God’s Movement

Culture and Contrast, Faith, My Story, Spiritual Milk, Travel,

God’s Movement
20071018 6:56am

I believe that God has, for the most part, moved away from the movement that started out with His leading. It was a movement of God before they took on a name other than what Jesus had in mind. But eventually, instead of believing that Jesus was the only name that they should carry (name as in “I come in the name of King Arthur”), they began to believe that ‘they’ were the true church and they took on a couple of different names for “their movement” and right now are often referred to as the Internationally churches of Christ. I believe that God started out with them (as just another chosen instrument) in this age but they quickly became arrogant and believed that they had “the way” and “the message” and started to teach something that did not come ‘from’ Him but instead ‘claimed Him.

Now, in this day and time I believe, though the Lord has many chosen instruments, that the Lord has in a large way moved on to a group of people that you can find at a place called North Point Community church. Here is one of many sermons who can find online which may help you to see the message that God has for believers. There are other message you can find which would be for nonbelievers, but this one is a message for the body of believers that already realize Jesus has given his whole self over so that you might have life. I personally went there for nearly two years but at the moment I am in Columbia SC and then I plan on moving to Manila or Marikina in the Philippines.

And before you a reader jumps to the conclusion that I am arrogant enough to think I am able to choose who is and who is not a part of God’s believers, I would like to emphasize that I don’t believe the North Point Community church is ‘the’ way but rather it is ‘a part’ of ‘the’ way. And if you are a follower of Jesus Christ (because you have been touched by the Grace that comes from His death, burial, and resurrection, then you will find encouragement and many challenges in the Word of God that is being spoken at this place and many other places that the Lord has set up across the globe.

Waiting

You have ungodly intent when you ask the questions that you ask. You ask your questions based on worldly desires of relationship and family. You justify your worldly intent by saying it is God’s will that you or someone else should have a husband or a family or a wife and a family. You quote scripture after scripture showing examples of men and women who were devoted to each other and with self-righteous indignation say “here, here is the proof that shows there is nothing wrong with my desiring a husband, a wife, or a family.” Instead you should not look for what God permits, but instead you should look for what God desires.

A man or a woman of God who looks to please God, who understands what was done on the cross, instead of looking for what they want they have come to understand the love that has been given to them and look no longer to their own wants but instead to the wants of the one who gave His life for us. And therefore they have been taught “to die” to themselves and the wants of the world, yes even the want of a wife, a husband or a family. “God do you desire that I should be married or should I be single?” This is a question that will begin from a man or woman that has been given to God in a holy matrimony to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. “Should I ever marry, I will wait on you Lord!” This is where we should begin, we who have been ‘bought’ with the blood of the Lamb.

Instead you have asked “Where is the one you said was coming back to you?” you ask with ill intent. You don’t look to a hope that has been given by God but instead you look for a hope that is given in this world. God is Spirit! To the contrary your happiness for someone else is based on whether they will acquire their heart’s desire in this world. And when they do not acquire a worldly promise you have in mind then your questions encourage them to be unhappy in that worldly promise not being fulfilled.

Instead, if ‘your’ mind is on heavenly things, you should be asking them questions that will assist their mind and heart in keeping with God’s eternal promises and not on worldly promises. By the questions that you ask you prove that you have little to no concern regarding the eternal promises that have been given by God through the Christ, the Son of God.

Has God provided you with a new job, a livelihood for your family? Is your family well? Is your son well? How is your father? How is your mother? Has the Lord blessed you with a new home, a new car? … These are all questions that are based in worldly concerns. You can find stories in the Old Testament you can compare with regarding physical prosperity but not so much  in the New Testament. You may find promises of lands flowing in milk and honey and camels on a thousand hills in the Old Testament but not the New Testament.

The New testament brought a greater truth, a greater treasure. Now the focus is no longer in a worldly treasure. No more talk about camels on a thousand hills, no longer any talk of physical prosperity, but now all the promises are about a heavenly dwelling. This is really hard for someone who can focus on nothing other than what their hourly wage is, the size of their weekly paycheck, or whether their car will make it to work. However God has taught us not to focus on the physical any more. But those that want to keep worrying about the physical ‘and’ keep their faith in God, well that group mentally run around trying to focus on all the old promises of the old testament. Then they justify their focus on these old promises by saying God does not change. Truly God does not change, He has always been Spirit with the goal always being heavenly (not temporal). It’s ‘we’ that were not yet ready for that spiritual message. Now, as the scripture says, God has revealed a fuller measure of the promise to us. The patriarchs were looking forward to this time in history. And ‘we’ are living in it !

A wicked and perverse generation ‘expects’ even their basic needs to be fulfilled by God. Understand the context of this statement, this is not contrary to the simple meaning in the Lord’s Prayer “give us each day our daily bread”, this is ‘not’ the sentiment I refer to when saying looks for “ even their basic needs”. Notice the true followers in the first century, as you can read about in the New Testament were not concerned with these things. They simply concerned themselves with living in the hope of Christ they were given and they knew all of their other needs would be provided for. They were not excited about God’s physical provision. To the contrary what they were ‘excited’ about was the promise in their heavenly dwelling, they were ‘excited’ that their name was written ‘is’ written in the book of life.

Jesus came to show us this better promise and fulfillment of a spiritual truth and in a spiritual home where physical provision was of little concern. We of faith who follow Christ will draw near to Him and ask questions of our brothers and sisters to keep their/our hearts and minds focused on Him and we already know that those of us who do that will suffer trial’s of many kinds, we might not even have “a place to lay our head” just as our Lord did not have a place to lay his head, but food and clothing we will have enough of. God takes full responsibility for the life that has fully submitted itself to Him. If we have the bare necessities of just food and clothing the cry out “God is Good!”, if God has given more to us ’so’ we can help provide for the needs of others then another opportunity to give God the credit. But don’t mistake physical gifts as being something that is meant for our comfort and pleasure. We are in fact warned regarding how easy it is for us to be distracted by worldly comforts and pleasures.

This is a hard teaching; the mothers and the fathers cry, “You can never understand, I must provide for my family!” This teaching is not new; it is the same teaching that was passed on from Jesus Christ himself. Understand it wasn’t primarily to the wealthy or to the singles that Jesus Christ was saying, “Do not worry about what you will eat or drink or what you should wear.” Jesus was saying this to a large society based on a family culture, to fathers and mothers who have often worried about the hungry mouths to feed. I have written all of these things to remind you to focus on spiritual matters.

So in regard to the question I started this article with, if you ask “When is this man coming back?” are you asking because you have a hope that he will come back or has God spoken to you too and told you that he is coming back? Are you looking for the fulfillment of a promise of God or are you a simple lot of busybodies (2 Thes 3:11) who have no greater concern than to know whether or not some man, some simple human being is going to do as he said he was going to and return to the Philippines because he said he would. Was it a promise that originated from himself? Was it by his own will and desire that he said he would return to the Philippines?

Do you remember that this simple human being always said that he was going to return according to God’s will, and it wasn’t his own desire that he was basing his return on but rather the desire and the plan of an eternal God who has given us a hope in a house not built with human hands. Remember God’s promise was and is not that I should return this month, or next month, or even in one year or the next. His word was simply that He would send me back. And that promise is not for my happiness but rather for his purpose and His happiness. My happiness nor the happiness of any true believer should ever be one founded in whether God is going to fulfill his promise of a worldly objective. Instead rejoice that your name is written in the book of life! (Luk 10:19-21). I am given courage to keep my hope in Him as I write these words. I pray you too will be given courage to keep your hope in Him and not in the day and the time of my return.

How many scriptures come to mind when you think of God’s timing? How many times is God’s timing measure in days? how often is it measured in weeks, how often is it measured in years? How often is God’s timing subject to our desires or what we do to “make it happen” and who are we to question his timing. Remember the words of the song “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus Christ and His righteousness.”

It Only Cost me a Dollar

** 20070322, Thursday 9:31am **

Well, just for the sake of remembering something I considered important, I wanted to write down what happened to me about an hour ago. I had this idea to get a taste of coffee before I went into the public library about an hour ago. So I first went inside the library and asked if they allowed spill proof cups. Well the woman at the front desk said no food or drink. However I still had the desire to go over to the gas station and refill my coffee mug.

On my way there (just 1/2 a block), there was a guy on the other side of the moderately busy four lane road. He looked my way as I looked his way, so I said “Good morning, how are you?”. He responded that he was fine but paused for a second after he had said so to add “I could use eighty cents.”. I thought about it for a moment, just long enough for me to remember the scripture that spoke of providing for those that would ask.

In the past I would have paused even longer, and struggled with the thought that most people asking for money are only going to use it to get something for themselves that they don’t need to be having. But I was determined to fight that part of me that would be so quick to hold back and so quick to make that judgement. And as I sorted through my waist bag looking for what change I had, I saw that I only had quarters and so I had to make the decision to give him seventy five cents or to give him a dollar.

Again I was tempted with that old line of thought of how most people asking for money are just going to use it to get something that they shouldn’t be getting any how. But instead I decided to hold on to the thought that Jesus would want me to give to those that ask of me. “You can’t just give to people that ask from you, especially people on the streets.” I hear the judgemental voices of others say. “It’s not being judgemental.” I hear “It’s simply being wise.” I hear the old voices say. I’ve heard the voice of the Lord (what Jesus taught) enough times now to know that the latter voices are definetely ‘not’ according to how Jesus lived and taught by example. And the voice of the Lord would have me ‘give’ according to the Spirit. To ‘obey’ and leave the consequences to HIM. So I obeyed, and though I was tempted also to only give seventy five cents, I decided to give the full dollar to the guy.

Although my normal way of going about this would have been to ask him what he was going to use the money for ‘before’ I handed it to him, I decided that I would lean on the side of trusting God and give that subtle little extra effort of trust which had me hand the dollar over to the man and then ask him only with casual interest “So what are you going to use it for?”.”I need it to buy some cigarettes.” The man replied. And I started to walk off in an effort to stay away from the temptation to second guess my decision to freely give to the man. “My mother always told me a child of God doesn’t have to say anythng.” He said. “Well I hope so.” I replied, still walking away from him. Though I stopped walking away from him as he repeated himself to give emphasis to what he said. “My mother always told me that you could see it on a child of God and a child of God never had to say anything.”. “Well I wish that were always true.” I said. “I think that it’s sometimes true but not always.”.

During the next few minutes I was grateful for the opportunity I had been given to share a few things that God had done in my life. I started off somewhat reluctantly because I know that I’ve been a little over zealous over the last few months for the opportunity to share what I think God has done with me. Somehow thinking that the act itself of sharing my faith would “make me holy”. So I’ve been trying to keep my mouth shut a little more often these days. I want God to do something in me instead of me trying to do something in myself.

I found out the man’s name was Larry. He was very down about the way that life was going for him and didn’t think that I would be able to relate. I told him how I wished that I could snap my fingers and give everybody an understanding that the Lord had given me of how life wasn’t so bad, and how actually life was good. He said “Oh,” with an expression and a certain way which you knew he thought he was getting ready to say something I wouldn’t be able to dispute.And he continued “well what do you think about someone who is sleeping in their car?”.

He didn’t expect my response. “I’ve done that..” I said. “And I’ve done it more than once; even recently.”. I could tell by his expression that he wasn’t expecting the words that were coming from me. And so he knew that I wasn’t just saying something contrary to him I went into detail about how I had slept outside a little when I was seventeen years old (maybe eighteen) and I was homeless for about a month. And how I had laid my head down in a college library during the day time and stayed awake at night. And how even recently, a few months ago, I had had to sleep inside the car because of a situation I had been in. I didn’t have the chance, because of the way the conversation went, to share with him how I had to do this because the situation had to do with my mother and something I had to do to help my mother get out of a difficult situation that she (in many ways) had put herself into. And, in some ways I didn’t want to share that detail with him because I wanted him to know that I ‘could’ relate even though my details were a little bit different. However in regard to doing this for my mother I suppose she would never see things that way, but that’s another story.

I was very grateful for this opportunity the Lord gave me to know that He is there and He is always watching. Sure, I could look with blind eyes and say that any number of people could have said what this guy said without being prompted. Or I could try to explain away Larry’s observation that I was a “child of God” some other way. But I believe that it was from God and for God and all about God, and I really appreciated it. And Larry appreciated it alot as well. He said so as we had a few last words and then hugged each other in parting. I think that this interaction did a little more for me than it did for Larry, though I might be biased. It did both of us a lot of Good. And this whole encounter only cost me a dollar.

Bonvoyage Atlanta

Greetings to all of my friends in Atlanta, it looks like it might be bon-voyage for a while. It might be weeks, months, or even years before we see each other again (I’m just rolling with it). A couple of things have opened up over the last week, and I’ll be heading out of town the Friday after next. Simple prayers, I think to myself, “simple prayers”. This past month has been quite a learning experience.

It seems to be God’s signature, to often wait until the last minute :-) So I smile, often with my eyes a little watery , because it’s so tough at times watching things unroll before me. And then, and then, right at the last minute, just when I’m tempted to question if God is going to provide for me this time or not –> boom, there he shows up again. There are some challenges that I’ve gone through that I haven’t gotten around to sharing with all of my friends. Some of you I simply haven’t been able to spend time with.

However, on the “opening up” side, just last week my mother was able to get a trailer rolled onto my sister’s property which means that there is more room there now. Not only that but, suggestive of the last minute thing, the trailer almost didn’t happen because the eleventh was the last day of a permit for it and several things kept getting hung up.

It seems to be just the right time though. I have enough money left that I can help my mom pay off the trailer, and I have the talents and the tools to do the minor electrical and carpentry work that needs to be done. I was also happy about the trailer getting there because as many of my friends know I’ve been wanting to spend a few months with the family there (especially the nephews) before I fly out to the Philippines permanente’.

Drop me a line if you want. You can reach me at one of my gmail addresses. If you don’t have one of those I suppose the “gottlists” one is as good as any. In other words that name to the left in quotes, plus “@gmail.com”. Pardon my not putting all of that together. I have to avoid the “bots” that are crawling around on the Internet :-)

So everything is coming together ‘just’ at the right time. I leave you with this; think of what God wants before you think of your own goals. And I look forward to seeing you again.

Short Version of My Day 053106

I just got connected to the Internet about five minutes ago. Wanted to send a text to Malu but hasn't been able to connect to chikka yet. She doesn't have an Internet connection today so email isn't an option to get in touch with her today. I don't know what's wrong with chikka. I've had problems with it ever since I've come back from the Philippines.Up until a little after 9pm I had been at an Internet cafe all day long. Most of the day I researched firefox extensions that would make firefox be the "everything application". … I don't have much steam at the moment to write about technology stuff. I've already done so much of that today already.

Had a couple of interesting conversations today. I stopped by a yard sale spoke with an older woman and her daughter. Except for three years that she had moved a few streets down, the woman had lived on the same street here in Georgia her entire life. That's not something I run into very often. It made me smile just to hear her say that and to breeze over a few topics about her life.

Also had a conversation with one of the workers at E2 coffeehouse. I told him about my trip to the Philippines. He asked me how that was. So I shared a few stories about the street kids, the poverty, and the importance to not allowing ourselves to become callused to even the slightest bit of need that we see around ourselves here in the U.S. And sadly I also ran into another woman at E2's whose sister had given birth to a still born baby just a couple of days ago. We had a good conversation as well, considering the topic.

There is always so much going on in the lives of so many people. And I believe just like many do that there is 'one' who knows what each and every one of us is going through at any given moment. And that one knows each thought and choice that are there for us to make. It's good to know that everything that happens to us in our lives is meant to strengthen and teach those of us that believe in something more than just the pale curtain of reality that surrounds us. Yep, I really do believe that we are living in a Matrix of sorts.