Let’s take a few moments from the story of the vision and talk about some things that I think have been confusing to so many people that I’ve talked with.
Pure religion is: Love, Grace and Mercy. Man within himself is incapable of that. So I use the words religion and religious in a negative way, which it is. I use to have a supervisor in the machine shop where I took my apprenticeship in, that said in a joking manner; “if you can’t make it right, make it look good.” That’s exactly what religion does. The scriptures says; “there is a way that seems right, whose end is destruction.” And; “They have a form of godliness, but deny the Power therein.” Folks, that is us.
Through the century’s, man and his rules, regulations and unwilliness to give up his freedom to have FREEDOM, has created this monster with its’ rites, rituals, doctrines, programs, regulations and uneducated teachings, that were learned in this so-called seminary, which I call cemetery school, and have fed all this foolishness that man must be approved to be acceptable to God. Not only is this a wrong teaching, it’s stupid.
God is not so small that we can put Him in a box and place a steeple on it, or so shallow that He thinks man can get himself out of this mess. He simply just meets us where we are.
As long as man pursues his independence, he has to live under the law. A law he can in no way keep. Paul said; “all things are lawful to me…”, and that he would not be under the bondage of such.
When Jesus, right before he gave up the ghost on the cross said; “it is finished”, what do we think He was saying? That His time was up? NO! He was expressing to us that everything that needed to be done, was done. “He, that knew no sin, became sin.” It doesn’t take a road scholar to see that the sin He took on Himself was your and my sin, and especially mind. He left us sinless in the eyes of God. Yes, I really did mean to say that, He left us sinless. Our shame, nakedness and unworthiness was placed on Him, and He took it to that shameful, unworthy cross naked, in our stead.
So why does man think that he can institutionalize God and His Love? In Christ there is no rules, except to Love, nor earthly rulers, there is just the freedom to give up our freedom to live in His Freedom. That is, we no longer have to live independent from God, but now totally depend on Him, even for the covering of our sin. (Sin simply means; to miss the mark.)
So why all the rules and regulations?
The law and all its’ rules is what man, or better said the institution, uses to keep those under them, under their control. It’s a power thing. It gives them power to judge, making the ones under them to feel inferior, therefore making the preachers, pastors, those in charge feel superior, with their expectations that no one can live up too. Now that television and the news are such a big things, we now see that they themselves can’t live up to the rules either. No one can, so the only reason that they were invented in the first place was to keep us under their control, power and bondage, and to show us that we missed the mark. In revelations eighteen, verse four says to; “come out of her my people…”
Truth is; we all come by this method of religion unaware, that is naturally. The way man has set up his (mans’) church, yes, I meant to say mans’ church, and has been doing this thing and calling it church for so many century’s that we, and our forefathers, at this point does not know anything else. Or do we? It has been fed to us for so long that those institutionalize don’t know of anything different, may be, that I should say that the teachings, doctrines and etc. have been flaunted for so long that many don’t see that they are being trapped in a system and are forbidden to walk away from “it” without persecution. It’s not only a power ‘thing’, it’s a money ‘thing’.
The ‘it’ is a business. Yes, you heard me right, this thing called ‘church’ is a business. With its’ presidents, vice presidents, C.E.O.’s, bouncers, secretaries, followers etc., making commerce with the world, just like any other business, buying and selling their wares to whosoever will come and ‘worship’ with them. Let’s say it again, ‘it’ is a business. No different from any other government program or outlet in the mall. What Jesus was intending when speaking to Peter was not this ‘thing’ that has been set up by man and ruled by him.
The law given to us by Moses was not given to us, that man is expected to live by them, but to show that man cannot live by them in every jot or tittle. Without the law, man would not know that he has missed the mark, (sinned). The Apostle Paul spoke of this often, saying the law is a school master that is to show the division between following the Lord of Host and missing the mark. The law could never ‘save’ a person and was never taught that it could until modern times. The law is unto death, the letter of the law is death. It condemns and separates, but Grace doth more abound. In Romans 6:14, Paul again states; we are not under the law, and in 8:3 says; “for what the law could not do in that it was weak in the flesh, God did by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin in the flesh.”
If mankind has to live under the law, there is no hope, but he doesn’t. Do we then sin (or do things stupid), because we are no longer under the law, God forbid. We are all called to the rest and relationship with the Father through Jesus Christ. The laws and rules and regulations given to us, that is those seeking God, is more than anyone can bare, but the purpose is to keep this hierarchy of big people and little people in order, to stroke the egos of those that think they are in charge. As long as there is a separation between those in the know and the peons, the parishioners, then the bondage that was hoped for is achieved.
This has been going on for so long that most think now that this method is the right and maybe the only way to please God. Nothing could be farther from the truth, religion and its’ ideologies want to further man to their own set of rules of thinking, stroking their inward drive to be as God, the tree of knowledge. This can’t happen, because it legislates out the freedom of a relationship with God. Folks, let me say this one more time; there is nothing we have to do to have the Love of God. We are acceptable where we are, and what we are in Him; His cooperate son, already loved, already accepted, but since centuries of contrary teaching, most now believe that we have to run to the corner building with the steeple, and do what’s commanded of us before God will even hear our first prayer.
Who’s in charge here? Is it man with his manipulations, his separations, his master plans that, if developed makes him feel all fuzzy inside? Are we to tithe our money so they can build a bigger building, or put in a better heat pump, maybe upgrade the pews, buy choir robes, put out a fancier bulletin, pave the parking lot, the list goes on-and-on. NO, not one penny of this money is going towards God or the forwarding of His Kingdom, but most have been manipulated into thinking that we are doing Gods’ work, that we are pleasing to the Father of creation, but instead, we are pleasing the serpent that still lives in that tree of knowledge in our life, with all his seductions.
God, for whatever reason has always placed a lot of preachers around my life, and several years back I asked several of them what their ‘church’ was tithing too. Everyone that I asked didn’t have a clue of what I was talking about. “Well, you ask that people tithe to you, who do you tithe too? What are you giving back to God?” In truth, they were taking up the money, spending it on their own selfish programs, buildings and so forth. And after they paid the exorbitant light bill, there was little left, some even had mortgages. If this ain’t the seduction of the serpent, still in the tree of knowledge, that’s still in the heart of man, I don’t know what is. The peer pressure from one ‘church’ to another is far more than the flesh can resist, therefore they must follow those that take in more money, even to the point of almost going bankrupt. They claim it’s my Fathers’ house, but it appears to be a den of thieves by taking from the poor to feed their own wealthy appetites.
Can you even imagine Jesus wanting to build a building, much less wanting to put stain glass in it? Can you picture Him in an expensive suit, shined shoes, maybe a Rolex watch, and a big ring on his finger, standing on a platform yellin’ and screamin’ that people are going to hell if they don’t do this-or-that? No you can’t and I can’t either. But if we are his representatives, what are we doing about it? I don’t even remember Him washing His hands, much less getting all spruced up.
What time is it?
It’s time to open our eyes, wake up, take notice and see the degree of maneuvering that is being conjured up in the meeting places called ‘church’ to bring in more people therefore bringing in more money, just to help someone feel good about them self for coming up with another program that worked.
What time is it? It’s time to read about babylon and don’t forget to read revelations 18:4.
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Jesus said; unless you come as a child, one cannot enter into the kingdom… In the love of God, we are. In the image of God, we are. And maybe even doing what He has set forth for us to do, in some degree. But, as long as we are under the law, or any part of it, we therefore walk in our own accord, without having that wonderful, restful, peaceful relationship that He wants with us and for us. This is not complicated; we are given the privilege to walk in the Garden with Him without the anxieties that rule the world and those of it. We simply come as a child that needs his Dad, and depend on Him to walk with us, whether it be what the world calls bad times, or what we call good. Forget about all the gimmicks, or should I say rules and regulation that the hierarchy has burdened us with so that we would be pleasing to their selfish motives, and when they go home at night say that they are pleased with the progress their parishioners have made… A child is simply just a child that is dependent on his Dad to scare away the booger-man, bandage his broken or empty heart, to think for us, to listen to Him, to walk with Him hand in hand. It’s not our doing or acting that pleases our Dad, but the being that aligns us with Him. We just walk with Him, not necessarily in perfection, we simply hold His hand and walk.
We are all His children, His sons. Always have been, now, we just put away our ‘man-toys’, that is, our ideologies, our formats, and the silly little themes that have been made up to keep us in line, and quietly follow Him, walking.
A slave is under the bondage of his master, and when set free, he simply becomes free. But a bond-servant is one that was a slave, set free and then chose in his freedom to become a servant of his master. This is the true emancipation that man, (and I’m speaking of mankind), can ever have the privilege to walk in; true freedom. Not the independence that was chosen at the tree of knowledge, but the powerful relationship that has been withheld from us for doing it.
I’m not sure how many choices man really has, but I am sure that choosing to give up our freedom to receive His true Freedom is an act that will seem hard, but there will be no destruction. The Tree of Life, gives Life.
All that we’ve ever known is that there has always been troubles, problems, heart-aches, trauma, and so-forth, and have never been taught that there is real victory. I’m not talking about the short-lived times that things seem to be going right for a change. I’m talking about the; ‘cast your cares upon me, for I care for you’ victory. When in times that we call troubles, we can’t understand why we’re not worried about them, victory. When we see something or someone that would normally disturb us or we would lose patience with, but always comes out right, victory. When one gets so-called cheated or abused and the silk-lining flows though the storm cloud, victory. That unspeakable peace is ours, anytime we’re willing to stop in our tracks, lay down our life, turn around and follow Him, walking.
It’s not, sometimes, easy to walk away from the religious ways and life styles that have been going on for generations, nor is it easy to understand that the theologies that have been taught for so many centuries is mans’ invention to promote himself, but if each individual will study and take a look at the transparency of it, may want to change their mind, and come out of her.
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Maybe this would be a good time to explain a little bit about myself. I see God as the Father of all, not just mine, and I sure don’t think of myself as special. But God did give me several visions and revelations about Himself and a few clues about the mystery of His written word.
I am not a nut case, although there may be a few that would disagree with me about that. I haven’t lost my mind, nor do I belong to some sort of sect that’s way out on a limb in la-la land. I’m just a person who has spent long periods of time alone with me and my Daddy, and through the years I have learned a few things or two from listening. Not sure that I actually learned, but He gave them to me.
Over the decades when one spends time without the television, a lot of company, and gets rid of the traffic of the mind, he can hear, see and learn the inner mysteries hidden in the scripture that those who have their lives filled with noise miss. So I wanted to share some of the workings that’s been going on inside of me. I have, through trial and error in my younger years, continued learning to know the voice of God, and how to separate it from my own thoughts, and I’m convinced, it’s not from the devil, as many would probably say. I said all that to say this; I’m not a nut. No one has to accept anything that I have to say, but I do believe that God has called me as a voice calling from the wilderness, to make straight the way. We have all been duped by the institution of this ‘thing called church’ as being unlearned or maybe even stupid. But it may be that God just might use my voice to plant a seed in whosoever reads this with an open mind.
All I’m asking is for you not to turn this voice off until you have meditated on it for a period of time. I’ll plant the seed, and maybe someone else will cultivate, and another water, but of a truth, only God will give the increase, that we may all grow, (including me), as we rightly divide the word of Truth as God helps us all to expand in His Knowledge and Wisdom.