Category Archives: Christian

Evidence Removes the Shame of the World

Jesus came to reveal God and reconcile our relationship with God our Father. Sin causes us to fear and be shamed towards our heavenly Father. From the day that Adam and Eve sinned men and women have been hiding from God. Our father asked “who told you, that you were naked?” Even today some 6,000 years since the first couple walk out of the garden mankind hides in fear and shame.

Jesus through His life, ministry, death and resurrection is evidence that we do not have to hide from the presence of God. When we analyze this evidence of Jesus we can understand that everything we believe that separates from God has been removed. In other words we have been made children and citizens of God’s Kingdom and that Kingdom is inside of us.

Hebrews 12:1-3 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

2 Corinthians 4:1-2 Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart. But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.

Romans 10:10-12 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 11 For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him.

Jesus was sent by God and we are sent by Him to help people understand that God has removed their shame. Feeling separated from God is something that should no longer be in the hearts of any human. The primary effect of any evidence presented by children of God should be establishing the fact that our shame has been removed. Revealing our Father’s Presence and the fact that His love is constantly reaching out us should be our primary focus of the evidence we present.

We children of the Kingdom of God have been given understanding and now have the responsibility to help others to see and grasp this truth. Forgiveness is available to every person and the tool of repentance can be used by people that believe God will forgive them. There will always be those reject spiritual truth and believe the deception of the material world. Also there are those in our own religious community that choose to use fear and concentrate on sin as the focus of a relationship with God our Father.

Being a child of God and becoming a disciple of Christ is a very real status for all of mankind. If you are open God is willing to reveal insight into His thoughts towards you. Regardless of your current belief of His love for you God remains faithful and steadfast. We who call Christians have the privileged and authority to help any person we meet to become Disciples of Christ and children of God. Spiritual evidence from God’s super-natural realm such as healing the sick, cleansing the leper and raising the dead is what we present. For us that believe that Gods love trumps all we honor Him with our presentation of evidence.

We have been created as the only part of creation that can span both the spiritual and the natural realm. We are gate-ways and door -ways between the two. So I encourage you to open up and reveal to others the truth of the Kingdom within.

Psalm 24: 1-2, 7 The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness,
The world and those who dwell therein.
For He has founded it upon the seas,
And established it upon the waters.

Lift up your heads, O you gates!
And be lifted up, you everlasting doors!
And the King of glory shall come in.

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Personal Evidence

Even though we encourage one another to present evidence to others we ourselves are in need of evidence. In order for us to establish the fact or reality of God’s Kingdom we also need spiritual evidence. While the act of presenting evidence to others is itself evidence we still need to have our commitment and connection to this invisible realm become stronger.

 Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

 Job 23: 14 For He performs what is appointed for me, And many such things are with Him.

 Psalm 138:8 The Lord will perfect that which concerns me; Your mercy, O Lord, endures forever; Do not forsake the works of Your hands.

 Our connection with God and His Kingdom is a function of the work that Jesus did and this connection is now displayed by the work of God’s own Holy Spirit which dwells inside of us. This present day work is invisible to the eyes of those not awaken to this spiritual world. It is also invisible our natural eyes and therefore we must continue to use our spiritual eyes to see the spiritual Kingdom in action.

 The circumstances of this world should cause us to turn to the Kingdom of God to get solutions and resources for the needs presented to us. God has designed this world so that it constantly demands more than we can physically produce in order that we might rely on the Spirit within. A lot of people work diligently to meet all of their physical needs but the world will keep evolving and presenting greater demands, and trying to escape these demands is missing the point of our being.

 This is where faith comes in. It is a personal exercise of our trust in God. Scripture indicates that we can grow tired in well doing and our desires to live in ease presents a loud voice that calls us away from leaning and trusting in God. In this information age we are constantly made aware of the needs around the world. Sometimes the cry is so loud and the demand is so relentless we want to hide.

 Matthew 6:31-33 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

 Everyday a greater level of faith is required than yesterday. Everyday more evidence is needed to cause us to believe that our reliance on the invisible spiritual Person of God will be there to meet the challenges. This is why we present evidence for our personal lives. By daily exercising faith in God we are establishing the fact that He will never forsake us, that he will perform that which is presented to us. Our response these everyday request is simply one of faith.

 We cannot allow the demands of the world to choke out our faith.

 When the Stock market crashed in 2008 (777 points) what was our reaction. Where was our faith at that moment? Was it in our retirement accounts, jobs, homes, business, America’s health care system or was it in the very Person of the God that dwells within each of us. More importantly where is our faith today and where will it be tomorrow? How many believers lost or our losing their faith during this crisis? How many people returned to seeing with their material eyes and abandon the use of their spiritual eyes. Has faith been reduced to superstition so that our personal relationship has faded from being with Him to being about Him?

 We see an example of how we can react to these everyday situations when we observe Jesus at a wedding that runs out of wine, when He was with a large group that needed to be fed and when He faced a natural storm at sea. In all these circumstance Jesus remained focused on His spiritual connection to Father. It is the action of faith that opens up possibilities and allows the Holy Spirit to produce evidence which we get to present to ourselves and others.

 Another area we must be mindful of is that God is infinite and He has resources that we cannot comprehend.  If we view the resources of the world as finite using our material eyes then we only see limited resources in a world that has a demand that is forever increasing. Therefore in our material thinking we plan and work to get our share resources and only after our share and that of family is secure do we think about generosity. But even that material generosity has a limit and it must not make our material security insecure.

So if we see someone getting resources that we perceive could be ours we may become jealous. Even some of the motives of the religious tend to pick winners and looser as a determinant of who should partake in God’s blessings. The scripture below is from the end of the prodigal son story and it depicts this. After the youngest son took His inheritance the oldest son reasoned that all remaining stuff was his. When the youngest son returned the older son that stayed behind became angry.  Can you guess at some of them?

Luke 15:28-32 “But he was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him. 29 So he answered and said to his father, ‘Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might make merry with my friends. 30 But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him.’ 31 “And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours. 32 It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found.’”

We like that older son must renew our mind with one thought. “Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours.” The reason our faith must grow is because the demands on us is ever growing. If we allow the fear of greater demands or jealousy over material stuff then the wind has blown and the flood water have risen and the relationship we have built is not on a true foundation and our faith can be swept away.

When we become awaken to the Personal Presence of God we enter His Kingdom. More importantly He enters our personal Kingdom and the two become one. Our material consciousness must become spiritual if we are to avail ourselves of spiritual resources. Faith is the evidence which gives us this access to the unseen realm.

Matthew 6:24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

1 Timothy 6:10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

We are designed in the image of God with the purpose to love Him, others and ourselves. Can we see and comprehend this truth? As with John the Baptist who baptized Jesus, heard Gods voice and told his disciples to follow Jesus acted in faith. But when his circumstance changed and he found himself in jail he sent two disciples to Jesus to ask if He was the one.

Our faith is the evidence of our relationship with the Father’s Holy Spirit but it must be renewed daily. We are human and a long distance relationship only last so long. This is not God’s fault. He recognized that man could not live alone. So He placed Himself in the very midst of us and now the two of us have become one. We are new creatures possessing divine nature. We are more than a mere image we are animated with the very Presence of God. 

As His Presence overflows the boundary of our physical body, the Kingdom is manifest that others may understand the evidence as to freely enjoy the fruit (God Himself) of the Kingdom and like us become responsible citizens of God’s Kingdom.

2 Peter 1:2-4 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

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Righteous Relativism

In this post I am going to stray from my normal look at evidence as a metaphor. The goal of this posting will remain the same in that I hope to encourage us to present spiritual evidence of God’s Kingdom. So today I want to discuss Legal Relativism or Righteous Relativism.

1 Corinthians 13:12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.

 As a person who is spiritually aware I believe in the absolute of right and a wrong and the understanding that there is truth and untruth. But I also know that my understanding of these at any moment is a function of my perception. I also believe there are three basic relationships, one with God, one with others, and the one with our self. For this discussion of relativism I am comparing our relationships to truth.

 John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

 There is a personal momentum that relates to our transformational journey. We all find ourselves  in place that is relative to truth. As we begin to explore the world around us we move toward what we believe is truth and away from dysfunction and untruths. Then we begin to gravitate in our relative orbits around God and truth and we say to ourselves and others I can live here. This is our lifestyle, which is a summation of choices that we have made and this places us in a relative position never static because we continue to make choice throughout our life.

 As we discover a clearer picture of truth we can choose to move toward it and as we discover that the traditions we have embraced are not as pure in truth as we once thought we willingly refine our lifestyle and thereby move our position relative to the truth we discover. So from a material or a spiritual point of view the question remains what is truth and are we willing to change our lifestyle to move forward on our journey of transformation? As Christians we believe Jesus is the Master copy of perfect human lifestyle, is in perfect relationship to God, others and Himself.

 2 Corinthians 10:12 For we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves. But they, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.

 If our spiritual journey is toward truth and God (children of light seek light) there are several ways to determine if we are making progress in a direction toward truth. One way is by judging our relative position using others as relative markers so we can determine if we making forward momentum. But if we judge our movement using others that moving away from truth our movement is relative to those and not relative truth and God’s Kingdom.

 Some religion’s tend to rely on this form of relativism to justify stagnate growth and a refusal to allow their personal lifestyles to become transformed. So during the weekly meetings instead of seeking truth they tend to point out the faults in other religions, other sexual lifestyles, or the effects of holding different political positions. While these other groups may be wrong in their choices this approach only proves that they are not moving in their direction it does not prove they are moving toward truth. 

2 Corinthians 3:18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Romans 12:2-3 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.

 The best way to determine our relativistic movement is to focus on the source of God and truth and not the movement of others.  In the material world science has determined that as we approach a light source the light will appear blue and as we move away it will appear red. This is called the red and blue shift effect. This is the best way to gage our spiritual journey and this will reduce the false readings we get by observing others.

 Spiritual evidence tends to reinforce our focus on the spiritual source of God’s Kingdom. Transformation into the likeness of Jesus carries with it the purpose and responsibility of revealing God the source of all truth. Jesus was sent and we have become His agents, forgiving sin, healing the sick and waking the dead. All of these are results of spiritual evidence but they are themselves also spiritual evidence.

 It is my hope that we to speak the truth in love in order to encourage others to move towards God and His Kingdom. It is easy to point the finger at the Muslim, the homosexual, and the illegal immigrant. Seeing and judging them may prove that our relative position is closer to God as compared to their position. However, unless we are willing to love, forgive and establish an atmosphere of reconciliation for them, our relative position to God will also be moving in a direction that is anti to Christ and His purpose. God so loved this world that He sent Christ who has given us His authority to carry out the purpose of the one who sent Him. So let us walk in the light of God’s truth and enjoy our position of right standing with God our heavenly Father.

 Mark 6:4 But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own country, among his own relatives, and in his own house.”

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