4/29/16 THE MASTER BUILDER

The bible tells us that God created the heavens and the earth and that by the end of the sixth day He was ready to sit back and enjoy.

By the grace of the Father, my prayer is that an understanding of how God created all that is can be compared to the building of a house in relationship to our personal lives and spiritual growth with the Father through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

So as not to pile a ton of information on everyone at one time this is the first of several installments.  Right now I’m not sure exactly how many but no more than six more.  If I can combine, I hope to do it in fewer so stick with me on this.  OK?

First, He had to decide where He was going to build

            God creates a place for His creation (Gen 1:1-5)

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.  The earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep.  And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.  God said “Let there be light.” And there was light.  God saw that the light was good and God divided the light from the darkness and God called the light day and the darkness night and the evening and the morning were the first day.

Understand that there was nothing (except God, Himself) when He started creating.  There were no molecules, no atoms, no grains of sand, no seeds – nothing.

Science talks about the ‘singularity’ which, as theorized, is the beginning of all creation.  They explain how this singularity just, all of the sudden, started expanding from a very minute particle to the expanse of the universes as we know them.  They tell us how the universe is continuing to expand but will eventually reach ‘its limit’ then start imploding (collapsing) presumably back to that very minute molecule that it originated as.  No matter what theories they come up with, though, they can’t explain where that singularity came from.

We are ‘finite’ beings, that is we have a beginning and an end so everything we understand and deal with has a beginning and an end.  So this singularity should have a beginning – somewhere, somehow.

 

One of the hardest things for man to comprehend is the ‘eternality’ of God.  God has no beginning and He shall never have an end.  He always was, still is and always shall be.  Even though we may understand the words, it is difficult for our finite minds to comprehend the infinite reality of eternity.  How long did God exist before He created the heavens and earth?  Forever.  How long will be live with Him after He calls us home.  Forever (and we, believers, shall be with Him). 

So Father created the heavens and the earth to have an object(s) for His affection.  His affection is love and He desired to impart that love to …. us.  Someone to shower that love upon.  As we read the bible over and over and again, God’s love becomes more evident to us and our understanding of His love towards us increases.  We understand that He loves us so much that He gave His only Begotten Son, Jesus to die for our sins and bring us back into His kingdom in heaven but coming to an understanding what the words say and what they really mean is our spiritual growth AND that, my brothers, sisters and friends is what the “Master Builder” is all about.

So God started with nothing and created substance, light and darkness because this is what He desired and this is what He envisioned in order to begin building His house.  He saw what He wanted and started doing it.  He created a tract of land (light and darkness) in which to build His house and He prepares for His next step.

When a man wants to build a home, he first has to find a piece of land upon which he desires to build.  He scours the real estate ads in the paper, he visits real estate agencies and he probably drives around looking for both an area to build as well as the right plot of land upon which to build.  Sometimes he may have to go look at different places to see if one may be the right plot.   But He looks for it and once He finds it, he buys it!  (we are assuming that he has the resources to do so).

When we build a spiritual house, first we must have the desire to want something that we realize that we do not have.  God gives us a desire to want ‘something’ greater than ourselves to care for us.  If you will, it’s inborn.  We can reject God, but we still look for something – different religions, meditation, whatever.  We ‘normally’ seek for something to give us hope beyond this life.  We look for a plot to build (or hope for).

As we look for that spiritual ‘haven’ God does help us out.  He reveals Himself to us in many ways, the world around us, nature, situations where He is guiding the end results, putting people around us to point us in the right direction.  We may try different religions, or which Christian denomination ‘fits’ us.  It’s always a good start where we find Jesus being preached in truth.  Our faith is like a house, we build one that meets our needs where we are now, then as those needs change or grow, so does our house.  Also in our spiritual growth, our needs will change and our house needs to change accordingly.  Now don’t mince words here.  It really isn’t us who build our house.  Father inspires us to build, the as we yield to Him, he guides our every move so instead of building a house on sand, which will collapse, we build on the rock, so it stands firm and strong.

           

I basically grew up in a Southern Baptist Church, but, as a lot of young people, I drifted away after High School.  I lived my life, working, lifting weights and hanging with my friends and then I was drafted (they drafted young men into the military back in the ‘60’s).   Though I didn’t realize it until later, even though I had drifted from being around God, God had not drifted from me.

 I was drafted in 1965 and I spent 1967 in Saigon (now Ho Chi Min City), Vietnam, I was with the US Army signal Corp/STRATCOM working with teletype/microwave equipment.  That is beaming out and receiving messages piggy-backed onto radio waves and to be sent from or back to a teletype machine to be printed out.  Our main base was located at Ton Son Nhut airbase, about five miles outside of Saigon but we had a substation in the Cholon district of Saigon which is where two other GI’s and myself were stationed working 12 hour swing shifts.  It was October or November 1967 and I was on shift with about three hours before my relief came in.  The phone rang and it was my CO.  “Buck!  We’re on ‘red alert’ (combat ready designation).  They’ve been dumping mortars on the base and they have progressed towards a civilian police station between you and us.  We’ll keep you informed.”  I said “Yes sir.”  Now our sight was located in the basement of the building which had 12” concrete walls, so I felt reasonably secure but I still looked over at the weapons rack which contained one M14 rifle and one clip holding 20 rounds (bullets) of ammunition.  I thought “OK”

My relief got bored so he came in early that day, about a half hour or so after the call.  I told him we were on red alert and He replied “Oookaaay”.  He looked at me then he looked at the weapons rack.  I couldn’t help myself but I quickly said “Don’t worry, unless there’s twenty-one of them.”  We both laughed.  By the time my shift was up we were notified that the red alert was lifted and we were told later that the Viet Cong kicked the stuffing out of that police compound about two miles outside of the city, nearly leveling it, then pulled out. 

I came home in Dec. 1967 and in February 1968, two to three months later, the enemy did come into Saigon which is known as the ‘Tet offensive” when they did a lot of damage, but the city held.  I was gone by then and I have never found out how our station fared that February, but God spared me in Oct./Nov. and I didn’t have to deal with Feb.  I had a double ‘spare’.

 I relate this story because even though I didn’t really know Jesus then, Father was watching over me.  Father speaks to us through life’s experiences.  All we have to do is look and listen.

 Now I didn’t try a lot of different religions or anything back then.  I just took things as they came and grumbled when it didn’t work out like I liked.

I found my plot when I met my wife (to be).  I met her in 1971 and we decided to marry a year later.  Who to perform the ceremony?  We went back to my old S. Baptist Church, which had a new pastor by that time, and whom my bride to be and I both decided was OK.  However!  Isn’t there always an ‘however’ or a ‘but’?  this pastor had the funny idea of not performing weddings unless the bride and groom knew Jesus – personally.  It was through that marriage counselling that Father convicted me in my heart that I never really ever knew Him.  Twice the pastor asked me if I knew Jesus and twice I responded ‘I grew up in this church’ or whatever came to mind at the time.  He asked me a third time and that’s when the Holy Ghost set it on my heart my only true and honest response was ‘no’ and received Jesus into my heart at that time.   And I know that from that day forward I had gained access to the kingdom of God, my spiritual plot.  My wife lied that day and said ‘yes’ to the question and the pastor told me after she had given her heart to Jesus a few years later, that he knew that she lied but God would bring her into the kingdom eventually through me.

So did I become an instant super Christian?  Not by a long shot.  Christian, yes but I’m still growing, getting closer to my Lord and Savior each day (PTL). But my plot, tract of land, was laid.  I had salvation.

I look back on my own spiritual growth over the years and every time I reflect on where I’ve come from to where I’m at currently, and even though I can see that Father has brought me a long way,  I also realize I still have soooo far to go. 

Every journey begins with the first step and if the journey takes 1000 steps, every time I feel I’ve gone ten or twenty steps, Father shows me that I’ve only been taking baby steps and I’m still just barely just out of the starting blocks.   But we have to take that first step and that’s finding the place to build our house so we can take the next step by allowing Him to build us.

God didn’t have a plot of land to look at so He created His own.  Before a man can build his ‘dream’ house, he first has to look for his plot.  And likewise, when we realize we need to start building our spiritual house, we have to look for and let Jesus in, so we have something to build upon.

4/15/2016

Since September 2014 Father has escalated my spiritual growth, that is this past year and a half and counting.  I believe He has taught me more in this time span than all my years before, or at least He has brought it together for me so my understanding and realization has increased immensely.  Don't get me wrong, even now when I read  passage in the scriptures Father continues to give me a deeper understanding.  Every time I think I'm getting a good handle on things, Father take me a little deeper.  I guess this is why He says to 'stay in the Word', reading it, rereading it and letting it permeate into our hearts.

He has confirmed what He has told me through ways I would never have guessed.  He has taught me to take confidence in what He tells me through that confirmation.  If you've read some of my history, I spoke of the doubts I started to have (Sept. '14 - Dec. '14) after having received the word on the 'Watchman' and how Father brought me to the point of understanding how He confirms things (at least with  me in Jan. '15).  And I must admit even through much of 2015 I wrestled with doubt off and on with "is this really You, Lord?'  But as with Samuel (1 Sam. 3:1-10), I too have learned to hear God voice most of the time.  Occasionally I'm still not sure, but then I run the 'glory check'.  With what I believe is saying to me, who gets the glory?  God?  Or me?

For myself, I do have one major check and that's what I used to call the 'zone'.  I've learned that what I call the 'zone' is truly an anointing from Father.  I've read Kenneth Hagin's books "Understanding the Anointing" and "The Ministry Gifts".  Father explained a lot of things I have been experiencing over the past several years to me through these books.

With the "Watchman" I explained that I was fine as I was writing everything down but when I went to get out of my chair, I couldn't.  I inched my way over to the steps from my computer and had to literally crawl up the steps.  I crawled into the kitchen upstairs an after a while, with great effort I was able to draw myself to my feet using the refrigerator.  It only took me about ten minutes to shuffle the twelve feet to the bathroom, another ten minutes (or so) to shuffle to my chair in the living room where I flopped (literally) and was unable to stand back up for about forty or forty-five minutes.  No joke.  My body felt like jello and wouldn't support me during that time.  Whenever Father 'gives' me something, I experience the similar scenario, but to varying degrees and I might add that over the past several months it's been happening even during my normal prayer time.

I've learned that when I'm in the 'zone', Father is dealing with me, usually something He wants me to write down and share, something He wants me to experience or learn or a prayer for someone that's more than 'Father meet their need'.

Between Hagin's books and Father coming back to reaffirm what He has taught me, I know that what I'v been experiencing is 'an' anointing from Him.  Not 'the' anointing but a'n' anointing.  Different anointings can come upon us at different times to accomplish different tasks.  Some anointings may come back regularly or as with Kenneth, may come upon us maybe only once or twice in a lifetime.  Depends on the need.

The really neat thing about hearing God is that the Holy Ghost speaks to us and too many people don't even realize it.  Have you ever started to do something, then you just had that nagging feeling or thought "maybe I shouldn't do this?".  Have you ever come to a crossroad and had that feeling to go 'this' way as opposed to 'that'?  Have you ever had a 'premonition about something happening (good or bad) or after something has happened or has started to unfold you feel like you've been there, done that before (deja vu)?   Has someone told you something, warned you or counselled you about something and it came to pass?  Have you ever read a scripture passage and you just knew 'that' was for you? Have you heard a voice in your head (or heart) and the only thing you were sure of is that it wasn't Your own?  God speaks to us in may ways but His goal, His desire is to interact with us one one one, mano e mano, face to 'face' (so to speak)(Romans 8:26-27, 1 Corinth. 2:10-13).

One of the greatest concepts that came out of the middle ages,that is the Protestant Reformation and humanism, is that God is personal.  He desires a relationship with each one of us, individually as well as collectively (the church) and the closer we walk with Him, the stronger that relationship.

Read the Gospel of John for in it John goes into great depth how we can improve our relationship with the Father through Jesus.  The Pauline letters, as well as the others, remind us of the love Jesus has for us and how we can improve on that relationship by returning that love - and how then do it, put it into practice.

I recently watched a movie called Joshua (2002) where a man comes into town and shakes it to its very foundations.  In one scene he comes before a bishop who asks him if he understands what the bible is.  Joshua hesitates for a moment and says 'Yes, it's a love letter from God to us."  But in order to get 'into' the love letter (truly realize it), we first have to get beyond the basics of 'do's and don'ts.  We don't keep the law to get close to God.  As we draw closer to God we realize that we automatically keep the law because it' how we can express our love back to Him.  Then we will start realizing how Father pours His love out to us.  The more bible we learn and put into our hearts, the more we learn about God's love and our relationship.

Jesus tells us that the first commandment is to love God ((Matt. 22:36-40) with all our heart, mind and soul and the second is like it which is to love our neighbor as ourselves.  why?  because on these two commandments hand all the law and the prophets.  The first ten commandments which God gave Moses tell us to love and basically how to do that.  the other 603 commandments God passed on to Israel through Moses gives more detail and protocol in how we can express that love.  Don't take my word or it.  Read 'em!  Everything the prophets of both the old and new testaments was God expressing His love towards His children in expressing blessing for following His will or correction to get us back on track.   So the bible, Genesis to Revelation shows us how God expresses his love towards us.

Then we return that love by allowing Jesus to abide in us and through us, helping us to express that love not just to those around us, but allowing it to flow back to Father, through Jesus Christ our Lord, because the Holy Ghost dwells in our hearts.  we should reflect the Father just as Jesus did in John chapter 14 - "...if you've seen Me, you've seen the Father ... I don't speak of Myself but the Father who dwells in Me does the work ... ".  and John 8:28 where Jesus says "... I do nothing of Myself, but I speak the things Father has taught Me."  God's desire is that we be one with Him.  Jesus tells us in John 15 that the Father is glorified when we bear much fruit, we are to continue in Jesus' love as He lived in Father's love and we do that by keeping God's commandment to abide in His love.  AND abiding in that love means reading and learning the scriptures then applying into our own lives and allowing the Holy Ghost to operate in us and through us.  He, the Holy Ghost, gives us power and to be witnesses (Acts 1:8) in this life.

I feel a little like Paul when he says 'no man has taught me' (Gal. 1:11-12) and I know that the Holy Ghost teaches us (John 14:26, 1 John 2:27) but I need to study to show myself approved  as Father shows me how to rightly divide His Word (2 Tim. 2:15).  And we don't forsake the fellowshipping together (Heb. 10:25).  Why?   Because we overcome by the blood of the lamb and our testimonies (Rev. 12:11).  Through our testimonies of what Father does in our lives we encourage each other to press on (Phil. 3:14), remember that God is always with us and to strive for the goal (Luke 13:24) which is eternal fellowship with Father, through Jesus Christ and we can do this because the Holy Ghost dwells within us giving us the power to do so (Acts 1:8).

Does this mean I shun teachers?  God forbid!  For, indeed, Father has exposed me to the things He wants me to Know through my interactions with people.  But what He has done is kept me from being polluted by man's prejudices.  I love the Bereans (Acts 17:10-12).  They heard and believed Paul's preaching but they went and checked it out in the scriptures for themselves and because of this, their faith became even more solid.

I don't just accept what I hear someone preach or say.  What they say should confirm what Father has already taught me or I need to be like the Bereans and go check it out in the scriptures.  I like to believe that if someone tries to feed me a bunch of 'hokey', my spirit, prompted by the Holy Ghost will alert me.  Kind of like the old TV show "Space Family Robinson' when the robot would come rolling out saying "Danger Will Robinson (the boy)!  Danger!"  I just need to make sure that I listen.

Are we growing in the Lord, spiritually?  In order to realize our own "Homecoming, a Spiritual re-awakening" we need to be growing towards the Father, through Jesus Christ, our Lord as the Holy Ghost prompts us.  This is the Father's will for every Christian, every believer as He draws us closer and closer into a very close relationship (fellowship) with Him.  Jesus lived for us and died (on the cross) for us.  It is our reasonable service to live for Him by ordering our lives according to His love.

Amen

4/2/2016

        Broken Alignment

        brought back into

              Heavenly Alignment 

                (notice the line segments

        then the solid line)

The past two weeks have celebrated Palm Sunday and Easter and I know that we've spent a lot of time 'boning up' on these events, but there are several events that define our Christian walk.

 and Easter Sunday (the resurrection of our Lord giving us access to eternal life).

First, Jesus had to be born under the law (into this world) in order to redeem us from the law (this world).  By walking as we walk for thirty years He established Himself as a just judge because He has walked 'a mile in our shoes'.

Second, the bible tells us that He grew up having favor with God and man, 'showing' us how to live our lives (Luke 2:52).

Then He spent three and a half years telling us how to attain eternal fellowship with the Father through Him.

On Palm Sunday, the triumphant entry into Jerusalem (the 'coronation' parade of 'the King of Kings'),

 'Good' Friday  our Lord was arrested, beaten and degraded AND then they hung Him of the cross,  the final sin sacrifice from our Lord showing His great love for us.  All sacrifices give their lives for their cause and Jesus did the same by taking our sins and our place upon the cross.

Now I realize that there are two more events yet to come (in Christian chronology),  

 The first five events define our access to heaven. The two events yet to come, the ascension and the descent of the Holy Ghost define the power Father gives us to live in this world.

In the ascension, Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father signifying He has all authority and power over all things.

In the descent of the Holy Ghost He shares that power with us so we can live and walk in His will and ways.

The first five events speak to what must be done to repair the broken alignment and and the final two define the power through which it might be accomplished.

Now Jesus doesn't physically walk with us anymore (as He did the with apostles), but through His apostles He has left us the information we need to come into alignment with His will.

However, the apostles of the Lamb shared with us (2000 years ago) what Jesus shared with them.  And yes we have the bible to help us along.  1 Corinth. chapter 9 tells us that we prophecy in part and we know in part and John 21:25 tells us that the earth could not contain the volumes if written about everything that Jesus did.

As we read the bible we read how Israel begins in knowledge of the truth, then after time starts to stray away from what God had told them.  Then, by God's grace, Father sends Israel a prophet to bring them back into alignment with his Word.

The Christian church (unfortunately) has been little different.  For a myriad of reasons (find a book on the New Testament church history to discover some of them) today's church has become broken, just like Israel and just like Israel, Father raises people up to nudge us back into the right direction.  The church has often grabbed hold of a revelation and built a whole concept on one idea.  If you don't think we get off track easily consider the 'story down the line'.

Did you ever do the party game where you have a line of people (the more the merrier).  At one end of the line the first person whispers into the next person's ear, just a few words.  That person tells it to the next, and that one to the next all the way to the end of the line.  Unless you have a most unusual line of people, when the last person is asked to recite what was said, it seldom if ever resembles the first words spoken at the beginning of the line.  Why?  Some people really don't listen and Lord knows what they might pass on. Others hear but add a little 'tidbit' of their own.  Yet others hear, but don't remember exactly what was said and so on.  Christianity's growth has experienced similar conditions.  We quickly lose track of what was originally said and get out of alignment.

Early in my Christian experience Father shared with me 'the movie projector'.  A film projector is running, showing a movie and people see something that really grabs them.  It is a truth, but these folks run off to the side and start building their faith around what they have seen, ignoring the rest of the movie, which still keeps running.  Later, during the movie, another group sees something that they really like (another truth) and go off somewhere else, focusing on this new revelation.  And the film keeps rolling.  And so on.  A truth is built upon over here, over there and the movie keeps rolling on.  Many churches have been built on partial truths.  the people who initiated the group didn't wait for the movie to end so they could get the whole picture so they might get a proper perspective on the whole movie, rather a particular scene, or truth.  Or even man's own interpretation of what he thinks was going on and not necessarily in balance with the whole picture (bible).

I mentioned that we understand and prophecy in part.  In my own experience, Father has shared things with me about people or events.  He has given me a 'trailer' (if you wish) which is not the whole picture, but a part of it.  Later on He has given me a little more detail, enhancing my understanding about whatever 'it' is.  I may receive several parts to the 'puzzle' before Father reveals the full understanding to me and even then, whatever 'it' is may not happen for a while.  It may not be its season, yet.  We see this 'season' issue with the prophets in the Old Testament.

When I say 'not its season I mean God may reveal something that will happen later as with Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar's dreams (Daniel chapters 2 & 4) where the statue revealed four kingdoms and later the tree revealed Nebuchadnezzar's 'madness' and return to sanity.

Father gives us prophets today, too who speak God's Word which reveal His intents for our future, individually and/or collectively (as a group) and either near or distant.  These people may speak parts of God's truth or they may give us a complete picture but we just don't know when it may occur.  What we do is check it out against the bible.  We know that when a prophet speaks and it comes to pass, the person is a true prophet (Jer. 28:9), but again, reminding you of Daniel, the prophecy may not be for yet.

I speak about 'in part' because the bible is not the total revelation of What God says to us (I refer you back to John 21).  But what the bible does do for us is it gives us all the information we need to know how to 'get saved', that is enter into the kingdom of God and know that's where we're headed, how to live for/in/through Jesus, and how we should treat the people around us.  It gives us enough information that we can discover God's nature.  We can't know 'what He thinks (no man can know the mind of God [1 Corinth. 2:16) but we can know 'how' He thinks (Eph. 1:17).  As we read the bible, we learn the nature of God therefore we can understand how He thinks PLUS we have the Holy Spirit leading us into all truth (John 16:13).  So our spirit agrees within us when something is in agreement with Father AND it will be consistent with the teaching of the scriptures.  So, even though we may hear something and we can't find it 'exactly' in the scriptures, if it is from God, it will be consistent with His nature and with scriptural teaching.  Of course, one has to know something about what the bible says.

I say this because many of God's truths have been pushed aside, partially because people haven't experienced it for themselves and partially because (of that) they have been taught by others certain things may not be for today.  Five 'duties' are cited in Ephesians 4 which are for perfecting of the saints, work of the ministry, edifying the body of Christ until we come into the unity of faith, knowledge of Jesus, to a perfect man and to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. (vs12&13).  This means that these jobs are to bring Christians to a full understanding of who we are in Jesus Christ, so the body (church) will be edified (built up), until we come to realize that Jesus is the very foundation of our faith and not church dogma and we live 'like' Jesus, operating in the same Spirit He operated in or permitting the Holy Ghost to operate in and through us as He did Jesus.  Jesus tells us that we will do everything He has done and more (John 14:12).  Think about that!  Why don't we?  Because we aren't back in true alignment with the Father.

So, because of these things and more, Christianity has become 'disjointed' over the centuries, losing many things God originally gave.  Rationalizing away why we don't experience some of those things the early church did.  Thus creating a 'disjointed' body which may or may not be cleanly connected to other parts of the body.  All of these body parts (we are the body of Christ) therefore have become unaligned and Father is preparing to bring all those body parts back into alignment.

Oooh!  That sounds like a mega church.  Isn't that consistent with the anti Christ?

I'm not talking about a mega church.  Christ's body is one body but many parts.  All the different parts with different functions.  this is true with the church compleat (whole body of Christ) and the individual church (each fellowship).  Many parts, one unit.  Each fellowship (local church) has many roles that need filled (you can think of some, I'm sure) and different people fill these roles.  They are all individuals with their own personalities all working together to help the fellowship function as a whole.  The body of Christ should be the same, a bunch of churches, denominations, all working together towards a common goal - bringing souls into the kingdom of God and making sure that they know that they all belong to Jesus and have eternal security. Many similar as well as different functions can occur in a given area so the body can grow, each subject to individual personalities (people), yet functioning for the common good.  Are we getting the picture?

So back to where we started.Jesus bided His time in heaven until His season was come to enter this world.  He had to fulfill prophecies because Father declared these things before they occurred so He was born of a virgin, under the law (so He could redeem us from under that law).  He grew up, just as you and I, for thirty years being exposed to the same things we are and the bible says He pleased God and man. Then He began a 3 1/2 year ministry preaching and teaching the kingdom of heaven so as to draw us back into original alignment with the Father.  He taught us how to live as a help for us coming back into that alignment.  He suffered the scourging and the cross so we wouldn't have to bear the results of our being out of alignment.  He rose from the grave victorious over sin and death bringing us back into alignment giving us the information that we need to maintain that alignment.  AND He's coming back for us to complete the re-alignment process -we come to full stature in Jesus Christ. - because we will then be living with Him.

AMEN!