PHOENIX RISING

Well….

It has been a very interesting few years expressing my thoughts and feelings with you, engaging in sometimes pleasant and sometimes not so pleasant conversation.

All and all, it comes down to, as I have stated in many times and places, that there is only so much time in the day, and I know that I need to be spending it in other ways.

I have never had such a peace about this decision as I do right now, and so I depart from the blogiverse.

Those of you in my blogroll, please know that even though I only really know a few of you, I do love you all with the Love of Jesus Christ and I truly appreciate you all for the  parts that you have or may continue to play in my life.

Upon my departure I would like to offer up this prayer for us all:

That we would truly desire, in the deepest part of our own hearts, to truly know Him and to continue to grow up into all that He would have us to become.

Not the God that our own imaginations might conceive, not the God that the imaginations of others might conceive, but Him, the One True God as expressed in His Son Jesus Christ.

May the True Phoenix continue to rise in our own hearts.

As I live and breathe in His Name,

Amen.

“Much study and the writing of many blogposts can become a wearisome and deceptive work of the flesh….the end of the matter is to have a holy reverence for the One True God, and to keep His commandments (and His commandments are not burdensome)”.

(my paraphrase).

~Brother Johnny

Is God unknowable?

Absolutely not.

Is there more of Him to know?

Absolutely.

Does Yashua Messiah change?

Absolutely not.

Can we?

Absolutely.

“You shall     _know_    *the truth * , and    *the truth *    shall set you free.”

Derek Webb talks about how to engage culture 100%.

Amen.

Lover

I’m not really here.
But this video is.
By the way…he and his wife, Sandra, are playing @ Eddies Attic on 4/11/08.
I hope to be there.

Peace to you all.

I have spent a good amount of time dialogging within circles where we all share a common language.
One theme in which this language is often used could be called the theme of the two trees.
And it’s a great theme.

In general, it goes something like this:

As we all know, in the garden, Adam and Eve had many choices when it came to food and participation.

Trees good for food, trees that were beautiful to look upon, the tree of Life and that confounded, forbidden tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The Lord told them both not to eat of that one because the result would surely be death.
It was that wily serpent who convinced Eve that if she would only take a bite, that she would become like God. Being deceived, she partook, and like any true rebel, suckered Adam into taking a bite himself.

So out of the garden they go (cast out, in fact), and the rest is, …well, history.

With this as the base of the ‘two tree’ theme, the idea goes that the two trees are kind of like an allegory for the two testaments; The old and the New.

More specifically the idea is that ‘law’ or ‘right and wrong’ is the forbidden tree which brings death, and then Christ is the tree which we are to partake of which brings Life.

So far I follow.
And it is a great metaphor.
The problem is, as with all metaphors, they breakdown at some point. They have to, otherwise, they wouldn’t be simply metaphors, they would actually be the Real thing. One obvious breaking point is in the improper view of the law as being something “confounded” or “troublesome”. While it may seem that way to us, it is only because the law, or TORAH brings to light our own sinfulness without providing a means, in itself, to help us to overcome that sinfulness. As Paul says, “The law is holy…” The problem is, apart from Christ, we are not. But enough of that for now. Let’s continue….

Here is the logic (although that word might very well be ‘labeled’ as “wrong tree” itself):

It’s not about right and wrong, it’s about Life.

True. But… only until someone does something wrong.

What happens when someone commits adultery?
What happens when someone lies to your face?
What happens when a brother gets caught sleeping with his own stepmother?

Do we ever call things out for what they are, or do we just go along pretending that there has never been an offence?

I ask you sincerely: How on earth are we to forgive one another as Christ has forgiven us, if there is never a recognition of wrong being done?

Well, we take it to the cross.

Again, AMEN! But,…would it be wrong not to? Would it be good to take it to the cross. Maybe it’s just not all that black and white (or is it?). Furthermore, is ‘taking it to the cross’ the same as ’sweeping it under the rug’?

Now some would say,

It’s not a matter of right and wrong, but rather it is a matter of Life and death.

Isn’t it, at this point, just a matter of semantics?

Isn’t good right and bad evil?

Isn’t Life good and death bad?

Just the fact that you ask these anxious questions prove that you aren’t partaking of life.

Maybe, but maybe not. Maybe there is a legitimate place for the discernment of good and evil. Maybe we shouldn’t just throw out ‘good and evil’ as if they are dirty words which are uttered only by the  unenlightened heathen.

If “good and evil” or “right and wrong” were no longer part of the Divine Equation, then why, in the new testament, would we have such statements as these? :

Hebrews 5

11About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.12For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food,13for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child.14But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

Romans 7

21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.22For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being,23but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.24Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?25Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

Romans 12

9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.10Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.11Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.12Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.13Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.

Romans 12

21 Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.

Romans 13

3For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval,4for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.

Romans 16

19For your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil.

I Corinthians 13

4Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant5or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;6it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.7Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8Love never ends.

II Corinthians 13

5Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!6I hope you will find out that we have not failed the test.7But we pray to God that you may not do wrong—not that we may appear to have met the test, but that you may do what is right, though we may seem to have failed.8For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth.

Ephesians 4

25Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.26Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger,27and give no opportunity to the devil.28Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.29Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.30And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.31Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.32Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

I Thessalonians 5

20Do not despise prophecies,21but test everything; hold fast what is good.22Abstain from every form of evil.

II Corinthian 5

(10, 11) For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience.

Galatians 6

7Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.8For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.9And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.10So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

Ephesians 5

4Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.5For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.6Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.7Therefore do not associate with them;8for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light9(for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true),10and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.11Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.

And there are many more such statements scattered through out both the old and new tesataments.

What all of this means is that those who violate the law of love are not partaking of Divine Life, and the result is behavior which leads to death. And it is wrong behavior.
You see the problem isn’t in having a discernment between good and evil, the problem is when we try to nourish ourselves on that knowledge.

The result of that type of “eating” is ‘death’ (which in fact is the prerequisite for Life)!

By now, if your mind works anything at all the way mine used to, your brain is screaming “WRONG TREE, WRONG TREE!!!!”.

Take a deep breath. Relax.

Do partake of the Tree of Life….

but do not fear as every faculty of your human existence is being transformed from faith to faith, and from glory to glory, including the faculty of a God given discernment between good and evil.

(Almost all scripture quotations here are from the ESV translation…)

(I forget which one isn’t.)

(Please forgive my wrong  :-)   )

Just a quick entry for anyone who might be interested:

The Lord has impressed upon my heart for sometime now the necessity of coming into who has has called me to be in Him.

This calling isn’t one which says, “You must be a good husband”, or “You must be a good Father”, or “You must be a good employee” or “You must become a good neighbor”, etc…

These are not the demands that God puts upon us.

No, this would be no different than living by the law of moses. “Thou shalt___________”

God summed up all of His righteous requirements in His only begotten Son, Jesus the Messiah.

Because of the life and work of Jesus the Messiah, we have the promise and reality of possessing a new life to live.

As the Lord works in us, by His Spirit, and as we learn to trust in His work, to abide in Him, and not in our our own attempts of accomplishing our holiness, we begin to see change in our lives.

Does this mean that we become ‘passive’ or lazy?

Not at all.

It is when we truly believe in the person and work of Jesus on our behalf that we find the power of His Spirit within which enables us to be conformed into the image of His Son.

“Navel gazing” happens most frequently when all of the above mentioned merely takes place on mental plane,…in a sort of ‘doctrinal’ understanding.

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believes“

If you lack the power of God for the outworking of your salvation, I plead with you to seek the Lord in prayer to give you a heart which believes  the gospel of Christ.

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It is tempting for me to say that I will not be posting anymore, or that I have stopped blogging.

All that I can say is that I am leaving myself open to the will of the Lord, and right now He has me enjoying Life with my family and immediate community.

Much love to you all in Jesus Christ,

~Johnny

The Greeting

Prayer or Scripture Reading

The Song Service

The Announcements

The Offering

The Sermon

After Sermon Pastoral Prayer

Altar Call

More Singing (led by choir or worship team)

The Lords Supper

Prayer for the sick

The Benediction

“With some minor rearrangements, this is the unbroken liturgy that 345 million Protestants across the globe observe religiously week after week. And for the last five hundred years, few people have questioned it.”

We do everything by the book!?

“The first century church meeting was not patterned after the Jewish synagogue services as some recent authors have suggested. Instead, it was totally unique to the culture.

We have little evidence to suggest that the first Christians attempted to perpetuate the style of the synagogue

Moreover, the Jewish synagogue was a human invention. Some scholars believe that it was created during the Babylonian captivity (sixth century BC), when worship at the Jerusalem Temple was impossible; others believe they emerged in the third or second century BC with the rise of the Pharisees. Even though the synagogue became the center of Jewish life after the Jerusalem Temple was destroyed in AD 70, there is no Old Testament (or divine) precedent for such an institution. “

{See Banks, Paul’s Idea of Community, 106-108, 122-117; Bradshaw, Origins of Christian Worship, 13-15, 27-29, 159-160, 186; Joel B. Green, ed., Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1992), 781-782; Alfred Edersheim, The Life and Time of Jesus the Messiah (Mclean, VA: McDonald Publishing Company, 1883), 431.}

Where did it our present order of worship come from?

It has it’s basic roots in the medieval Catholic Mass.

“According to Will Durant, the Catholic Mass was “based partly on the Judaic Temple service, partly on Greek mystery rituals of purification, vicarious sacrifice, and participation.”{Durant, Caesar and Christ, 599}

How are the protestant models different from the Catholic?

There’s really not that much difference. Really.

Okay. Here’s the deal.

I’m not a ‘book reviewer’ (like this guy, or this guy) but I am an avid reader. This is truly a very insightful and informative book. As is everything else that I have read by Mr. Viola.

I have met him on a couple of different occasions and sat down to dinner with him and a handful of other saints in Jacksonville, Florida.

I was in a meeting where he and a couple of other brothers laid hands on a sister who was battling cancer, and all of the saints gathered around her and were praying for her healing and weeping in the presence of the Spirit of God, and the last time I heard she was healed and was doing well.

That was the most incredible church meeting that I have ever been to. It was simple, yet it was genuine and the Spirit of God was moving powerfully.

I guess that I say all of this because I want you all to know that I believe that Frank is a very sincere and very gifted brother in the Lord, and that he truly is called to the Lords work.  I believe that the Lord is using Frank, and others in this day to re-establish the church of Jesus Christ.

Sure, the Lord can use a donkey to speak His Word, and likewise He can utilize a religious system which is rooted in Pagan tradition to speak to His people,…but do you think that is the Lords perfect will? I do not, and furthermore, I do not feel comfortable resting in that place.

I encourage you to read this book.

Granted, it is very ‘matter of fact’ and this can be taken the wrong way if you are looking for something ‘warm and fuzzy’ , so if you do buy it, just read it for the information that it provides as that is exactly how, I believe, it is meant to be read.

“Just the facts…” 

Well, before I go, I want to list the chapter titles here to give you an idea of what the book covers:

1. HAVE WE REALLY BEEN DOING IT BY THE BOOK?

2. THE CHURCH BUILDING

3. THE ORDER OF WORSHIP

4. THE SERMON

5. THE PASTOR

6. SUNDAY MORNING COSTUMES

7. MINISTERS OF MUSIC

8. TITHING AND CLERGY SALARIES

9. BAPTISM AND THE LORDS SUPPER

10. CHRISTIAN EDUCATION

11. REAPPROACHING THE NEW TESTAMENT

12. A SECOND GLANCE AT THE SAVIOR

There is also a pretty extensive ‘Q&A’ section with Frank Viola and George Barna.This section explains way more than my little book review here, so I encourage you to give it a look.

One last thing concerning Mr. Viola and Pagan Christianity. Here is a link to a page dedicate to answering some of the most common objections to the book. I certainly recommend you read through it as it paints a much better picture of the message that Frank is trying to get out to the Lords people.

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So what else?

Well, I’m on my way out of the blogiverse for a while. I may post links or videos from time to time, but at least for now, it is time to get back to real Life.

I wish to thank each and every one of you for coming by, listening to what I have to say, and conversing with me.

Thank you also for your continuous words of love and encouragement in the Lord.

And to some of you: Thanks just for reading!

There is so much that I want to say, but I know that, at least for now, the Lord is calling me to just be quiet.

I love you all, and hope to meet you all face to face, if not in the here and now, then perhaps in the sweet by and by.

Your Brother and Friend,

Johnny

Romans 6:5-11 (NKJV)

“For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,

knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin.

Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,

knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.

Likewise you also,

reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord”.

Some of you folks out there know me pretty well by now.

My handful of faithful readers are all too familiar with my periodical declarations of retirement from the blog-o-sphere.

It’s that time again.

There are many reasons for my making this decision, but the most important reason is that it is what the Lord wants.

There is only so much time in a day, saints.

Use it wisely.

I have come to see, more clearly than ever before, the inheirant dangers involved with the world wide web.

The problem that I have discovered is that while it has the capability to plug us into a global community, at the same time, it also has the power to divorce us from the immediate community around us.

For those of us who are married, or married with children at home, that immediate community starts right there.

Now, based on my experience, I’m going to throw a few things out there for consideration.

How much time do you spend on-line (outside of work)?

Are there other things that you should be doing?

Are there any relationships suffering because of the time you spend online?

Do you think that your spouse deserves a little (or a lot) more of your attention, time, and energy?

How about you kids?

How about your home?

How about your yard?

How about your neighbors?

How about your Job?

How about your friends?

How about your enemies?

Now to kind of tie in some things that Marie and I have been discussing, I want to give an example of the Lord ‘working out’ His desires through us.

It’s really pretty simple.

Because the Lord is the center, and not because I have ‘placed’ Him in the center, but because He IS the center, and while yes, I DO recognize that fact, that He is the center of my life…that He is my life and If I think He is not, I am only fooling myself….but because He IS the center of my life and He is in me, He also ’speaks’ to me.

This speaking is always connected to His love, His great and wonderful love.

While His love is most certainly directed at me, and while He does, indeed, continue to pour His love out to me in so many incredible ways, He is also pouring it out to others.

His heart is for me, but it is also for others.

Now, since He is in me, and because I am getting to know HIM more and more, I am understanding His heart more and more. I often feel what He feels, and even think what He thinks (to the best of my personal comprehension).

For so long, I had struggled with, ‘what is the will of God for my life?’

I lived in a world of confusion and distress, trying to discern His desires concerning my life.

I thank God for that season being over!!!

He wants me to love Him as He loved me first, and He wants me to love my neighbor as myself.

That is the overarching desire of Gods heart.

And the specifics of that?

That’s easy.

He wants me to be led of His Spirit and not of my flesh.

Simple.

Sure, we could get into all kinds of theological discussions as to ‘what that means’, but I would say to you that if you don’t know what that means, you need to go to Him and ask Him what that means.

Tell Him that you really want to know.

Tell Him that you are finally finished with your games and that you truly want to follow Him.

Don’t worry. He is good, and He is faithful.

We will walk, and we will stumble, but He will pick us up and we will walk again.

It’s okay.

We do not desire to stumble. We desire to walk.

Now getting back to the issue of community.

Marie was surprised with a response that I had given her about something she asked. She was surprised that I didn’t say “only God is the center, keep your eyes off of yourself and on Him” or something to that effect.

What if the Lord was, to you, the All and in All?

Would that change the way you understood His centrality?

It has mine, tremendously.

It means that ‘the least of these’ is Jesus Christ.

Really.

It means that my wife is Jesus Christ.

My children are Jesus Christ.

My neighbors are Jesus Christ.

My co-workers are Jesus Christ.

“Heresy!”

“Blasphemy!”

Go ahead, nail me up.

These things that I say did not originate in me.

I could quote you all the scriptures, but I’m not going to.

Well, as I type, I am getting the sense that my ‘work’ here, at least for now, is finished.

In this particular realm of existance ( as virtual as it may be), I have sowed the seeds and now it is time to move on.

I’ll be back for more journaling in the future and look forward to conversing with you all again soon.

Keep me in your prayers, as I will you in mine.

Never forget His broken Body and His shed blood.

This was for us.

He is wonderful, God bless you all.