6-24-2016   BROKEN ALIGNMENT/REALIGNMENT REVISITED

Two weeks ago my pastor asked me to bring a word on 'Heavenly Realignment'.  Our Fellowship is holding its fourth annual Conference in July and take a wild guess at what our theme is this year - "Heavenly Realignment".  Father quickly reminded me of the 4/2/2016 blog entry "Broken Alignment/Realignment" so knowing I already had a basis of what to say I said "Sure".

When I pulled up that 4/2 entry, Father pointed out to me that we spent a lot of time speaking on how His church has gotten out of alignment, but only a mention of how to get back into 'realignment'.  He gave me another page as a 'hit list' on how to get back into realignment.  I had what would take about 20 - 30 minutes to talk about (or more).  Pastor ended up praying for people's needs that day (just about the entire service) and as I noticed that time was slipping away I said to myself "OK, don't think we're going to get to this today.  Then as we were winding down my pastor says "OK.  Buck is now going to bring us an overview of "Heavenly Alignment."  I said to myself "Whoa!  Lord, I don't want to keep these folks here any longer than necessary.  I need you help me tighten this half hour or so presentation up a bit."  A long story short, Father presented all the points of the information I had planned on, with examples, in less than twelve minutes.  He didn't use a lot of detail, but enough words to get the point across.

More important, in preparing for this event, again, Father had reminded me how little time was spent on fixing the 'misalignment' of His body.  Sooooo today we're going to spend some more time focusing on how to get back into proper alignment with our heavenly Father.

Father started with how our alignment, our relationship with HIm became broken to begin with.  Adam and Eve were in perfect alignment with Father until they they 'sinned and ate the 'forbidden' fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  God gave them a promise that He would re-establish that alignment, or relationship (Gen. chapter 3).   Since that time, Father has been trying to re-establish that relationship.  I say 'trying' because He has to deal with us (humans) and He did give us 'freewill' (to choose what we want to do [Joshua 24:14-15]).  We have the freedom to tell God "no".  Not a good choice, but we can do that of our own freewill.  

To help us re-establish our relationship with Him, Father shows us throughout the Old Testament how much He loves us hoping that we might come to the realization that in order to please Him and have a relationship with Him we must yield our hearts to Him.  Because Father is a Spirit, we have to realize that we need to worship Him in Spirit and in truth (John 4:23).  To help us understand this concept He gave Moses the "Law" to help the children of Israel understand what they needed to do (as well as us today), and the culmination of this understanding comes at the 'cross of Jesus'.

A man has no greater love than to give his life for his friends (John 15:13) and Jesus did just that on the cross.  And because the Father and the Son are one (John 1:1 & chapter 14), when we love Jesus, we love Father and as we will see, love is the basis of realignment.

In the Jewish temple of Jesus' time, as it is called "Herod's temple" was broken down into four basic parts, five if you count the area outside the temple.  Upon first entering one came into the "Women's" courtyard.  He would then pass through a gate entering the "Priest's" courtyard where they offered the sacrifices up to the Lord and in Priest's courtyard stood the "Holy Place".  The Holy Place housed the sanctuary and the "Holy of Holies".  The sanctuary is where they offered up incense to the Lord and stored all the paraphernalia used in the worship services, clothing, etc.  The Holy of Holies was God's room, in the Holy Place, separated from the sanctuary by a curtain, or a veil, and into which only the high priest could enter once a year to make an offering for the people's sin.  When Jesus died on the cross this veil was torn from the top to the bottom (Matt. 27:50-51) giving each man (and woman) access to the Holy of Holies through Jesus Christ.  As Jesus is our high priest, let us therefore come boldly before God's Throne (Hebrews 4:14-16).

And now, we're going to talk a little more about how we can come back into "Heavenly alignment" with our Father through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

We must accept the fact that God exists (Hebrews 11:6) and that He desires that all men be saved and come into the knowledge  of truth, or should I say into fellowship with Him (1 Timothy 2:3-4), or we have nowhere to start.

Father reminded me of the story of the man with the swept and garnished house out whom a devil had been cast (Luke 11:24-26).  The unclean spirit wanders about looking for a place to rest and when he can find one he goes back to the man out of whom he had been cast.  Finding the house (man) clean, neat and tidy, the devil brings seven more spirits with him and moves back in making the man's new condition worse than before.  In other words, if we have a devil (habit or practice) cast out of our lives and even though we're looking pretty good we are susceptible to more problems unless we fill that cleaned out, empty hole with something else.  The best way is to fill that open space with the knowledge of God and His love so we can live in accordance to His will.  This in turn gives us the strength to resist and protects us against further assaults of the evil one.

To get the ball rolling, we need to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness (Matthew 6:33) and that will bring us to the first step in our journey - realizing that God is the answer to all things.

Of course, that first step is to let Jesus into our hearts (Romans 10:9).  If we haven't let the Lord Jesus into our lives, it will be most difficult to get back into alignment when we have no clue what we're trying to align with o how to do it.  To do this, we pray a 'sinner's prayer' where we acknowlede that Jesus is the Messiah, He died on the cross to cleanse (redeem) us from our sin nature and sins.  Through His blood he 'buys' us back from sin bondage and brings us into the freedom of God's kingdom so we repent of those sins, inviting Jesus into our lives.  We determine not to go back into those sinful actions and dedicate our lives to Christ Jesus (Romans 10:9).

Then we seek Him with all our  hearts (Matthew 22:36-40).   We must decide that God is first and foremost in our hearts and our thinking, that everything revolves around His love which is what we should now be endeavoring to learn exactly what that is and how to apply it to our lives (John 15:1-15).

As we learn and apply God's love into our lives, we discover that this is bringing us into a closer relationship with Him.  We need to renew our minds daily (Romans 12:2)  by studying to show ourselves approved (2 Timothy 2:15) and that we aren't ignorant of the ways of our Lord.  Jesus said "I am the living bread ... the bread I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. (John 6:51)".  And Jesus in the flesh is the word of God (John 1:1 & 14) and the written word (the bible) is our account of the living Word.

It is not enough to 'just' hear the Word of God because our pastor or an evangelist comes in and preaches a good word, but we have to know the bible for ourselves (2 Timothy 2:15) and be as King David who kept God's word in his heart (Proverbs 4:20-21).  We have to 'read' as well as hear.

People will know that we are moving back into alignment with the Father because we are striving to become one with Him through Jesus (John 15:1-10), that is we come to realize that Jesus is the vine and we are His branches (extensions of His love) and we show this by living in that same love because we have grown to understand what it actually is (John chapters 14, 15 & 16).  Chapters 14, 15, 16 & 17 of the Gospel of John go into great detail of how we ought to 'hide' our lives in Jesus Christ so we can become 'one' with Him (and the Father), which brings us back into the heavenly alignment Father has intended for our lives.

We need to know the Word for ourselves so we can apply it into our own lives. Learning and knowing the Word begins with the individual, then grows into the family and then beyond. Imagine what it would be like if the whole world truly lived for Jesus.

A slack line means the circles move higher or lower than the center line.  The Father and the Son are at the ends of that string of circles (at the beginning of this week's entry),  bringing the line taut so that all the circles are brought into perfect alignment.  After all, broad is the way to destruction while straight is the gate and narrow the way that leads to life (Matthew 7:13-14).

Choose 'LIFE' as in 'living' for and through Jesus.

Amen

6-10-2016   The Master Builder Part IV

 

  

  

 Sixth, he adds ‘finishing’ touches, paint, trim, etc.  Things that help the house look nice

            God adds the finishing touches to His creation (including man) (Gen. 1:24-31)

And God said “Let the earth bring forth the living creature after its kind, cattle, creeping things, beasts of the earth, each after its own kind.  And it was so.  God made the beast of the earth after his kind, the cattle after their kind, everything that creeps upon the earth after its kind and God saw that it was good.  And God said “Le us make man in our image and our likeness and let him have dominion over the fish of the sea, the fowl of the air and over the cattle and over all the earth and every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”

So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him and He created male and female.  And God blessed them and said to them “Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth, subdue it for I have given you dominion over the fish of the sea, the fowl of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.”  And God said “Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth and every tree which bears fruit with its own seed and it shall be meat for you.  And to every beast of the earth and fowl of the air and everything which creeps upon the earth in which there is life, I have given every green herb for meat.  And it was so.  And God saw everything that He had made and saw that it was very good.  And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. 

God adds the finished touches to His creation.  He created all the animals and determined what they should look like and how they should act and finally He created man.  All the finishing touches that would make His ‘house’ look how He wanted and function how He desired is complete.  His ‘coup de tat’, of course, was man, whom He made in His image.  The word used for ‘image here’ is the Hebrew word ‘tselem which means phantom, resemblance or a representative figure ‘of’.  Man is God’s representative here on earth and is a reflection, or should be, of who God is and that’s why He gave man dominion over the earth.  God’s house, the planet earth, is complete, even with someone to take care of it, man. 

Now don’t confuse house with temple.  Believers in Jesus, as in the New Covenant church, are God’s temple here on earth because the Holy Ghosts dwells within us.  The Greek word used for temple is ‘naos’ which means temple or shrine but its root word is ‘naio’ which means to dwell.  God came down go visit Adam and Eve on planet earth, but He did not dwell here on planet earth.  He came down and visited with man.  After Jesus’ ascension, through the Holy Ghost Father comes down, not to just visit with us, but to live within us, His temple here on planet earth.  Consider that when God gave Moses the Ten Commandments upon Mt. Sinai, Moses was up on the mount speaking with God but the people were at the foot hearing thunderings and the sound of trumpets and saw lightnings and smoke upon the mountain.  God spoke to the people, even Moses from outside our body. Today He speaks to us from our hearts because the Holy Ghost dwells within us.

Okay, at this point, everything is now in place in God’s house and ready for use.  Everything is ready for Him to enjoy.  Ready, even though what man is yet to do (disobey).

At this stage, a man finishes the interior walls and trim.  He does what he desires to make the outside of the house look nice, grass, trees, shrubs and flowers, etc.  He brings in his furniture, appliances, puts pictures and other wall décor on the walls to satisfy his likes. His house is now habitable on the inside and looks nice on the outside, too.  His house is now finished and ready to move in.  He has what he wants so he does – moves in and kicks his heels up.

I have found that my life has been a little more involved.  I find that I grow from infancy, through childhood, my teen years and into ‘adulthood’.  Physically, in adulthood, my house (my body) is complete but I still have to consider upkeep and maintenance.  As I desire, to keep my body working right I might add exercise to my regimen, running, lifting weight, swimming, whatever, taking vitamins and eating right.  I might read to exercise my mind and learn new skills that will help me earn a livable income.  My body is mature (adult) and should be capable of doing that which I require.  I’m ready to push on through life.     

I find that I have another house to build now, my spiritual house or my relationship with God, the Father.  I’ve given my heart to Jesus, I’ve received some ‘basic’ training, Father has honed out some rough edges and (initially) it would seem that things are in place for me to sit back and enjoy my relationship with God because my ‘salvation’ is secure.  BUT, spiritually I’m just an infant.  Even though I may know God’s law (the Ten Commandments) I now need to learn how to apply them to my life and grow so I can live a reasonable life in service to my God, abiding in His love – and exactly what that really means (but that’s another lesson – a life-long lesson).

So, just as a man, with his family growing, may want to make a new addition to his house, I find that as I grow spiritually, Father wants me to grow and expand my horizons.  I find Him making spiritual additions to my life as He sheds some things from my life and/or shows me new areas in which He wants me to venture.  New additions to my house which means learning some new things, doing things in a new way in my life.  Laying more foundation to my existing one and building thereon.  But then, that’s why the seventh day has no end. 

Seventh, he sits back and enjoys the fruits of his labor

            God enjoyed His creation (Gen. 2:1-3)

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished and the host of them.  And on the seventh day, God ended His work which He had made and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made.  And He blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because in that day He had rested from all His work which God created and made.

Father got to enjoy His new creation for a season.  He gave man authority to take care of His creation.  He would take walks in the garden in the cool of the day with Adam and Eve and fellowship with them.  Heaven on earth?  For a season. 

But, when Satan approached, Eve was deceived and Adam made a willful choice to follow suit and the relationship the Father was broken.  And as they say, the rest of the story (the bible) is Father’s attempts to bring man back into His fellowship. 

A man can relax and enjoy his house just doing maintenance and upkeep for a season.  Then the man decides to add a game room (or something) to his house or they have more children than bedrooms.  He has to build a new addition to his house which means laying an extended foundation (for new additions) and building some more onto that new, extended foundation.  Growth means work.

I find that I can enjoy my ‘salvation experience’ for a season, then we (Father and I) start building again.  He starts showing me more things that He wants me to know and that means expanding my foundation with new learning.  It means that I can’t just sit back, kick up my heels and sip tea all afternoon.  These growing experiences are good and rewarding but it also means I have to do more work.  My house isn’t really ‘finished’ it isn’t really complete. 

I find myself realizing what the bible says by “the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2).  I discover the reality of perfecting of the saints, edifying the body of Christ, coming into the unity of faith, coming into the knowledge of the Son, coming into a perfect man as measured by the qualities of Jesus Christ so we are not tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine (Ephesians 4:12-14) and what that involves.

My Conclusion 

As Father has given me this example for my understanding of how His creation correlates to a man building his ‘home’ and our spiritual establishment and growth in Jesus Christ I pass this on to you in the hopes that those of you who may have been wrestling with some of the same things that I have might have come to a better understanding of our relationship with our heavenly Father.  And be mindful, there’s much more than can be written about these areas of life, but I didn’t want to go into a lot of detail.  Just enough to give you something to think about.

Father had to decide, or create a place, where to build His house by establishing light and darkness in an empty space. 

He cleared the ‘land’ by separating the ‘waters’ (nothingness) with firmament setting the dimensions for outer space, atmosphere and water.  In other words He cleared or prepared the land upon which He could build. 

He brought dryland forth and established parameters by which His creation would operate and abide thus creating a foundation for his house. 

He established roles for His creation thus putting up a ‘structure’ in which His creation could exist.  Father creates purpose (how it should function) for the things in His creation, the job of each part of creation. 

He then brings in everything that the house will need to function properly, supplying all needs and making it look ‘good’.

He then adds the final trim with the final touch being man to take care of His creation, His house.

After all this, He ‘kicks back’ and catches His breath to enjoy His creation/house.  But as we know,  a man’s (nor God’s) work is never done for it wasn’t long before the man He created got off track and our Father had to establish the format in which to bring man back into alignment.

The man has to decide where he wants to build so he finds the plot that suits his fancy.  Then he clears the land, and that means removing the trees, shrubs rocks and so forth that aren’t desired so the land is clear and free to build upon.  Then he lays foundation so his house will set on solid ground.  He begins to build the frame, walls, roof, flooring, etc. so his house will have the shape and look he wants.  Then he adds the finishing touches so his house will look good and be comfortable by painting his house with colors he likes, the appropriate ‘trim and making sure his yard looks the way he wants.  Then He moves in and catches his breath enjoying that lounge chair in the back yard or the recliner in the living room sipping iced tea (or whatever).  He relaxes, that is until he decides to make some changes or additions to his house.

I find that in My life I gave my heart to Jesus, then I discovered that I needed to acquire a better understanding of the rules and regulations by which I should live.   God’s guidelines.  Even though I was saved, I still had excess baggage to unload (yield to Father via Jesus as the Holy Ghost prompted).  I had to start learning what my relationship with Father really meant and to start developing a relationship with those around me. After all, what we do the least in the kingdom of God, we do to Jesus (Matt. 25:40).  New experiences mean new growth and a fuller understanding of my relationship with Father.  I found my thinking being rearranged and discovered I might have to do things a little differently than what I’ve grown accustomed to in order to have a closer walk with Father.  I’ve had to learn new skills so that I could expand my ‘house’.  And even today, though I’ve learned a lot, I realize I still have a long way to go.  I find that if I had a hundred mile journey to travel, I feel that I’ve only travelled twenty or so miles (if I’m lucky) and I thought I was taking giant steps in so doing.  BUT as I look back I discover that I’ve only been taking itty bitty baby steps as I’ve travelled along.  But Father continues to expose me to deeper truths so I can have a closer walk with Him.  And even though I feel like I have done a lot of work with this ole house, I definitely appreciate what Father has already done and even though I can see the goal for which I’m striving, I still have quite a way to go.  But I take courage for I know that as long as I stay focused on my Lord Jesus, He will guide me as the Holy Ghost leads me to the completion of this house.  And this house will be complete when I enter into eternity with my Lord and Savior.