God is Omnipresent

 

Psalm 139:7-18

139:7 “Where can I go from Thy Spirit?”:  Some feel that David’s initial reaction to God’s omniscience is a desire to escape from such penetrating knowledge, yet this does not sound like David, rather as Boice notes, “David is still meditating on God’s omniscience, noting that the reason why God sees everything and knows everything is that He is everywhere to see and know it.  In fact, since the psalmist is making these points of theology personal, what impresses him is that God will always be wherever he goes.  Try as he might, he would never be able to escape Him.  But he is not fearing that or dreading it; he is comforted by the thought” (p. 1204).  139:8-10 Hypothetical examples of where David might try to escape are given here.  God commands His whole creation; there is no corner in which He is absent, either in life or in death.   The word “Sheol”, would be the Old Testament word for Hades, and this would even include the torment side of eternity.  In His judicial capacity, God is also present in Hell.  In fact, the thing that makes hell so terrible is that it is run by God, it is not ruled by the devil (Revelation 20:10). 

139:9  “If I take the wings of the dawn”:  That is, if David were to fly at the speed of light from the east across the sky to the west, he still could not escape from the presence of God. “Probably this means to flash from east to west as fast as the dawn’s early light streaks from horizon to horizon.  Would that help?  Even if it were possible, it would not enable us to escape God, for when we get to that far distant horizon, we find that God is already there before us” (Boice p. 1205). 139:10  In this verse we find David expressing his appreciation that God’s long arm is always with him.  Geography cannot separate us from God!  Sometimes people think, “If we could just leave this planet and journey to a distant solar system, then we would no longer be accountable to God”.  Or, “if we could just travel back or ahead in time, then I would no longer be answerable to God”.  But man is always accountable to God everywhere and anywhere, for God is not bound by space or time, and the person with a good heart never wants to lose or shake God.  139:11-12  Both darkness and light are the same to God, darkness does not limit or hinder His presence or knowledge.  He made them (Genesis 1:4-5); He commands them.  There is no escape in them.  What a wonderful verse to share with our children at night when they are afraid of the dark, yet evil people often try to operate under the cover of darkness (Job 24:15  “The eye of the adulterer waits for the twilight”.

139:13  One reason why God knows everything about us is that God created us.  God created us and He knows how we think and work.  In addition, God did not just create man in general, but He is also the Creator of every specific individual.  This verse is saying that God providentially supervises the formation of every child in the womb.  God even saw David when David was forming in his mother’s womb!  The word “weave” carries the idea of being “woven together”, like a cloth on a loom.  David’s “inward parts” would certainly include far more than simply his internal organs, but rather such things as his conscience, mind, heart or soul (Genesis 1:26-27; James 3:9; Zechariah 12:1 “and forms the spirit of man within him”).

“These verses plainly teach the individuality of a child while it is still in its mother’s womb.  But no one can read these verses thoughtfully today without considering their obvious meaning on the contemporary problem of abortion.  The chief issue in discussions about abortion concerns the identity of the fetus.  People who argue for the right of a woman to have an abortion—‘It’s my own body; I can do with it as I please’---usually argue that the fetus is not yet a person, but is only a part of the woman’s body, like a gallbladder or appendix that she can elect to have removed.  That is why language describing the unborn child has changed so radically.  A generation ago everyone referred to the unborn child as a baby, and pregnant women knew they were carrying a baby.  It is hard for anyone to think calmly about killing a baby.  So today people talk about the fetus or the embryo or even mere ‘tissue’ instead.  To get rid of tissue doesn’t seem so bad.  But this is not the way the Bible speaks of the unborn child” (Boice pp. 1209-1210).  Here is one of those places in the Bible where the Bible is still ahead of even modern advances in science, for many in the scientific community are still trying to find at what point the developing child is fully human, and the truth is, there is not one.  There is an uninterrupted development of the child from the very moment of conception.  If there is life, then the spirit or soul of the child is equally present (James 2:26).  Notice how David speaks of his development in his mother’s womb.  He does not refer to “it”, rather he says, “my”, “me”, “my frame”, “I was made in secret”, “my unformed substance”.  David is saying, what was developing in the womb—was me!

139:14  Anyone who has studied the human body must reach the same conclusion.  What does such a statement reveal about the “understanding” of someone who claims that we are the product of chance and mindless evolution?  All of God’s works are wonderful (Genesis 1:31), but the believer senses more than any other part of God’s creation that he is fearfully and wonderfully made.  Are we amazed that we even exist, are we amazed at how well our minds and bodies function?  Do we value the life that God has given to us?  And what am I doing with the body and mind that is fearfully and wonderfully made?  Are we using our minds and bodies for unimportant purposes or grand purposes?  139:15  The word “frame” probably refers to his body.  The expression “depths of the earth” is a metaphor for the deepest concealment, such as the hiddenness of the womb.  The terms “skillfully wrought” or intricately wrought, suggests the complex patterns and colors of the weaver or embroiderer.  In fact the expression “skillfully wrought” means “embroidered”, like a colorful piece of cloth.  “Suggesting his veins and arteries” (Bible Knowledge Comm. p. 892).   139:16  “My unformed substance”:  His unformed substance would be his embryo.  There could be no stronger statement concerning the sanctity and dignity of the unborn child than is given in this verse and context.   139:16  “The days that were ordained for me”:  This does not mean that David’s life was predestined or written in stone, because David did sin and obviously God did not plan that event (2 Samuel 11).  Kidner notes that this verse can mean that David’s development in the womb and outside the womb was all pre-programmed.  That is, his embryonic members were likewise planned and known before the many stages of their development.  “A powerful reminder of the value He sets on us, even as embryos” (p. 466). 

139:17-18  In these two verses David reflects on the abundance of God’s thoughts toward him.  Such a powerful God actually thinks about me!  Such a God actually cares about me!  In the Bible we learn the depth of such concern and love (John 3:16).   God did not merely create us and then let us go, God is always thinking about you and me!  Every moment God is looking at me, every moment God is hoping that I would do what is right, in every given situation God is pulling for me—wow!  God’s thoughts concerning me far outnumber even the individual grains of sand on the seashore.   Even when David wakes up after a nap or a night’s sleep, God is still watching over him.  He may have lost consciousness of God in sleep, but God never lost consciousness of him.  When you remember that God thinks about you every moment—is that thought “precious to you”? “Such divine knowledge is not only wonderful but precious, since it carries its own proof of infinite commitment:  God will not leave the work of His own hands, either to chance or to ultimate extinction” (Kidner p. 466).

 

Another great take on a the well known parable of the "Prodigal son" from one of our favorite authors, Robert Farrar Capon

Robert Farrar Capon




"The Father Who Lost Two Sons"    by Rober Farrar Capon


This is about what’s normally called The Parable of the Prodigal Son. That's only one of the two sons in the parable, the younger boy. The older boy is the one—the other son—who is lost. And the point about changing the name of the parable is that the parables are almost always misnamed. The Parable of the Lost Sheep is not about the lost sheep. All the sheep ever did was get lost. The parable is about the passion of the shepherd who lost the sheep to find the sheep. His passion to find is what drives the parable; and consequently it isn't the Prodigal's lostness, wasting all his money on wine, women and song in the far country; and it isn't the elder brother's grousing and complaining and score keeping that stands against him. What counts in the parable is the father's unceasing desire to find the sons he lost—both of them—and to raise both of them up from the dead.
The story, of course, you know. The story begins with the father having two sons and the youngest son comes to the father and says, "Father, divide the inheritance between me and my brother." What he’s in effect saying is, "Dear Dad, drop dead now, legally. Put your will into effect and just retire out of the whole business of being anything to anybody and let us have what is coming to us." So the youngest son gets the money and the older brother gets the farm. And off the younger brother goes. What he does, of course, is he spends it all—blows it all—on wild living. When he finally is in want and working, slopping hogs for a farmer and wishing that he could eat what he’s feeding the pigs, he can't stand it. When he finally comes to himself he says, "You know, I've got to do something. How many hired servants of my father's are there who have bread enough to spare and I'm perishing here with hunger? I know what I'm going to do."
Almost every preacher makes this the boy's repentance. It's not his repentance. This is just one more dumb plan for his life. He says, "I will go to my father and I will say, ‘Father, I've sinned against heaven and before you.'" That's true. He got that one right. "And I'm no longer worthy to be called your son." Score two. He gets that one right. But the next thing he says is dead wrong. He says, "Make me one of your hired servants." He knows—he thinks he knows—he can't go back as a dead son, and therefore he says, "I will now go back as somebody who can earn my father's favor again. I will be a good worker or whatever." This is not a real repentance, it's just a plan for a life. What it is, is enough to get him started going home, and consequently when he goes home, what happens next is an absolutely fascinating kind of thing.
What happens next is that the father (you must remember this) is now sitting on the front porch of the farm house. The farm house doesn't belong to him anymore. The front porch doesn't belong to him. He’s sitting in the rocker that belongs to his oldest son who is now, you know, the owner of the farm. He’s sitting there and he sees the Prodigal, the younger boy, coming down the road from far away. He sees him coming. What does he do? He rushes off the porch, runs a half mile down the road, throws his arms around the boy's neck and kisses him.
Now, this is all that Jesus does with this scene. The fascinating thing in this parable is that in the whole parable the father never says one single word to the Prodigal Son. Jesus makes the embrace, the kiss, do the whole story of saying, "I have found my son." The fascinating thing also is that when the father embraces the boy who has come home from wasting his life, the boy never gets his confession out of his mouth until after the kiss, until after the embrace. What this says to you and me who have to live with the business of trying to confess our sins is that confession is not a pre-condition of forgiveness. It’s something that you do after you know you have been forgiven. Confession is not something you do in order to get forgiveness. It’s something you do in order to celebrate the forgiveness you got for nothing. Nobody can earn forgiveness. The Prodigal knows he's a dead son. He can't come home as a son, and yet in his father's arms he rises from the dead and then he is able to come to his father's side.
What happens next is that the father, saying not a word to the Prodigal, turns to the servants and says, "Bring the best robe, bring a ring for his finger and shoes for his feet, kill the fatted calf and let us eat and be merry for this, my son, was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found." Now this is the point in the parable at which everything is going well. The dead son, the no-good Prodigal Son, is home. He has been raised from the dead by his father's embrace. He has done nothing to earn it, but now all that matters is that the father has called for the party to celebrate the finding of the lost and the resurrection of the dead.

All right, now, what we've got now is everybody dead in the parable. The father died at the beginning, the Prodigal died in the far country: he came home dead and the father raises him. Everything is fine. And now what we've got is Jesus' genius as a storyteller. The party is in full swing, so Jesus brings back in the only person in the story left who still has a life of his own: Mr. Responsibility, Mr. Whining, Mr. Elder Brother. He comes up and hears the music and the dancing and he probably sees the waiters scurrying around with roast veal platters and everything else. And he asks one of the servants, "What is this all about? I didn't commission a party." The servant says, "No, no, your brother has come home and your father has killed the fatted calf because he received him safe and sound." And the older brother is angry and he will not go in. He will not go into the house. He is right out there in the midst of the party. He is part of the party but he will not join the party. And the next thing that happens in this: when he comes in with all this bookkeeping he says, "Look," to his father, "all these years I served you and I never broke one of your commandments and you never even gave me a goat that I could make merry with my friends. But when this your son (notice he doesn't say, this my brother) cuts off his relationship, this your son has wasted your substance with riotous living, has wasted your substance with harlots, when this son comes home you kill the fatted calf!"
I think that one of the things you could do with this is make up a speech for the father. The father goes out in the courtyard to plead with the older son. He goes out there in order to find him as he is and to raise him from the dead. He never gives up on any of them. He says to him, "Look, Arthur (let’s call the older brother Arthur), what do you mean I never gave you a goat for a party? If you wanted to have a great veal dinner for all your friends every week in the year, you had the money and the resources. You owned this place, Arthur. You have the money and the resources to have built 52 stalls and kept the oxen fattening as you wanted them to come along, but you didn't. Why didn't you do that, Arthur? Because you're a bean counter, because you're always keeping track of everybody else. That's your problem, Arthur, and I have one recipe for you." (The father is pleading with this fellow to come out of the death of bookkeeping.) He says, "I have one recipe for you, Arthur. That is, go in, kiss your brother, and have a drink. Just shut up about all this stuff because, Arthur, you came in here already in hell, and I came out here in this courtyard to visit you in the hell in which you were."
This is the wonderful thing about this parable, because it isn't that there was a Prodigal Son who was a bad boy and who, therefore, came home and turned out to be a good boy and had a happy ending. Then the elder brother—you would think Jesus, if he was an ordinary storyteller, would have said, "Let's give the elder brother a rotten ending." He doesn't. He gives the older brother no ending. The parable ends with a freeze frame. It ends like that with just the father, and the sound goes dead—the servants may be moving around with the wine and veal—but the sound goes dead and Jesus shows you only the freeze frame of the father and the elder brother. That's the way the parable has ended for 2,000 years.
My theory about this parable is that if, for 2,000 years, he has never let it end, then you can extend that indefinitely, that this is a signal, an image of the presence of Christ to the damned. When the father goes out into the courtyard, he is an image of Christ descending into hell; and, therefore, the great message in this is the same as Psalm 139, "If I go down to hell, You are there also." God is there with us. There is no point at which the Shepherd who followed the lost sheep will ever stop following all of the damned. He will always seek the lost. He will always raise the dead. Even if the elder brother refused forever to go in and kiss his other brother, the Father would still be there pleading with him. Christ never gives up on anybody. Christ is not the enemy of the damned. He is the finder of the damned. If they don't want to be found, well there is no imagery of hell too strong like fire and brimstone and all that for that kind of stupidity. But nonetheless, the point is that you can never get away from the love that will not let you go and the elder brother standing there in the courtyard in his own hell is never going to get away from the Jesus who seeks him and wills to raise him from the dead.


Interview with Robert Farrar Capon
Interviewed by Floyd Brown
Floyd Brown: I always enjoy your dealing with the parables the way that you do, but you always leave questions in my mind and that, of course, is planned. Right?
Robert Capon: Yes, but my whole point is if you give a person an answer without raising the question then they never remember the answer, so you have to raise the question first. You have to be ahead of them. They have to be wondering what does that mean until then you tell them what it means.
Brown: Ok. You got some questions in my mind. I've got to ask you a couple of them. You started out saying that the Prodigal came home. He did two things right. What did he do wrong?
Capon: Well, in the far country. You have to distinguish when he was in the far country and then when he came home. When he was in the far country, he made up his confession this way. "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you." Correct. "I am no longer worthy to be called your son." Correct. But then the third part: "Make me a hired hand in your house." Incorrect. Wrong. It's not a repentance. It's a plan for life. His father could no more make him a hired hand. He would either be a dead son or a son raised from the dead, a lost son or a found son, but a son, not a hired hand. And the brilliance of Jesus as a storyteller is that the father kisses him, the boy, when he gets home. Before he makes his confession, the father kisses him, embraces him, accepts him. That's the whole image of grace right there. Then the boy finally, in his father's arms, makes the confession. He says, "Father, I've sinned against heaven and before you, and am no more worthy to be called your son." Period. Jesus has him leave off the clunker the second time around.
Brown: The second time around. Well, what about the other side? First, tell me, a lot of people are confused. What does prodigal mean?
Capon: Prodigal means a wastrel, a person who foolishly and improvidently spends all his money. You know, a sower of wild oats.
Brown: Okay, I assumed as much. Let's talk about the other brother. You called him Arthur. We'll call him Art here. Did he really benefit from this experience later?
Capon: I think this is a good question. The trick is the parables were never meant for us to imitate or admire the character of the human race character. What’s there to admire about a lost sheep? The dumb sheep got lost, that's all. What does it tell me I must do in order for the shepherd, the Divine Shepherd, to find me? Get lost. That's all. It doesn't tell me fancy lost, a good lost, an ethical lost. Just get lost, then he will find you. He finds the lost. And the same thing is true of the Prodigal and the elder brother. It's the shepherd who is the God character in the sheep parable. It's the father who’s the God character in the Prodigal Son.
So the Prodigal and the elder brother are both us. I can find myself in the Prodigal. I have sown my wild oats. I have wasted lots of time in the world. I have lost all kinds of stuff that would have been better that I kept. And by the same token, I can see myself in the older brother, the whining, complaining, poor me, you don't understand me, you've been mean to me.
Brown: The bean counter. I like that!
Capon: The bean counter keeping score. We are all both of these people and what Jesus shows us in this parable is that it doesn't matter which one you are; (a) you are lost, and (b) he will never stop finding you.
Brown: We can't earn it, can we?
Capon: You can't earn it and the thing is you can avoid it. In all of Jesus' other parables of judgment, the imagery for hell is separation imagery: out of darkness, kick him out, throw him away. This is the one place where Jesus has a Christ figure descending into hell to visit the damned, the elder brother, in which they're in the same place. The hell in this imagery, in this parable, is eternally at the party of heaven. Hell is somehow inside heaven. You want to know where I put it? You got a minute? I'll tell you quickly.
Brown: Half a minute.
Capon: In the nail hole in the left hand of the risen body of Jesus is all the room you need to contain all the zillions and billions of people who ever would be in hell because they are so thin and wispy. They don't spoil the party in there either. You can find them in that nail hole and if they want some day, maybe they can come out.
Brown: Thank you, for a marvelous, marvelous message.
Capon: Thank you, Floyd.

Motherhood as a Mission Field by: Rachel Jankovic

Motherhood as a Mission Field

June 16, 2011 | by: Rachel Jankovic | Category: Commentary

There is a good old saying, perhaps only said by my Grandfather, that distance adds intrigue. It is certainly true — just think back to anything that has ever been distant from you that is now near. Your driver’s license. Marriage. Children. Things that used to seem so fascinating, but as they draw near become less mystical and more, well, real.
This same principle certainly applies to mission fields too. The closer you get to home, the less intriguing the work of sacrifice seems. As someone once said, “Everyone wants to save the world, but no one wants to help Mom with the dishes.” When you are a mother at home with your children, the church is not clamoring for monthly ministry updates. When you talk to other believers, there is not any kind of awe about what you are sacrificing for the gospel. People are not pressing you for needs you might have, how they can pray for you. It does not feel intriguing, or glamorous. Your work is normal, because it is as close to home as you can possibly be. You have actually gone so far as to become home.

Home: The Headwaters of Mission

If you are a Christian woman who loves the Lord, the gospel is important to you. It is easy to become discouraged, thinking that the work you are doing does not matter much. If you were really doing something for Christ you would be out there, somewhere else, doing it. Even if you have a great perspective on your role in the kingdom, it is easy to lose sight of it in the mismatched socks, in the morning sickness, in the dirty dishes. It is easy to confuse intrigue with value, and begin viewing yourself as the least valuable part of the Church.
There are a number of ways in which mothers need to study their own roles, and begin to see them, not as boring and inconsequential, but as home, the headwaters of missions.
At the very heart of the gospel is sacrifice, and there is perhaps no occupation in the world so intrinsically sacrificial as motherhood. Motherhood is a wonderful opportunity to live the gospel. Jim Elliot famously said, “He is no fool who gives up that which he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.” Motherhood provides you with an opportunity to lay down the things that you cannot keep on behalf of the people that you cannot lose. They are eternal souls, they are your children, they are your mission field.

Faith Makes the Small Offering Great

If you are like me, then you may be thinking “What did I ever give up for them? A desk job? Time at the gym? Extra spending money? My twenty- year- old figure? Some sleep?” Doesn’t seem like much when you put it next to the work of some of the great missionaries, people who gave their lives for the gospel.
Think about the feeding of the five thousand when the disciples went out and rounded up the food that was available. It wasn’t much. Some loaves. Some fish. Think of some woman pulling her fish out and handing it to one of the disciples. That had to have felt like a small offering. But the important thing about those loaves and those fishes was not how big they were when they were given, it was about whose hands they were given into. In the hands of the Lord, that offering was sufficient. It was more than sufficient. There were leftovers. Given in faith, even a small offering becomes great.
Look at your children in faith, and see how many people will be ministered to by your ministering to them. How many people will your children know in their lives? How many grandchildren are represented in the faces around your table now?

Gain What You Cannot Lose in Them

So, if mothers are strategically situated to impact missions so greatly, why do we see so little coming from it?  I think the answer to this is quite simple: sin. Discontent, pettiness, selfishness, resentment. Christians often feel like the right thing to do is to be ashamed about what we have. We hear that quote of Jim Elliot’s and think that we ought to sell our homes and move to some place where they need the gospel.
But I’d like to challenge you to look at it differently. Giving up what you cannot keep does not mean giving up your home, or your job so you can go serve somewhere else. It is giving up yourself. Lay yourself down. Sacrifice yourself here, now. Cheerfully wipe the nose for the fiftieth time today. Make dinner again for the people who don’t like the green beans. Laugh when your plans are thwarted by a vomiting child. Lay yourself down for the people here with you, the people who annoy you, the people who get in your way, the people who take up so much of your time that you can’t read anymore. Rejoice in them. Sacrifice for them. Gain that which you cannot lose in them.
It is easy to think you have a heart for orphans on the other side of the world, but if you spend your time at home resenting the imposition your children are on you, you do not. You cannot have a heart for the gospel and a fussiness about your life at the same time. You will never make any difference there if you cannot be at peace here. You cannot have a heart for missions, but not for the people around you. A true love of the gospel overflows and overpowers. It will be in everything you do, however drab, however simple, however repetitive.
God loves the little offerings. Given in faith, that plate of PB&J’s will feed thousands. Given in faith, those presents on Christmas morning will bring delight to more children than you can count. Offered with thankfulness, your work at home is only the beginning. Your laundry pile, selflessly tackled daily, will be used in the hands of God to clothe many. Do not think that your work does not matter. In God’s hands, it will be broken, and broken, and broken again, until all who have need of it have eaten and are satisfied. And even then, there will be leftovers.

I would highly recommend this book "Loving the Little Years" by Rachel Jankovic. It is both insightful and funny without the typical "make you feel guilty" flavor of a lot of parenting books.

a Must Have translation for every household.

the 26 Translation

the Green Bible, an "Ecco-friendly" version of our scriptures

This will be a great bible for Santa Cruzians: the Green Bible.

I found a great compilation of quotes in this "unique" book in the Teachings on "Creation throughout the Ages" section, enjoy!

I do not worship matter. I worship the Creator of matter who became matter for my sake, who willed to take His abode in matter, who worked out my salvation through matter….Because of this I salute all remaining matter with reverence, because God has filled it with his grace and power. Through it my salvation has come to me.

                                                                                    (John of Damascus, On the Divine Images 1:16)

Wherever I turn my eyes, around on Earth or to the heavens

I see You in the field of stars

I see You in the yield of the land

In every breath and sound, a blade of grass, a simple flower,

An echo of Your holy Name.

(Abraham ibn Ezra (1092-1167)

All creatures of ou God and King, lift up your voice and with us sing….

O brother wind, air, clouds, and rain, by which all creature ye sustain…

O sister water, flowing clear, make music for thy Lord to hear….

Dear mother earth, who day by day unfoldest blessings on our day….

O praise ye! Alleluia!

Francis of Assisi (1181-1226)

God writes the Gospel not in the Bible alone, but also on trees, and in the flowers and clouds and stars.

Martin Luther (1483-1546)

Thou art in small things great, not small in any….For thou art infinite in one and all.

George Herbert (1593-1633), “Providence”

All created things are living in the hand of God. The senses see only the action of the creatures, but faith sees in everything the action of God.

Jean Pierre de Caussade (1675-1751), Abandonment to Divine Providence

All are but parts of one stupendous whole,

Whose body Nature is, and God the soul

Alexander Pope (1688-1744), An Essay on Man

I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in.

George Washington Carver (ca. 1864-1943)

THE GREEN BIBLE

The Green Bible will equip and encourage people to see God’s vision for creation and help them engage in the work of healing and sustaining the environment.  This first Bible of its kind will include the following distinctive features:

• Green-Letter Edition: Verses and passages that speak to God’s care for creation highlighted in green.
• Contributions by Brian McLaren, Matthew Sleeth, N. T. Wright, Desmond Tutu, and many others.
• An introduction to reading the Bible and the Old and New Testaments through a “green” lens, including what Jesus had to say about the environment.
• A green Bible index and personal study guide.
• Recycled paper, using soy-based ink with a cotton/linen cover.

the Happy Gospel by Benjamin Dunn

Some of my favorite theology on the finished works of the cross!
Here is where you order the the Happy Gospel.

Johns new books are out!

Experiencing the Reality of the Sevenfold Spirit of God

by John Crowder
Sons of Thunder Publications

And out of the throne go forth lightnings, and voices, and thunders; and seven lamps of fire, burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God - Rev. 4:5

John's long-awaited Seven Spirits Burning is an extensive, Biblical plunge into the nature and operation of the sevenfold Spirit of God. This book unpackages a deep theological and Christocentric understanding of the seven Spirits. John has taught for years on the seven Spirits, but not until now has he released this detailed compilation of his study and experience. This book could possibly be the magnum opus of anything written to date on the Spirit's sevenfold nature. It is a must read for anyone interested in walking in the anointing.

 Enjoying John's new books!

Stuff they never told you about the finished work of the cross

 

by John Crowder
Sons of Thunder Publications

The gospel is a mystical message, based on an instant and effortless union with God achieved at Christ's cross.

When you think of the cross, do you think of fun?

If the answer is "no" then you have not been taught the cross aright.

There is a delicious feast prepared for the believer. Nothing is more satisfying than the revelation of what Christ has conclusively accomplished for you. This book threatens to turn your Christianity upside down. No longer a struggle to please God -- the Truth will plunge you into a celebration of what He has done for you.

With clear revelatory truths on the New Creation and the scandalous joys of the cross, Mystical Union  promises to be one of John’s most revolutionary, lifechanging works. The happy gospel of grace is about uninterrupted union with the Divine. This book lays out our most core beliefs. It promises to wreck your theology and cheer you up with undeniable Biblical truths on the free gift of perfection.

I am thouroghly enjoying my husbands book, loving the writing style and the nugets of wisdom.

Today I am reading from "Mystical Union" and I have to share an exerpt from ch.2:

SANCTIFICATION IS NOT A PROCESS.

 The most scholarly minds all agree that a mystical death with Christ purchased union with Him.  But then a theological dishonesty creeps in.  We are next taught that- although the old man is dead - we still have a daily process of putting that old self to death.  I die daily is a common motto!   

They call it a paradox.  Two opposites that are held in tension.  They say your fleshly nature is dead, yet it is till in need of crucifixion.  Paradox indeed!  I call this a lack of revelation at best.  Lazy exegesis at worst.  The scriptures never contradict themselves.  The word "paradox" sounds fun, but there are far fewer of them in scripture than you would imagine.  Lobotomy is fun word as well, but I don't want one.  People think, "We haven't figured it out, so it must be an unsolvable puzzle!  A paradox!"  There are no unsolvable puzzles>  Every mystery has been plainly published on the tree.

The word people use for this supposed process of killing the old self is "sanctification."  It is widely believed that sanctification is a lifelong, extended journey of becoming holy.  A process of removing sin - progressively having one's soul purged over an entire lifetime.

The Greek verb "to sanctify" does not mean to "purge and purify over a period of time."  The word hagiazo simply means to "set apart" or to "make separate for God."  The moment you were saved, you were set apart for God.  Sanctification is not a process.  It is a Person.  The Bible tells me so!

And because of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption (1 Cor.  1:30, ESV)