is what we have learned. While it may be true that Abram forgot about God while he was living in fear in Egypt, God had not forgotten him. He protects Sarai by Plaguing Pharaoh. He blesses Abram with valuable property. He has them both run out of town and they run back to Him, back to the place where He had placed them. They run into His arms and He is there. This is an amazing God. We build altars because we will need a place to run to after we forget what it is we are supposed to be doing. He will always be there. He will have orchestrated the return. We build the altar because we are a forgetful people. We are inclined to think we may have been the ones who did the cool thing or we may think that somehow it was fate or chance, random dumb luck. We build the altar because it is the reminder that it was Him, that it is always Him.

Things you can learn from Genesis: part 10

This is not shocking. After the whole scattering incident God seems to randomly choose one of them to be His next person. God does have people. He is a chooser of people. It is one of the things He does. And the way He chooses makes no sense to us. It is just His way. And so He looks about the whole of the earth and He picks Abram. Abram has done nothing remarkable. We are not even told what Abram has done. Unlike Noah he is not even righteous or holy from what we can tell. Now he does set up alters and make sacrifices and these actions seem to indicate he is a man who follows God. But by the same token within one verse of making a sacrifice he is also cruising into Egypt and giving his wife away to pharaoh in order to save his own life. But that is later.

For now it is altogether strange that God has chosen another man period. God says to Abram, "I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing." These are some pretty big promises right there. At this point from what we can see Abram has done nothing. God tells him if you will do something then I will do all these things. All Abram must do is move. Pretty simple. Pack everything up, take all your stuff and your friends and your family and move to the next land on down the way a bit. He did not have to leave anything behind except the land.

God wants Abram to move to Cannan. Now here is something interesting, in Genesis  chapter 11 we are told Abram was headed there anyway. At some point Abram's dad was headed to Cannan and decided to stop short and set up life in Haran. So God is asking Abram to get to the place where the family was headed to at one point anyway. Abram has big cash flow, lots a family and friends, so he packs everything up and off he heads to Cannan. God has made some big promises. Why not go?

It is a good time to stop and really take a look at all the things not said here. Clearly, Abram has a relationship with God. I mean God has a pretty long conversation with him and Abram is not too shocked about talking with God. Another thing here is that God makes big promises. He does not just say go to Cannan and I will make you happy. He literally promises blessing forever. Beyond that Abram is already super wealthy. He pretty much has everything. But he hears God and God says move to a new land so he goes.

On top of everything God has promised He also adds in a few more things. He tells Abram that God will "bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you I will curse." Now that is pretty crazy. God literally sets it up that all things that occur on earth have two implications. People will receive blessing or they will be cursed. Again this is a critical component of who God is. He has set His kingdom up around a man He has chosen. All people will be blessed or cursed based on how they treat this man and his offspring. The implication is that how people treat this man is how they see God. Think Matthew 25. Think sheep and goats. Think "come you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me." Remember the sheep were all when did we ever see you? And they are told it is all about how they treated the people around them?

See what God did there? He did consistent. He did steadfast. He did unchanging. God has always picked a man and said how you treat this man is how you see me. Oh, think two commands. Think love God and love your neighbor. Think who is this God that He would choose a man, in a town and say move to a new town. Start a new place. Meet new people. He would tell this man I will send you sheep. I will make you known in all the world. And here is how we will do it. We will choose who is for us and who is against us based only on how they treat you. God does this thing just like He did with Adam. He does this "us" and "we" thing. It is always Him but He is always saying look what we did. Think God making people so he can be with them. Think God letting man name stuff.Think unchanging again. This is who He is . . . Always.

Things you can learn from Genesis: part 9

Here is the truth about people. Even apart from God we are capable of the amazing. This is at the heart of our choosing darkness over light. It is pretty clear that we are pretty awesome even when God is not involved. We are capable of tending to the lonely, we can feed the homeless, we can fix the broken hearted. We can set right perceived wrongs. We have the ability to rescue those who need rescuing. We can cure disease. We can make cool stuff that makes our daily lives easier. We literally can do all things.

The earliest thing we figured out how do do was to build giant buildings. It is still one of the great things we do. It is a sign of how advanced we are. If we can make something rise up into the sky we are to be honored and feared among men. It is a bench mark of advancement.

So it is no wonder that the first thing we do after the floods subside and the people recreate, is build. In Genesis 11 we learn that the whole earth had one voice. And we also learn that they decide it's time to build something big. We learn that the people know how to make bricks and that they also know how to stack them and make a tower. They say, "come let us build a city and a tower with its top in the heavens and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth."

Now this is Weird thought process but it is tied up in our wrong thinking.  We think we can be like God by being impressive.

Now these are some interesting developments. The people are pretty impressive. They can and do build things. They apparently can build these things into the heavens. This is no small feat. People are pretty impressive. They also seem to have a goal in mind. They seem to know there is a God and they desire to build a tower to where He is. Beyond that they also seem to have a fear. They have a fear that they will all be separated. They seem convinced that by building they can ward off separation from each other. Hmmm?

God's reaction to the whole event is equally stunning. The Lord comes down to check out the handy work of the people. He is obviously quite impressed. He says of this project, "Behold they are one people and they have one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing they propose to do will now be impossible for them."  This is a stunning moment to say the least. God is aware that man kind has continued to discover the limitless possibilities it has when unified and organized. Remember this is post flood, event one. God is looking at what they have done and He knows that if He does not take action people will do more amazing things to glorify themselves. He knows that they contain unlimited creativity and ability. He knows that they can do whatever they set their mind to. He understands that because they are from Him and yet because they have grown evil from their youth God knows that man kind will do all things and move further away from Him. He can see that there may be no way to reconcile this people if he does not step in and actively thwart what they can do.

So he grabs the rest of Himself ( no really easy way to explain the "us"). He says "come let us go down and there confuse their language so that they may not understand one another's speech"  and we are told this works. As they did not complete the building of the city. They all head off in separate directions as they feared would be the case. It is quite an interesting thing that perhaps needs further thought. Why is their greatest fear that they would be separated from each other. In a world that is defined by its rampant individualism is it not then interesting that the great fear is separation from others. My guess is that is still the great fear disguised as self reliance but rooted in the fear of being alone. Stunning that most of us stumble because we seek approval of man. Alone we don't do much one way or the other. 

We can see the inherent problem with mankind. Those all around us who would argue they can do great things without God are not liars. This is not a secret to God. He recognized this aspect of us even from the beginning. What He has always known is that we are impressive. He did make us after all. But He also understood right from the beginning that everything we do is driven by our desire to be great. It is economics 101. It all works because we act in self interest. When we all work in our own self interest we will be led to create and do things that will benefit all. And God knew this from the earliest moments. He knew that if He was not going to destroy us again that He would have to act to split us into smaller groups. As a fragmented people it would take us longer to re organize and create things apart from Him. All of this to show His perfect plan and mercy.

See we don't need God in order to be impressive. We need God because apart from Him there is no good. Apart from Him there is no light. The truth is that all the impressive things we do leave us trapped in dark. We cannot find good when we have created fake good in the dark. When God set about creation everything He made was good. From that point on all things that we have made are super cool and down right amazing. So amazing in fact that even God can see it. But nothing we have made is good. It is just a fact. We conspire to do evil. There is no escaping that truth. 

The mercy of God is that He loves us. He has made a way. He has caused confusion and delay. And He is using this time to tenderize our hearts. He wants us to know that being impressive is not the same as being good. It is the one thing we consistently get wrong. We can build some cool stuff. We can even fight for worthy causes. But all the cool stuff in the world will not rescue us from the dark. We don't need the light to accomplish cool things. We need the light because in the light is God. At the end of the day that is reason enough. We don't need to build towers to the heavens when we are in the light. We don't need to reach God. He is already here, in the light.

Dark and Light again.

I am reading over the notes I have written down every time I come to ihop. Here is something I wrote to myself in March 2011. "Apart from Him we grow in darkness not light." We somehow get confused about these concepts. Because we are people we are absolutely convinced that there is a third choice, a neutral place. For whatever reason our brains want to convince us that there is a place of non movement. But I feel pretty sure that there is not a third option. I feel pretty sure that there is not a neutral moment in God. It seems clear that there is a battle that is rageing. It seems clear that this whole thing is an epic battle between strength and weakness. The heart of God does not see neutral space between Himself and Satan.

When we are in the light we are in Christ. He is light and when we are with Him we are in the light. His light is perfect light so there are not shades of light. There is just light. His light does not get brighter the nearer we are. This would somehow indicate that God's love has a limit or that it fades. God's love is best seen as a perfect circle. It is perfect light from beginning to end. At the edge of the light is perfect light. His light is powerful and radiant. It does not grow dim.

Where the light ends there is not a fading of the light. There is light and then it ends as abruptly as it began. There is perfect light and then there is darkness. Darkness behaves like the light. There are not degrees of dark. There is just dark. We do not move through the dark to discover darker. The dark is perfectly dark all throughout. It is everything outside the circle. Perfect light and then nothing. Just black. Just dark.

This is how God designed the whole thing. Once we are not in the light we are in the dark. For God there are no degrees of darkness. There is just everything that is Him and everything that is not. Degrees of light and dark are man made ideas. It is how we compare ourselves to others. We believe that others are darker than us and that others are lighter than us. God does not have this. God sees who is in the light and He does not see those in the dark. 1 John tells us that God does not fellowship with the dark. In fact it makes clear that He fellowships exclusively with those in the light. In the light there is fellowship. There is no fellowship outside in the dark. All things are made new in the light. Our joy is made full in the light.

He is pretty particular. So to my thoughts from 2011. I'm not sure we grow in darkness. I'm pretty sure dark is dark. But i am also sure that when we are not in fellowship with Him we are fully in the dark. Standing in the dark with no clue we are there. We somehow think there is light around us. But without Him we are absolutely in darkness. Without Him we do not have any light. Not even just a little bit. Light does not work that way. No one in the light is trying to explain degrees of light, hues of light. But isn't it interesting that those in the dark have created and entire system of false light. Those in the dark have made the dark look like light. There are entire systems dedicated to making dark look like light. Dark constantly argues that it has a light. It argues that there are those among the dark who are evil and those in the dark who are good. Having electricity does not create real light. It creates a false light. It is not the sun. It is something like the sun, but not. But the truth is that dark is dark. Even if it looks like light. John 1:5 makes it clear that even though the light(Jesus) came into the dark everything in the dark could not see. The dark is so convinced of it's own light. It can't be confused by the truth.

Things you can learn from Genesis: part 8

The thing about Noah is that he found favor in the eyes of God. There is no mention of what this means. We have really no clue about what it was that Noah did that brought about this distinction. We just know that this is what scripture says. In genesis 6:9 we are told that, "Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God." that is some pretty sick stuff. There are not a whole lot of people who walked with God. You would be hard pressed to name too many ( I am not counting the thousands that followed Jesus.) you can count them if you want. But still we do not see it listed that Noah did anything extraordinary.

But the times Noah lived in were certainly extraordinary. We are told the earth was filled with wickedness. The word of God makes clear that every single man/woman was wicked. That "every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." That is shocking. The thoughts of all men were evil at all times. Certainly that can't be true? Or could it be that God sees evil as all thoughts not about Him? And if that is true then what? It seems evident that all men were not involved in murder, mayhem and perversion at all times. At least not in the way we define it. But in truth if God sees things in one of two ways. If God sees only light and dark(and I am pretty sure that is what He sees) then this brings into perspective what God was looking at when He decided He "was sorry that He had made man on the earth."

So maybe Noah did not live in such extraordinary times. Perhaps He lived in a time that looks strikingly familiar. Noah walked in the light. I know this because God walked with him. Everyone else. Every single person on the face of the planet walked in darkness. Only Noah's family was saved.

God does a hard reset on the planet earth experiment. He kills off all things including the bugs and the animals. And when the water subsides Noah makes a sacrifice and this so strikes God to the core that God makes an announcement. He says, "I will never again curse the ground because of man." That right there is interesting. It is a promise with a qualifier. God essentially says He will not let man get to Him again. He will not destroy stuff due to the failure of man. He may break stuff for other reasons but it won't be because of what man does. What is even more shocking is the why of the whole thing. God will not destroy things because of man, "For the intention of man is evil from his youth." What just happened God? Here is the thing the hard reset was never intended to fix the problem. God never thought if I reduce the planet to the few who love me it will all turn out good. He never thought this will fix everything. He knew from the beginning that man was evil, that man was always evil and was always going to choose evil.(and that is some crazy stuff right there) The reset did nothing to curb the evil of man. 

In fact what we know is that Jesus comes to do what man always fails to do. Jesus became the sacrifice that stirs the heart of the Father. Jesus is the "pleasing aroma" that so moves God to forgive our ways. Don't confuse what Jesus has done with anything we have done. We only look different because God sees Jesus. He is like this cool window that makes us look different to the Father. Maybe i'm not being super theological there but you get the point.

One step closer

There are things for me to learn. God has spent the last two months teaching me about His way. There are seemingly simple ways of doing things and then there is God's way. While He can do anything and everything in an instant He uses process to not only refine us but to teach us about us and Him and to bring glory to himself. His way is intense and so much better thought out than my way.

First lets look at just a few things that God has done that begin to show His way in the word. Look at David. God  knows the people want a king and He is raising up a special one for them but in the mean time He let's them have the one they chose. Saul is a perfect storm of a mess. He is the result of human picking. He has massive insecurities which surface in his decision making process. He leads them into dark places and ultimately becomes obsessed with what he wants. He is like all of us.  The life of Saul does not really demonstrate the process of God. It does accurately portray our ways. Act-react. Suffer the consequences.

But while Saul is doing his thing God rasies up David, the nobody son from Podunk Bethlehem. Hey David you are a shepherd.  Play some guitar, fight some animals, sleep outside, suffer for some sheep. Hey David serve your brothers, bring them some food, kill a giant. Hey david go work for Saul, play him some music, lead some armies, go and hide cuz the king wants to kill you now.  Hey David you are going to be king someday go and live in the woods, upgrade to a cave, keep on running. Hey David time to be a leader, here is your crew of rebels, go and live with the philistines.What is all this nonsense? This is God we are talking about here. Hey David Saul is dead go on and lead the Tribe of Judah and some of Sauls crew will continue leading the rest. Crazy, crazy God and His way. We would be all well David you are in charge but god is all David you are in charge eventually.

I have been told that I have type 2 diabetes. God could have done all sorts of things with that. He could make it so that I would not have that disease. After all why should I have it? I am 5'10 I weigh 180. I'm 49 years old. Ok I eat too much McDonald's and ice cream and cereal after midnight. But still. And yet my numbers don't lie. So God can heal me in an instant. Why not? He loves to heal so He can do that. But over the last few months, reading about the life of David, going through some things in my own life, it has become clear that He does process with me. There are things He wants to do to reveal Himself to me. He knows something about me. He knows that I notice better when things take place and then come into alignment. He knows that I marvel at the mystery of seemingly random events that lead to a moment of this is God.

So here I am, doing my glucose tolerance test surrounded by people who look nothing like me and yet are all in the same predicament. Blood tests to find out what is going on inside. The numbers don't lie but they don't tell us we're sick either. That is the first thing God has taught me. There are promises God has on my life. This does not negate the promise. This is just a cave. One step closer is what it looks like.

You used to love me more

Just watched Francis Chan teaching at IHOP. What God has done in this moment is indescribable. Francis Chan has said yes to teach in the place that many call a cult. He has said yes to the thing that will cost him reputation. He has said yes to advancing the Kingdom at all costs. Many will say he has aligned himself with Mike Bikle but we know the truth. He has aligned himself with God.

He also struck me to the core with his message. The challenge is to hear the voice of God, to stay the course even when false messengers are being sent not just by the enemy but by the Lord Himself to send us the message that will steer us from the truth of the Gospel. Why would God deliberately send delusion? Well He says He does so that is good enough but it is clear that God wants to know that when we hear Him will we stay the course? Will we do what we said we would do? He wants to know that if we have heard from Him will we be sent off course by others who have heard something else from Him? Will we go with the numbers or will we stay steady? Are we moved by man or God? Pretty simple at the end of the day. For us to know we are hearing from Him it must match with what He says and does in the Word because the Word is His living voice. For us to sync up what we hear from the Lord and what He is consistently saying then we must be in His word. We must know what it says and then we must do what it says. We must not find its use in an excuse for our shortcoming and sin but we must be rooted in the whole of what it says. We cannot be followers of men and their teachings but we must be grounded in what God says and then we must do what He says.

This was the heart of his message tonight and then he dropped into Revelation 3:1
“‘I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. ² Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. ³ Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent.

What? What just happened? Who is this guy? Who is this God that he says stay the course and know the word. Don't listen to teachers who will fool you and then says through a teacher from out of nowhere, "oh by the way you need to repent." The key here is the tenderness God has for us. In verse 2 He says, "Wake up and strengthen what remains." What a gem God sees that there is this thing alive on the inside and He yells, "wake up. That thing is still in you. It's still alive. Strengthen it." It's a hard word. What God is saying is you used to love me more. Hate to hear that. Know it's true. I don't want to spend forever having loved Him more in the past.

Apparently, I am not alone. It seems pretty much the entire message of God throughout all time. Even from the first. "You used to love me more." He says it alot.

"I'm coming back to the heart of worship. It's all about You."

The pearl of great price

So amazing the things that stick in my head, the things that I finally must say something about. I have been sitting on this thought for about six months, just going back and forth with God. This then falls into the why were we taught it that other  way category of my thinking.

In Matthew 13 Jesus tells several parables. Jesus tells the parable of the wheat and the tares (also known as the parable of the sower.), the parable of hidden treasure, the parable of the pearl of great price and the parable of the net. For some reason these parables are looked at separate from each other and historically this seems to have led to an interesting way of looking at the pearl of great price. ( and the parable of the field for that matter). Matthew 13:45-46 says, “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.”

In Matthew 13:44 we have a similar parable about a man who realizes there is a field that has hidden treasure so he sells everything he owns to buy the field with the hidden treasure.

Historically then these two parables are taught in the context that Jesus is the hidden treasure and the pearl and that we give up everything to have the field or the pearl. These two parables then are taught in the context of salvation. And while there is an argument to be made that this is a correct way to look at these two parables it seems in context that Jesus could not have been telling these parables to lead us to this conclusion.

In fact, for me it is very clearly the opposite conclusion we were meant to arrive at. The truth of the two stories is that we are the hidden treasure and we are the pearl of great price and God is the merchant in both parables. So let me break down the thought process on this.

Jesus begins each of the stories with the phrase, “The kingdom of heaven is like.” This is a clear indication that Jesus wants us to know about the ways of God and how His kingdom will be revealed to us. This phrase is set in place so that we will think about how God goes about His business, not about how we go about ours. We can further understand Jesus’ method in the parables by looking at the parable of the sower, which Jesus explains immediately prior to telling the two parables of the merchant. As Jesus explains the parable of the sower He makes clear that the one who does the sowing is the Son of Man. He is the sower. And then He makes clear that the field is the world. Ok so if Jesus is the sower (the one of action) and the field is the world then we should stick with this explanation as we move to the two merchant parables. Remember that Jesus has left the crowds and is explaining how to decipher His parables to the closest disciples. This then is the road map for the stories that come next. He wants them to understand the proper order of things.

From this perspective then the action is not played out by man, but rather the action is played out by God. So when we take this as truth we can see that God sees treasure in a field (the world) and He sells all that He has to buy that field. (Sacrifices His Son). We can also see that God sees a pearl of great price (us) and He sells all that He has to buy it. (sacrifices His Son.)

The truth is that we have nothing to offer and nothing to give up. We are already dead. We are in fact darkness. Darkness cannot give up being darkness to become light. Darkness makes no decisions at all. We know that darkness must be overcome by the light. The light subdues darkness. We know that darkness ceases when light begins. What we know is that we do not have a darkness switch in our house. We have a light switch. Darkness comes and goes only after light is either switched on or switched off. Jesus is not the pearl of great price. Oh He is amazing and in Him there is only good and His kindness knows no bounds and He is slow to anger and He is deeply in love with us. And we do not know love period without Him. He loved us first and I could go on and on about this truth. He costs us nothing. We have nothing without Him. In fact, we are the pearl of great price. We in truth cost Him everything. It seems pretty obvious now.

Things you can learn from Genesis: Part seven

The second after sin.

Genesis 3:7

It is amazing that immediately after Adam and Eve choose sin their eyes are opened. They do not die and at this moment they are filled with the knowledge of good and evil. It is imperative that we understand that in God’s economy there are only two kinds of knowledge. You understand them both at once. But to be sure there is no neutral knowledge. This is the way God lays it out. This is His hard word but we must get on board because He makes clear that everything we can know boils down to good or evil. If there were a third option God would have laid that out for us.

This is troubling for most of us because there is so much that feels neutral to us. It is this place where most of us reside. Most of us are not going about our day doing things that are inherently or intuitively evil. But be sure that if it is not something of, by or for God my guess is that it falls under the category of evil. And for me it is a struggle as I write this but I want to fully understand Him, to know His ways and not just be ok with His ways but desire them fully.

Adam and Eve have eaten of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. As a result they are changed in an instant and know things that God never intended for them to know. So there is this element of God that He protects us from things we should not know. I get that. I do that all the time with my daughters, especially my oldest who is on the verge of knowing all that the tree of knowledge reveals. So there is something to this knowledge that is not good for us. We were not designed to navigate the reality of the knowledge of good and evil apart from God. That is one really important truth to hold on to. This is why God sends His Son because He understands that the gap is unbridgeable by man and if the gap is not bridged then we hopelessly wander toward darkness and away from light.

From the moment of sin until we see murder is just two births. We don’t know how old Adam and Eve are when Cain and Abel are born. (Both those birth lines become unimportant. Which is really interesting when you think about it.) We do know that Eve gives birth to Seth when Adam is 130 years old. We know they have Seth to replace Abel. It is through the line of Seth that we move toward Noah. Noah is born 1056 years after Adam is created by God or roughly 126 years after Adam dies. From the moment of murder until “the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually”(Genesis 6:5) is roughly 1500 years. And since a lifetime at that point was nearly 1000 years that is not too far removed from creation. In truth, we are talking about six hundred years give or take after Adam dies. So the point here is that the knowledge of good and evil without a savior and without the Holy Spirit pretty much leads only to evil. At least according to God.

It is interesting what the first moment after sin reveals.  Genesis 3:7 tells us, “Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew they were naked.” Isn’t that interesting? The horror that they experienced, the knowledge that was revealed, was that they were naked. There is something more to this than the symbolic revelation of their gender difference.

Here is my take. At the heart of our disconnect from God is an immediate revelation that the flesh has a desire for intimacy.(Lack of a better term) Once there is a disconnect from the creator (loss of intimacy with the Father) this desire is played out in the perversion of what was once pure in the eyes of God. So while all sin in God’s eyes is equally dark the ramifications of sexual impurity has a deeper impact on our hearts. This disconnect is at the heart of our lust. Because we have become separated from God we cannot quench our desire. (Our desire is for intimacy) We are told that in Him is the fullness of Joy. Apart from Him is only darkness so we cannot find the joy we would experience in God, So for whatever reason this unquenchable desire has shown itself throughout history as sexual dysfunction. To be sure we see our sin played out in many areas but we cannot forget that Adam and Eve notice nakedness not idolatry or murder, jealousy or any of the other many possibilities. 

We have seen that our selfishness is usually played out through a sexual dysfunction. It may be something as simple as obsession with personal beauty or something more devastating like fornication, adultery or same sex attraction. These things lead to countless other sin issues. The point here is that this aspect of our sin nature is revealed in the second after the fall.The truth is that the immediate effect of their sin is a devastating loss of the fullness of joy. And that is played out in the revelation of nakedness and shame. At least that's my take.

So Adam and Eve see that they are naked and they desire to be clothed. They want to run and hide, they long to be apart from God not with Him. This is also a critical component of our choosing sin. We have a deep shame that leads us farther from the creator. We literally head in the other direction leading to dark. This is the catch 22 that Jesus came to fix. He came to take our sin and give us His righteousness. Apart from Him there is only dark. And in the dark there is not a path to light. Contrary to what most believe there is only one way out of the dark and His name is Jesus. Without Him you are trapped in the dark forever. In the dark we create an entire system to make dark feel like light. In the beginning we put on some fig leaves and hope God won’t notice. After long enough in the dark we forget that God can even see us. Pretty soon we don’t care that we are naked. In the dark we can’t tell the difference anymore.

IHOP KC once again

It is our last night at IHOP KC. We don't want to come home. We have settled and this place feels like home to us. We even saw a neighborhood today that was called Newcastle (could it be a sign?) We come home, like we always do, because God is so good and His way is perfect. We come back to Brea because for now He says Brea. It is quite a thing to listen to God. His leadership is good. He is the good Father. These are not words that are casual for me. These are words I believe, fully.

IHOP is just the most amazing place. I have sat in this room day after day and just continue to have revelation of who He is.  It has now been six years. I learn more about myself with each visit. I watch my daughters blossom in Him. To be sure this can happen anywhere. But for us it happens here. That is also very real.

This week I had a very real battle. On Wednesday night I broke my own rules and let an outsider pray for me. The encounter was so mind blowing that I cannot put it into words. To be sure it took all my energy to not pass out, to stay focused. I can only tell you that I became so hot I felt sick. My ears began to ring and my vision was gone. I was either encountering the very real Holy Spirit in His glory or I was in a battle against a very real demon. I had no grid for this moment and because it came through an outsider I became frightened quite quickly.  The man frightened me more as he became arrogant with the power he felt the Lord had given him. I began to have nightmares that night. They continued for the next three days.

Today we had a trusted friend over and she prayed for me and just cast off anything that may not be from God. I had a very powerful encounter while she was praying over me. It was the same experience that I had on Wednesday, minus the fear.

I don't know about breaking my rules. She was of the opinion that the man was a brother but he was broken. She felt the presence of the Spirit on me and in me. Here is what I do know. Once she prayed over me I knew the presence of the Lord was with me and I felt way different after the encounter than I did Wednesday. There was no boasting in what we were doing. Just a deep love for who this God is. Oh how He loves us. Here is free info on that. What I have taken this visit is that I will never love myself or others until I fully know how He loves me. This is not knowledge gained. This is very real experience in Him and in His love.

IHOP KC where anything can and does happen.

Things you can learn from Genesis Part 6

Did God actually Say?

Genesis 3:4-6

We are confused about the fall. We think somehow we are all punished for someone else’s mistake. Let’s be clear that well before age two every single one of us chooses sin. And lets be clear that if Adam and Eve had not sinned someone was going to at some point. So there is that. Now do we still have consequences because of the fall? Well there does seem to be truth in that. But that is next, not first. First we have to arrive at what went wrong. There are so many theories about this moment. There are so many ways to look at the moment where Eve and Adam chose death over life. Or more accurately choose to do what they want to do. Here is the deal though. While there are many theories there is only one truth. There is only one answer, only one way to understand what happened. The word of God makes clear what happened. Eve was not overwhelmed with desire for the forbidden fruit. She was not tempted at all. We have assigned temptation to sin. For some reason we are convinced that these two things go together. As if we just don’t naturally choose sin over righteousness. And let's just be clear the default is we choose sin. That is why we must be reset. The truth is that we fill our desire for fulfillment with things that are other than God. Pretty simple at the end of the day. And in this original sin moment it should be clear that there is no temptation. There is just not wanting what God wants. The eating from the tree is just the acting out of what was already occurring internally. This is the heart of sin. We so often think sin is an external action. And while sin is played out in an action it is always born internally. It always comes from our own disconnect from God and it results in our acting out in unrighteousness. So the sin action is eating from the tree but the sin itself is born out long before the moment of eating, long before the conversation with the crafty serpent.

In Genesis two God has a little sit down with Adam. He tells Adam, “You may surely eat of every tree of the Garden but the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (2:16-17). Now here we have to ask ourselves why Adam didn’t press God for some specifics. Did Adam just get it; no worries. Or was he like all embarrassed that the obvious seemed confusing so he lets it go. He makes a mental note. “Just avoid that tree,” he tells himself. I mean we have no indication that Adam even gets the concept of life, let alone death. Also, God does not just bust out and say, “don’t eat of that tree over there. Avoid the one with the red fruit” (waxing poetic there) He literally tells Adam. “Don’t eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” The tree has a pretty ominous name. Now here I’m thinking Adam might just be wondering what good and evil is. (I think most people on earth still debate this topic) So we can go two ways here. Way number one Adam knows this stuff already so no further explanation is required.  Adam just knows evil is not good so it’s not desired. Way two:  Adam checks out at a critical moment. He misses an entire sentence. He has no clue what God is saying. He’s thinking about what he will name next. I have no clue here. But I do know that this is a massive miss because later we see Eve telling the serpent what God has told Adam. Remember, she does not exist when God and Adam have this talk so it must be Adam’s job to lead Eve, to let her know the rules of the place. So when Eve is having a little chat with the serpent he asks her, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?’” Whoa. This is where sin begins. (I literally mean stop and just feel that moment) The fall of man is moments away but it has already happened. (Side note: Adam is hanging out with Eve, doing nothing. Just kinda standing around. I can just see him all cool, head nod to the serpent. “What’s up?” Don't forget Adam and the serpent already know each other. Adam gave him the cool name.) It’s the same question that gets everyone of us. It is the same question that keeps my oldest daughter awake. It is the same question that makes her afraid that everything I tell her about Jesus might just not be true. “DID GOD ACTUALLY SAY?” And it is over right there because most of us just can’t live with the things God actually says or does. Which is why we gravitate to metaphor. It is why the whole world sits in darkness but a few. He is so other than, that we literally bog down because when we go to say what God says it is embarrassing because it does not sound like something some really smart guy would say. When we go to say what God says it just sounds so lame, so unlike what we can see around us. I just want to say what He says and be steady in it. I don’t care that it makes no sense or that it sounds all made up and counter intuitive. I want to say what God says the same way I say what John Maynard Keynes says. (Oh Economics) I want to say it like it is truth and all other ideas are a lie.  I want to say it the same way I say Keynesian school is the only proper school of Economic thought and Chicago school is just wrong.

So anyway, Eve goes and says what Adam told her that God said. And here is what she says to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden but God said, ‘you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.” Hold on just one second. Ok so what just happened? Eve does not refer to the tree by name but by location. How did location replace the name? Why is that critical? It must be critical. At least I’m thinking it is. So did she and Adam go and check it out, have a little look-see. When did she figure out the location?  Is that when she and Adam had a chit-chat about what God said? Adam’s like, “Hey Eve, look at that amazing cool tree. Don’t eat it or touch it.” Also, super critical. God never said touching it was any kind of a deal, only eating it. So Eve get’s God wrong and this is where we go off the rails. We add to God or we take away. Either way it leads to death, not life. We create something new from the original truth. We make a photocopy that is not quite the same. It seems innocent enough. How could you go wrong by adding in an extra safe guard? What could possibly be wrong with a fail safe. God said don’t eat so we add don’t touch. It helps to keep us a step away from the eating problem. But you see where that leads? Pretty soon God said a day is however many years it takes to match scientific years. Pretty soon creation in the bible is just a metaphor for millions of different beginnings. Pretty soon Jesus is one way not the only way. (These are but three ridiculous ideas I hear and read, not from secular man, but from people who claim to know Jesus. Heck, I listened to crazier ideas while I was at Seminary.) Pretty soon we start helping God so much that nothing He did or said in the bible is the truth we teach. So when Eve adds in don’t touch, it is the first step towards the corruption of who God is and we all make this same mis-step and we need to retrace our steps and get back on His exact word and leave it at that.

 How we get from what God says to what Eve says God says we will never know. But we know they are absolutely different things and when we get what God has said wrong we get it all wrong. It is not good enough to kind of get the gist of what God means. That is what we all start to live with and pretty soon we are following a completely different God other than the Great I am, The Ancient of Days. Pretty soon we are just following some god named (insert your name here). And that right there is my biggest fear. I don’t want to follow the (insert your name here) god. So I want to say what He says and call it truth.

Notice the technique of the crafty serpent. He says did God really say you could not eat of any tree? (hyperbole)He is going big. Like he is blown away. God said you couldn’t eat from any trees? What will he take away next? (Hyperbole is always a good way to start when you want to make someone doubt his or her stance. Unsaved me had this perfected.) And Eve is all no-no He said we couldn’t eat of that tree in the middle. Everything else is all good.(Super paraphrase) And the serpent is all “oh ok but heck that whole dead thing can’t be true.” He’s like, “that doesn’t sound like God to me.” (totally made up. The serpent did not say that line. But we have heard this countless times from people who say they are Christian.) And as it turns out the serpent isn’t even lying when he gets down to the details. He tells her that “you will surely not die. . . your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”  And we know that they don’t die (right then. Adam lives 930 years. Way longer than anyone I know) And here is where people argue it is the death of innocence. What? Now God is all into figurative language? This is the death of perfection not real death? It is easier to believe God is metaphorical and not literal? Hmmmm?  We know that the only thing that happens is that they now know the difference between good and evil. We know this knowledge leads to embarrassment and shame. We also know that after they eat of the fruit they are still breathing and their hearts are still beating.  We know that the consequence of that knowledge is that for whatever reason we choose evil over good nearly every single time.

So when people ask me well then what did God mean when He said death? I am going to go with, “I don’t know. Maybe He means separated?” But probably He means death. Like they were never going to die but now they are going to die someday. It’s like when I tell Judah she is going to get a spanking. When I don’t deliver it that moment but 10 transgressions later she is confused.  But I am not a liar. I meant it would happen when I felt it should happen. I also make it go away with hugs and kisses and reminders of my love. So I think that is what God is doing here. So His warning is true. They will die. The problem is they imagined it must be something right then. That’s not God’s bad, that is their bad. They should have asked about death at some point. At any rate God feels tenderness for us so He fixes the death problem by sending his Son. He makes a way because that’s what God does. So now we live forever again, problem solved.

Adam is standing right there, doing nothing. Just waiting to see what happens next and He and Eve eat of the fruit and they don’t die and they gain knowledge and they know everything is ruined. Oh how I know that feeling. I know that one for sure. I usually feel sick. I usually want to hide. That, my guess is, is the consequence of sin.

So here is something hyper interesting that literally came to me last night.(which is now like two weeks ago) The entire fall of man is borne out of truth, not a lie. We get so caught up in this thing that Satan came and lied to Adam and Eve and caused the downfall of mankind. Now to be clear, Satan was not there so back to some truth. We all tend to believe that the crafty serpent lied to Adam and Eve and caused the entire downfall of humanity. But again this is not true. In fact, the talking serpent did not tell one single lie that day. He told Adam and Eve that they would not die and they didn’t.  I am going to be all crazy and guess the crafty serpent didn’t know what death was either. At any rate I’m going with the serpent was not all knowing. That would be crazy that God made the serpent all knowing and didn’t make man that way. Anyway, I just think they didn’t get death. And here is another epiphany: I am going with most of all the earth does not get death. That is why they live in darkness. Simple really.

The serpent told them they would be like God and know good and evil and that is what happened. God says as much, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:22) So cool when God talks to himself/themselves. It is so insane that this moment is so matter of fact for most of us, casually taught in Sunday school or not. I mean this whole moment is actually pretty well known by all people, including those who have never been to church. It is so over-learned that it is never learned at all; just filed away somewhere in the “I got this” file. We hear the story and move on. (Hint: trying to connect us to Adam’s mistake) This is why the whole world is swept up in sin. Sin is born out of a truth that leads us from God. We see a tree and figure out how God probably was not talking about this tree; probably some other tree. Or we figure God probably is over that tree thing. After all, our world is more complicated and God could not imagine all the trees we have to deal with. Everyday we make these choices that don’t involve destruction or mayhem, lust or greed. They just don’t involve God.  I think God would call that sin. “Did God actually say?” Yes, yes he did.

Things you can learn from Genesis. Part 5

The Serpent

Here is my disclaimer. Maybe. I don’t know. Why is it that we want so badly to give Satan credit for the actions of the serpent when the word of God clearly says that God made the serpent crafty?(Genesis 3:1)

Such an interesting few moments in the garden. Adam and Eve are cruising around, presumably taking care of stuff, doing what they are supposed to be doing and they encounter a serpent. This moment is a forever moment, beyond the forever we ever imagine. Clearly, every single moment that we are in is a forever moment with forever ramifications. However, this moment will change everything for everyone. But here is the deal. Before we can ever tackle sin we need to know what is up with this serpent? Because I am beyond convinced that this moment is taught to us completely wrong and that the way we come to understand this moment is critical to how we will follow Jesus. There, I’ve said it. I want to know what the word of God says about the serpent. I am not interested in things syncing up and making sense with science or explanations that eliminate talking serpents. I just want to know what it says and then move on with that as truth.

I have come to the conclusion that the serpent is not Satan. Most people won’t agree with my conclusion here but I’m pretty ok with that. It’s just too easy to declare a serpent to be Satan just because Satan is referred to as a serpent and a dragon in Revelation. I have also seen these elaborate arguments that show that Jesus is referring back to Satan, in the Garden of Eden in John 8. It’s just too big a stretch to connect the “He was a murderer in the beginning” line to refer to the temptation of Adam and Eve. (Hint, the beginning for Satan comes long before our beginning.) Beyond that, when Jesus is speaking of Satan is verse 44 He says, “he has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies he speaks out of his own character for he is a liar and the father of lies.”  Interestingly enough the serpent never does lie to Adam and Eve. He literally tells them the truth every step of the way.  Read Genesis 3 and see. (More fully addressed in my look at the sin moment coming next entry)

I think the truth is that God’s creation goes off the rails because we choose something other than abiding in Him. It’s that simple. We want for there to be a supernatural excuse for the fall and the reality is that serpents and people make bad choices. End of story.

So that still leaves us with who this serpent is. We are told, “The serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.” Crazy talk. Stop right there and stay on that verse for as long as it takes for you to really hear that God made a crafty serpent. Crazier still: God made creatures and they fell on different scales of craftiness. Note: The serpent was the craftiest. Not the only crafty thing but the craftiest thing. (some people try to argue here that the serpent is not created by God, hence he is craftier than the things God made) We can all agree that God made all things (including Angels  and people who rebel) so arguments like that are for sure heresy or just plain naïve. Take your pick. So we can settle on the truth that the serpent was crafty compared to the other less crafty beast creations. Which is pretty crazy when you start to wonder what was God doing making things have different levels of craftiness. And when it comes to beasts (this excludes man in the debate) the serpent was super crafty. I think we can all agree Man takes the crafty prize. (except maybe in this initial serpent/man throw down)Now what we don’t know was whether or not there were a crew of crafty serpents or just one, but this particular serpent was crafty, that much is clear. Now even more interesting is that this crafty serpent, that God made, could talk. The talking serpent is why people argue that the serpent was Satan or possessed by Satan (good old fashioned demonic possession stuff). But since Satan was not in the serpent and since Satan is not omnipresent it seems pretty clear he had no clue what was unfolding on the day, in the garden. And while he can go where he wants, including the heavens, he cannot be everywhere at once. ( Way to complex and off track for my point here.) Anyway, my point is that this serpent could talk without the help of Satan. My point is that the serpent that Adam and Eve encounter is exactly as God made him, unaltered.

Here are two reasons why I am convinced that Satan was not in the serpent. Reason one is that the word of God indicates that the serpent is acting on his own. (See Genesis 3:1 he’s crafty). Reason two is the serpent gets punishment for what he did.  And in this case everyone who had a part in this moment gets punished but not Satan. It seems he was not part of the moment.

People seem to struggle with talking animals. I don’t really have a problem with Animals talking. It’s in the bible so I’m good there. This is the same struggle people have with talking dirt people. But here is the deal. The crazier it all seems the more it seems to me that God must be in the details. Of course, the serpent talked and of course he must have always talked because on this fine day there was not one second of freak out from Adam and Eve thank you very much.(Again I love the arguments that they were in some kind of trance vexed by a talking Satan serpent. This really would take away the whole free will sin decision of the moment) In fact, what we do see was a pretty seamless conversation between Adam, Eve and a serpent. And just a reminder, the word of God says the serpent was craftier than the other created things. (driving home the crafty aspect of the serpent)Not more mystical or strange on this day but crafty on a daily basis. So this implies thought process so hmmm. Weird but true. Who is this God?

So these theories that a presence entered the garden and took up residence in a hapless serpent to ruin all God’s plans seem to be just theories. (And while I could argue that Satan was in the garden using Revelation and John 8 I believe that argument is the incorrect argument based on the ramification of the fall and the necessity of the fall being a result of man’s sober choice to not choose God but rather to seek something apart from God.) In fact, verse one makes it clear that the serpent was crafty with no help at all from evil. God, for whatever reason, made the serpent crafty, end of story. I believe it is imperative that God’s creation on it’s own conspired with itself to abandon God’s plan and seek it’s own direction. I believe that this is a critical aspect of sin. We choose sin. We are not tricked into sin.

A crafty serpent is at the heart of the fall of man. Now the crafty serpent’s unrighteousness leads to the fall; not some supernatural demon possession. It is for real important that we understand that it is unrighteousness, not a supernatural glitch that leads to the destruction of man. Oh the serpent was serving Satan on this day. Just like the rest of us when we engage in unrighteous activity. (the stuff that separates us from God) And it led to some very big consequences. But the unrighteous are not possessed by Satan and they do not worship him. They just walk with him and do his bidding.  As I once told this super cool daughter-girl. The unrighteous are tools of Satan. Being a tool of Satan is not the same as being possessed by him.

It does not seem to matter whether or not they are people or serpents. It seems unrighteous is unrighteous in the eyes of God.  And this is super critical because the world and perhaps even many of us claiming to be set apart have this misconception that somehow someone who follows Satan does evil things to small animals and children. And while that may be true in some cases the real truth is that everyone who does not follow Jesus follows Satan. That is for sure truth. And that is the truth we better wrap our minds around and soon. Because if they are not redeemed they spend eternity separated from God. That’s going to be a shock for all of them; Even crafty, talking, serpents. Or not. Depending on the whole what happens to animals when they die thing. But I suppose a crafty serpent spends eternity in hell unless he is redeemed. This is me, still not freaking out.

So to my point as to why it matters how we view the serpent. If we believe that the fall is borne out of God’s creation (serpent, Adam, Eve) choosing to make a decision apart from God then we will walk closer to Him. We will hold more tightly His truth and seek to abide in Him, knowing one step away from Him is one step closer to destruction. If we see the fall as emanating from a supernatural deity tricking man then we will always be on the look out to not be fooled into sin by Satan. I believe the latter is the way most of the church functions, which is why we see a church, mired in compromise but convinced of its steadfast love because they are not looking evil. If we see the fall the first way then we are aware when we stray and we run back into His arms. If we see it the second way then we are all good as long as we don’t look evil. Not looking evil is not the same as walking with Jesus. Not looking evil is the same as eating from a tree we shouldn’t be eating from. We put on some clothes, go to church and call ourselves clean. We look pretty but our skin knows the truth. Even Adam and Eve understood that you can’t clean dirt. That’s what God does.

Things you can learn from Genesis part 4

More from Genesis 2

God talks with Adam. What? From the first moment it becomes clear that God did not make man to see what he would do. This was not a crazy lab experiment out in the garden. This was God (the one without lack) choosing to hang out with Adam. So they sit down and have a little chat about the do’s and don’ts for garden living. So in verse 16 God clues Adam into some practical living tips. He wants to just give him one of those little consider yourself warned little talks. So He tells Adam, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Pretty straightforward, sort of, maybe. I don’t know. Adam, formerly dirt, hanging out with God, having a chat about trees you can eat from and tree that you cannot eat from. It seems like a pretty easy sit through. Not like sitting with my dad as he would explain the nature of choice and how consequence for poor decision-making would result in something very unpleasant, something to not be experienced. The hint of it should be weighty enough to ensure that there would never be choices that could result in unpleasantries. You know how those talks turned out. Situation 1252: Me on the roof of the church, riding my skateboard, mid service. Made total sense at the time. He couldn’t mean skating on the church roof was a bad idea, was a poor decision worthy of very unpleasant consequence. I’m pretty sure Adam was feeling pretty committed to getting it right at that moment in time. I’m pretty sure he was picking up what God was putting down. How hard can it be? Just don’t eat from one tree. It’s a slam-dunk, a no brainer. Adam’s got this.

And then God drops this crazy bomb on Adam. To paraphrase: Dude, you look bored just hanging out with me all day I’m going to make someone for you to hang out with. Sweet, Let’s go name stuff. What?

Let me wrap my mind around this. God and Adam are chillin’, hanging out, looking at stuff, naming stuff, and God has this moment of clarity where He realizes Adam needs a girl version so He can go subdue and rule with her. Okay, makes total sense. But the thing is that the All-Consuming Fire, The Holy of Holy’s, The Ancient of Days, knows that while there is no lack in Him, there is certainly lack in Adam. Adam has lack because he does not have a trinity. He has him and God and God knows the magic number is not two. It is in fact always and forever three.

So there you go; Basic math at no extra charge. Nice talk God. Nice talk Adam. Let’s go name stuff. Adam’s probably all, “Let’s call that one a sheep.” God was probably like “good call. We’re going to use that one a lot.”

Things you can learn from Genesis part 3

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Genesis 2

How crazy is it that God started making stuff and that He created all these things and then He created man. There are some really wild things inside the second chapter of Genesis. One of those aha moments happens in verses 5 and 6. In these two very cool verses we learn that God did not use rain to water the earth. This is critical knowledge when we get to Noah and that whole mess. Here we learn that God had a watering system that was a mist that arose from the ground. Just super cool evidence that God made science without us getting overly worked up about the whole science vs creation thing. Let’s just be clear that God understood the nuances of evaporation and humidification. He was super into hydroponics. It’s pretty clear that He knew how to grow a thing or two.

That’s an interesting side note but nothing so shocking as the description of how He made Adam. Man was formed from dust and then God breathes life into the dust and then wait for it because this is more shocking than fish suddenly walking and alien DNA and monkeys starting to act all people like. The truth is so much more shocking and cool. The dirt stands up and starts being a person. That just freaks me out, makes me think crazy thoughts, makes me laugh and shout in joy. God does crazy stuff and that is how I know He is real. He breathes on dirt and it stands up and starts talking and walking and doing stuff. (Kinda ironic like that the dirt is getting ready to sin in the next chapter)

Crazy thing next: God brings all the stuff He made and shows all the stuff to Adam, the dirt guy. He brings the stuff, all the coolest first things that ever were. These are things that were not at one moment and then were. And He takes the cool stuff over to the dirt guy and actually lets the dirt guy name everything. What are you doing God? The dirt guy gets to name everything that you made. And that is intense because right there we know the absolute truth about our God. He does every single thing. He for real does it all and then lets the dirt guy give names as if the dirt guy had something to do with the creating of stuff.

This God actually looks at Adam, looks at us and says look at all our cool stuff. He is so crazy like that. He not only shares His toys he actually makes them our toys. He actually treats us as if we were involved in the whole toy making process. God says look at what we have done. And He just never stops saying it. “Look at what we did, dirt guy.” All the while knowing that dirt guy is about to get way off track in just one more chapter. I can just picture Him with His arm around the dirt guy. Just smiling as Adam is naming stuff. Just smiling knowing what happens next. God all outside of time, living in the moment, knowing He has a plan for the next moment where the dirt guy acts like a dirt guy. That’s to be expected from a dirt guy, even if God breathed on Him and let Him name all the stuff. Dirt just does what dirt does.

Things you can learn from Genesis Part 2

Genesis 1:26-30

Here’s the thing about creation. It is an absolutely ridiculous idea. God was and is without lack. In Him there is no thing that He does not have, does not experience. Within the realm of His existence He is fully filled with the relationship of Father, Son and Spirit. He is at all times worshiped by the seraphim and the elders. He is at all times stunning and radiant. He at all times sits on a throne that is surrounded by things of amazement. In Revelation 4 we are told:

And He who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. ⁴ Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clothed in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads. ⁵ From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God, ⁶ and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal.

  

And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: ⁷ the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight. ⁸ And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say,

“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty,
    who was and is and is to come!”

⁹ And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, ¹⁰ the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying,

¹¹ “Worthy are you, our Lord and God,
    to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
    and by your will they existed and were created.”

To say the least, this is a pretty cool place with plenty of things going on. So to be sure God was doing just fine without birds and trees and creepy things and stuff. So He certainly didn’t need the headache of man. And yet in Him there was such great love, such desire to birth us, all the while knowing the end of the story. Stunning thing A: God made all things according to their kinds. This is critical. All things were created to replicate the kind of thing they would be. So for instance God makes a maple tree and that tree will make seeds to make more maple trees. The maple tree is in and of itself unique. It is a kind of new thing. But there is a critical shift as God readies himself to make man. Stunning thing B: As God is making all the background stuff God is just calling things into existence but He gets to man and says, “Let us make man in our image.” Ok that is stunning thing C as well. Because God readies the other two for this one. He knows He is about to embark on what will be heartache, and rejection and the death of His son and He tells themselves, “Get ready. Here we go.” This is a moment of inhale-don’t breath-look around-silence and then it is started. Stunning thing C is simple and complex and impossible to even comprehend because everything else was made of a new kind, something from nothing. But God looks about and says let’s make man from our image, from our kind. We are His seed, the image of the mighty one, the ancient of days. We are not a new kind. We are made to be like Him. We will make more people just like maple seeds will make more maple trees. We are seeds that were intended to make more image of God people. There is an obvious sidetrack and a squiggly line and a few zig-zags thrown in. But it is clear than when Jesus shows up for project redeem the earth and when He says,  “follow me and I will make you become fishers of men.” He knew exactly what He was talking about because He was there on that day when they all got together and made man in their image. He came to the earth and started creation anew. He intended that we would be reproducers of the image of God and now He came to walk the planet to show us how to do what was always intended.  Make more people in His image. It’s all pretty obvious, sort of.