CONFESSIONS OF A RELUCTANT SHEPHERD

This post was originally posted on another blog site.  "Such_were_you", was the name of that blog.  It is now shut down and cannot be accessed.  I started a new blog on this other blogging site, but with a completely different name and approach.  Sorry for the confusion this post will create.  I'm too lazy to rewrite it to fit Blogger...

 

The Greatest Problem With American Christianity:

Christians Don't Truly Believe Jesus

What's wrong with this picture?

EVERYTHING!

"But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves."

James 1:22

BIGGEST CONFESSION YET:

Would you like to know what frustrates and enrages me most about Christians?  Would you like to know why I was so harsh and downright mean toward Christians in so many of my "Such_were_you" blogs? 

Every time I got comments like, "Wow, Lonnie you sure have great insights,"  and/or "Wow, Lonnie your testimony of life in homosexuality and new life in Christ is powerful!"  Those comments and comments like them used to really piss me off!   BUT the kind of comment that sent me through the roof, and into a hot as hell rage was, "Could I send someone who is gay or struggling with same-sex attraction to your site, or may I email a copy of this post to a gay person I know."   Another common comment which sent me over the edge was: When I'd finally get fed up with Christian or so called "struggling" [with same-sex attraction] Christians, and shut down one of my sites, someone would say something like, "Would you leave your site up, so we can use it as a resource."   I used your names in vain, like you can't imagine!  I would not be surprised if some of your ears burned for a couple of days.

Why so angry???  I don't need anyone patting me on the back, or informing me how good my insights are.  I know the insights are good, they come right from God.  I obeyed the teachings of Christ, and every single spiritual insight I have comes directly from believing what God says, and obeying his teachings.  DUH?!?! 

Jesus said, "Do what I teach, obedience makes you my true follower, as you walk with me obediently you will get to know me better and better, and knowing me (the truth) sets you free." 

(The Bad Penny paraphrase of John 8:31-32).

I know exactly what I'm talking about because I did what God told me to do, and that is all there is to it.  If any of you had really believed I knew what I was talking about you'd have done the things I told you to do in my blogs.  I don't need anyone of you to know I know what I'm talking about.  I NEED ALL OF YOU TO KNOW WHAT JESUS TAUGHT ME!  The only way for you to know what Jesus taught me is DO WHAT I TOLD YOU TO DO.  See if you had obeyed what I told you to do you would have run right into Christ.  And there are a several things you would learn for yourself  1) If you'd done what I said you'd have learned it really came from the Holy Spirit and not me.  2) You'd have learned that Christ is the only source of wisdom you needed, and all I told you to do was merely a stepping stone.  3) You'd have been able to really and truly trust me, because you would know, beyond any doubt, what I said came from the Holy Spirit and NOT by applying my own intellect.  4) The Holy Spirit would teach you things he never taught me, and you could have come back and taught me what God showed you. 

The greatest truth God would have taught you is:  The greatest problem of the Church is that it has the same exact problem LGBT people, porn loving people, shacking up people, cheating on their spouses people, pedophile people, and the rest.  The greatest problem of the church in America especially is you are relationally broken people; The American church has the same "plank" in our eye.  This is why the Church cannot understand or reach sexually broken people like LGBT people or Christians who struggle with same-sex attraction...God's cure for the problem of sexual immorality is RELATIONSHIP!  Why is it that no one seems to know that?  Why is it the Church condemns, accepts, or does nothing with sexually broken people???  We cannot see because we are blinded to our own broken relationship with God.  If you've ever met someone with your own character flaws you will dislike, avoid, criticize mercilessly, and/or excuse them altogether.  This is the truth I was never able to tell any of you, but I so wanted to bring out into the open.  Why didn't I just come clean?   The truth is something you have to learn through obedience, in the same way God taught me.  I am not God, I don't make the rules.  I'll say it again...WHAT DOES JESUS SAY???   WHAT DOES JESUS TEACH???

"Then Jesus turned to the Jews who had claimed to believe in him. "If you stick with this, 1) living out what I tell you, 2) you are my disciples for sure.  3) Then you will experience for yourselves the truth, and the truth will free you."

John 8:31-32

[Numbers and bold print are my additions]

The church in America can't help herself, because we've taken away obedience to Jesus Christ.  Without obedience there is no relationship with God.  Don't take my word for it, it's only been in the Bible for thousands of years!! Until Christians get out of their pews, and Bible studies and DO what Jesus teaches we will never know Jesus, and we will never see clearly our own broken relationship with God.  AND STOP SAYING THINGS LIKE, "We haven't done anything, because we don't know what to do..."  God knows exactly what to do!  Remember what God said to Moses?"   "GO!"  Moses didn't know how to free the Hebrews from slavery to Egypt.  If Moses had known what to do he would have been God.  You don't know what to do with those who struggle with sexual immorality?!?!?   GOOD!  If you did you would be God.  The command is "GO!" cause God knows, and God will show you all you need to know!!  Ignorance isn't an excuse, in fact, like Moses, the true reason the Church won't go is because you don't want to go.  Do you really think, Christians, you will stand before God and he'll accept, "We didn't know, so we couldn't go?"  SERIOUSLY?   WON'T THE ANGER OF GOD BURN AGAINST US, JUST AS GOD BURNED WITH ANGER TOWARD MOSES!?!?!?!?!?!?   Church you better wake up and smell the coffee!!!

THE "SUCH_WERE_YOU" AGENDA:

To set up Christians to succeed and run smack into Jesus, (and you would have, if you'd applied what I taught in my blogs).  Still I knew full well, you would never EVER listen or do anything I taught.  Ministering to so called "same-sex strugglers" was never the point.  If you'd bothered following a half dozen so called "strugglers" blogs, for about 6 months, you'd have quickly learned nearly all of them come to accept a homosexual identity.  They never grow.  They can't grow because they don't know how God has relationship, and if they did they wouldn't be online hanging out with the so called "strugglers".  It didn't matter if I was nice or harsh with so called "strugglers".  They won't ever listen no matter how truth is delivered to them.  They don't want the truth of God which frees them.  All they want is to excuse their sinful feelings, and figure out a way to create god in the likeness and image of their feelings.  They want to fulfill their lusts, but want God to approve of them.  Their "orientation" is the god they continue to serve.  

It wasn't ever ministry to LGBT persons either.  In fact I was harsh to LGBT persons on my site, so that all of you could see, clearly, how easy it is to defeat gay arguments.  Oh, the house of homosexual junk science looks like a substantial house made of solid bricks and mortar.  I made confetti of "gay science" with a verbal 188mm., high velocity, Howitzer.  It all looks good, but gay excuses are a poorly stacked house of cards.  You didn't need much education to see that for yourselves, if you'd ever bothered.

DISCLAIMER:

I need to say at this point a few of you, wonderful Christians, did listen, to a couple things.  You are wise if you apply the truth of God to your lives.  You will be wise if you reach out for relationship with the sexually immoral in the midst of your own church bodies.  God will open your eyes to the needs of the Church.  Stay to the truth and sound doctrines found in the Scriptures, but stay open to God's leading.  The Church in America must repair her relationship with God, or there is no hope for the American branch.  Where are the Churches of Corinth, Ephesus, Laodicea, Philadelphia? They no longer exist, do they??? 

    

CONFESSIONS OF A RELUCTANT SHEPHERD

A New Trend

"All we like sheep have gone astray;
      We have turned, every one, to his own way;"

Isaiah 53:6

Not long ago, I was enjoying one of my, former, favorite hobbies/past times.  I was complaining bitterly at God about HIS Church; HIS Christians; HIS greatest problem, and my greatest (perceived) problem.   A thought suddenly sliced through my well tread litany of ever growing, and oft read list of Church sins, "THEY REALLY ARE LIKE SHEEP, AREN'T THEY?"  I know when The Holy Spirit is speaking to me.  It should have shut me up, but God was, finally, agreeing with me.  I felt so relieved that God was getting on board with my view of things...Yeah right!  God gets on board with my agenda!?!?  What a total joke!  God will never get on board with my agenda and my way of doing things!  Still I jumped at God's bait, "Not just sheep God," I said, confidently, "but STUPID, uncaring, even hateful sheep!"  "YES," came the response, "...LIKE SHEEP GONE ASTRAY."  I was so excited God was on my side!   Then the other shoe dropped, though with God it's more like he drops a whole shoe store..."SHEEP GONE ASTRAY...IN NEED OF A SHEPHERD..."  Imagine standing on an airport landing strip, and getting hit, right in the kisser, by a Boeing 747 wide bodied jet.  The Holy Spirit's conviction landed on me full throttle!   The simple phrases which entered my thoughts don't, at first, appear to be capable of conviction.   How can statements such as, "Like sheep gone astray...in need of a shepherd," possibly be considered convicting?

God's conviction came because he's called me to be a pastor two decades ago.  God has always operated in and through me to minister to others.  Ministry for me is and has always been very natural and organic.  For years and years I really didn't understand it is simply how God is creating and conforming me to the image and likeness of Jesus.   God conforming us to the likeness and image of his Son is of greatest importance, not the call to ministry.  Never forget God can speak through a donkey if he so desires.  I shake my head at people who make their life's pursuit "the ministry".   "My ministry," never has been, and never will be mine.  The ministry is God's from first to last.  God simply works ministry in and through me, as I walk and serve in the Spirit.  Still I have always dragged my feet...okay that's not truthful...I didn't drag my feet, I always dug my heels in, until all forward progress stopped.  Then I started walking backwards.   I never fully ran away from God, but I've always kept ministry, more than less, at arm's length.  The simple answer for why I've always dug my heels in is because the Church hates and rejects me and people like me.

And let me be completely clear about what I mean, when I say, "The Church hates me and rejects people like me."  I'm talking about a Church hijacked, run by, and centered on human beings.  Church as business; Church as human institution; Church as Political Action Committee; Church as "us" against "those people"; Church as self-help/12 step program so we can control our sin, feel better about ourselves, and build up our self-esteem; Church as get rich quick, and have a "happy" life, because God is our "Celestial Sugar Daddy"; Church as Lord High Pimp for The American Dream.  And before anyone starts thinking I think I know the "right way" to do Church, let's get this straight, "I don't know how to do Church "the right way."'  I don't know how to do Church the right way, because I am not God the Father, God the Son, or God the Holy Spirit.  I have some "right" ideas and ways, but until God is operating in and through me fully as a pastor, I won't know what Church should look like.  I never wanted to be a pastor, because I can't be what I've always seen in churches and ministries.   What I never understood is God isn't calling me to be what I've always seen and experienced in churches.   God isn't calling me to "fix" what I've always seen and still see as serious life killing practices and beliefs in the body of Christ.  And doing ministry differently doesn't mean completely reinventing the Church either.

What I'm really talking about is Holy Spirit revival.  I'm talking about God's own Spirit coming into our midst and bringing us back to being the body of Christ, Father and Jesus desire for us to be.  One of my friends, who is a pastor, was in a staff meeting where a former Muslim, now Christian pastor, spoke to the leaders of my friend's church.   This former Muslim said this about the evolution of the Church: 

"In Jerusalem, the Church was family.  By the time the Church came to the Gentiles it was a community.  The Church in Europe was an institution.  In America the Church is a business."  

I believe God is calling us to a new reformation.  I don't have 95 theologians to nail to a church door, and I hope it won't be necessary (I'm joking).  I don't have to go around telling everyone, "I'm right, you're wrong, and God likes me better," because I don't believe this is how God desires to work in and through me.  God is right, and we've all got it wrong somewhere.  God started his Church, He can and will bring it into order, and under his Lordship.  I am called to serve God's purpose however God desires to work in and through me.  I don't have to serve what has been in the past, but can serve God in new or renewed ways.  It is my conviction that God is working to free his Church to be the family he started 2,000 years ago, in Jerusalem.  Not a family according to what the world calls family, but God's family centered completely on Jesus, his call and work in the world.  I can serve God as he always intended without serving what God is causing to pass away.  I don't have to "make" anything happen, all I have to do is faithfully serve what God is making. So there will be a great deal more to come from a reluctant, but contented, shepherd.

Blessings,

Lonnie

CONFESSIONS OF A RELUCTANT SHEPHERD

Hearing What Jesus Says

Vs.

Changing God's Word For Our Purposes

“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.

~ Jesus of Nazareth

Do you remember the last time you heard a sermon about the preservative nature of salt, and that part of the Church's work is preservative?  I've heard several over the years.  The problem is when Jesus speaks about salt he is very specific about the quality of salt he's talking about.  "You are the salt of the earth;" (Matthew 5:13 NKJV).  Now if this was all Jesus said, about salt, we could argue he meant salt as preservative.   But Jesus continued explaining the specific quality of salt he was focusing on, "but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned?"  Jesus tells us very specifically "...if the salt loses flavor, how shall it be seasoned?"  Clearly Jesus is speaking of believers as having a distinctive flavor.  He is not speaking of salt as a preservative.  The response I sometimes get from fellow believers is, "Yeah, but salt was used extensively to preserve meats, since there was no refrigeration."  Saying salt is a preservative, and what Jesus says about salt are very different, subtle, but still very different.

 

There is an issue few people see when reading this passage of Scripture.  Salt cannot lose its saltiness; not ever.  If you take the time to study the culture Jesus spoke to, you get what Jesus is talking about.  At the time of Jesus sojourn in Israel, salt was harvested from the shore around the Dead Sea.  The salt is so concentrated in the Dead Sea it leaves huge salt deposits along the shoreline.  People would go and take the salt off the shoreline and bag it.  It was a "buyer beware" situation when buying a bag of salt.  One might get a bag full of mostly salt and a little sand, or one might get mostly sand and a little salt.  When Jesus talks about salt losing its flavor he is saying, "If believers are mostly sand (full of the world), and very little salt then they don't have the unique flavor of the Holy Spirit, and do not serve the kingdom of God, i.e. "It is good for nothing..."  

If Jesus had been speaking of salt curing he would not speak of salt losing its flavor.  Meat is cured in a water and salt mixture.  Salt is absorbed into the water, thus separating the salt from the sand.  The salt will soak into the meat, but the sand will be left behind as a residue.  You could use several bags of mostly sand with a little salt, and the meat would still cure.  It might take many bags of salt to get the desired salt level, but the sand can't stop the meat from drawing the salt and water mixture.  Were Jesus speaking about salt for curing the amount of sand is irrelevant.  The sand poses no problem, other than the fact you need more of the salt/sand mixture to get enough salt for curing.

   

The greatest problem with the "salt as preservative" angle is that salt doesn't save meat for life.  Salt curing is done to save the meat, by keeping life out.  The bacteria which cause spoilage can't live in the heavy concentration of salt in the meat, so spoilage is greatly reduced.  Jesus says, ^"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full."  In Jesus there is no death.  We are not hunks of meat kept by salt, until Jesus Christ returns.  We are preserved alive by the Spirit of Life dwelling in us.  Salt curing keeps bacterial life away from what is dead, for a time, but the salt levels are so high in the cured meat it is inedible by everyone, and everything not just bacteria.  Before eating much of the salt has to be removed.  If some of the salt isn't removed eating the meat would be akin to drinking sea water.  Drinking heavy salt water has the same effect salt curing does on meat.  If you drink sea water the salt will actually draw whatever water your body has out of you, dehydrating you, or salt curing you as you die!  So what picture does Jesus draw for us showing how too much of a good thing, like salt, is death dealing?

 

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourself." 

Matthew 23:15

Every time I read this verse I am reminded of salt as preservative.  This is why Jesus called them "whitewashed tombs".  They looked good on the outside (preserved with religious salt),  but inside they were really just an old dead piece of meat... too much religious salt. The religious person settles for a salty old piece of dead meat.  Jesus came to us that we might have eternal life.  The way he preserves us is with, "rivers of living water gushing into us, and out of us to the world." God doesn't preserve by keeping life from us, as salt does.  God preserves our life for eternity by placing his own eternally living Spirit into us.  The world doesn't need preservatives which keep life out.  A dead world needs to be preserved for eternal life, by being made born again and filled with the Spirit of Life. 

Those who belong to Christ have the unique flavor of salt, but they are preserved by the Holy Spirit living in them.  Giving the world a salt bath in religion only insures NO life will get in, including the Holy Spirit.  Allow God to make you flavorful, but the work of preserving belongs exclusively to the Holy Spirit. 

     

  

THEORETICAL CHRISTIANITY ISN'T CHRISTIAN:

The Moses Principles:

C) Obedience Gives Us Eyes To See God

And Fills Us With A Greater Hunger For Him

¹² And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.”

~ Exodus 3:12

 .

I love that verse of Scripture!  Exodus 3:12 is one of my "Bible throwing", verses.  The first time I read it in the Bible I threw my Bible at the wall.  I threw my Bible at the wall, because I knew in my heart, this is the way God works.  Don't ask me how I knew at that moment, but upon reading Exodus 3:12 I knew God works the same way with his Church.  What God is saying to Moses is, "When you have completed all the work I've sent you to Egypt to accomplish, and you are back here, on the mountain, then you will know I sent you."   That is crazy!   Who needs signs when the journey is over?!?!  What if I asked you to come visit me at my house and said to you, "Hey when you get here I'll give you all the directions you'll need"???   You would never bother making the trip.  You would think I didn't really want you to find me, wouldn't you??  But look more carefully at what God says, "I will be with you."  God doesn't offer outward signs and confirmation.  Moses is going to have to walk by faith.  Remember what God says about faith, "We live by faith, not by sight." (2 Corinthians 5:7)  Hebrews tells us a great deal more on the matter:

“But my righteous one will live by faith.  And I take no pleasure
   in the one who shrinks back.”

~ Hebrews 10:38

It is God with us enabling us to live and do.  God doesn't post road signs like the huge green ones, with huge pointing arrows, we find on Interstates.  Faith in God isn't by sight, hearing, tasting, touching, or smelling.  And faith doesn't come from human wisdom.  People who say, "I'll believe it when I see it," will never see God.  So, once all was said and done Moses would, finally, completely understand all that God had done; as we like to say it today, "Moses had 20/20 hindsight."  Can you see why I threw my Bible at the wall?  (Even if you don't agree with my actions).  I NEED big, bold, easy to read, signs!!  I need a turn by turn and inch by inch GPS!!  Why doesn't God understand my needs?!?!?!  MY BLANKEY???  WHERE DID I PUT MY BLANKEY???  Er...uh...um...that old thing I just needed to find it so I could throw it away!!!  Look! See? In the trash can it goes!

But what happens when Moses obeys God?  What happens with Moses when he and the freed Israelites  get back to the place of the burning bush?

 ¹⁸ Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.”

 ¹⁹ And the LORD said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.

~ Exodus 33:18-19

There should be two things which stick out from these verses in Exodus 33.  First, Moses has been obedient, and God is pleased with him.  Secondly, God says "I know your name."  What does God mean "I know your name?"  God is saying, "I know you because you have obeyed me."   Obeying God is love for God (1 John 5).  When we love God, or obey God, we are intimate with him.  When God says he "knows our name," he is saying we've obeyed him, are intimate with him, and we please him.  And what is Moses' response to God??   "...Now show me your glory."   WOW!!  WOW!! WOW!!  Moses wants more of God!  Moses is filled with burning desire to see, and know, and have more of God.

The Apostle Paul says it best of all:

 ⁷ "But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸ What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them shit, that I may gain Christ

~ Philippians 3:7-8

Paul has obeyed God!  We know Paul has obeyed God, because he says, "I have Jesus Christ, and next to him everything else is a steaming, stinking pile of shit."  Yes, the Apostle Paul, under the power and authority of the Holy Spirit, says, "Everything NOT Jesus Christ is shit."   The more we obey God, the more clearly we see and know God.  We may not understand God better, but we know him through the intimacy of obedience.   And the more we obey, the more we hunger, thirst, CRAVE God, and he alone will satisfy!!

When Christ followers stand before Christ, with the "goats" to his left and the "sheep" of his flock, on his right, there will be many sad surprises.   What is the keys to being in right standing with Christ, and therefore in the flock on his right? 

1. When God calls, tell God, "Lord God I cannot possibly fulfill, perform, or achieve your call."
2. When God calls, tell God, "Here I am Lord, your unworthy servant!  I will go, as you command."
3. When God has finally brought you through, you will say, without any doubt, you will proclaim, "O LORD GOD! HOW GREAT YOU ARE!  ALL I WANT IS YOU!"

It's all right there in the Bible.  It's been there for thousands of years!  There are no excuses allowed.  There is either, "Yes, Lord I will obey," or "No, Lord find someone else."  

Any questions?

Lonnie

THEORETICAL CHRISTIANITY ISN'T CHRISTIAN! Part 2 B

The Moses Principles:

B) Why God Condemns Ignorance

"There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it is the way of death."

~ Proverbs 14:12

So far Moses has come up with three reasons why he is the wrong man to lead God's people to freedom from slavery in Egypt. 

1. What if Pharaoh won't listen to me?
2. What if the people reject me?
3. I can't talk.

Far from being angry with Moses, God has been very carefully explaining to Moses what to do when dealing with Pharaoh and the Israelite slaves.  God also handles Moses' inability to speak.  Do you ever wonder why Moses has these three particular objections to obeying God's call?

 

We get a vastly different view of Moses from another section of Scripture.  Moses, standing before the burning bush, is a very old version of Moses.  In Acts 7 we're drawn a completely different view of Moses; a view of Moses as a man of 40.

 ²⁰ “At that time Moses was born, and he was no ordinary child.  For three months he was cared for in his father’s house. ²¹ When he was placed outside, Pharaoh’s daughter took him and brought him up as her own son. ²² Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action.

 ²³ “When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his fellow Israelites. ²⁴ He saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defense and avenged him by killing the Egyptian. ²⁵ Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not. ²⁶ The next day Moses came upon two Israelites who were fighting. He tried to reconcile them by saying, ‘Men, you are brothers; why do you want to hurt each other?’

 ²⁷ “But the man who was mistreating the other pushed Moses aside and said, ‘Who made you ruler and judge over us? ²⁸ Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ ²⁹ When Moses heard this, he fled to Midian, where he settled as a foreigner and had two sons.

{All bold text and underlining are my additions}

I've underlined and made bold all of the parts which have to do with Moses' three objections.  Simply put, Moses' objections are based in what life experience has taught him.  If you look in verse 22 you'll see that young Moses, "was powerful in speech and action."  "Powerful in speech and action," is vastly different from old Moses in Exodus 4:10

 ¹⁰ Moses said to the LORD, “O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue."

How should we explain the discrepancy between younger Moses, "...powerful in speech and action," and old Moses, "I am slow of speech and tongue?"  We're told, "Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians..."  Ever here the old saying, "What you don't use you lose?"  After 40 years in the wilderness, tending sheep, Moses has lost the use of, "...all the wisdom of the Egyptians."   How fascinating that Moses, at the peak of his powers and abilities isn't useful to God.  It is only when Moses is old and out of practice that Moses is, finally called by God.  

I want you to notice something else, and this is incredibly important.  Take a look at a couple pieces of Scripture, from both Exodus, and Acts.

 ²³ “When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his fellow Israelites...

²⁵ Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not.

~ Acts 7:23 & 25

¹⁰ So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”

~ Exodus 3:10

What is different about the two sections of Scripture?   The difference is the key to everything.  When Moses is 40 what does he do?  "...he decided to visit his fellow Israelites."  Why does Moses decide to visit Israel?   Moses thought his own people would realize God was using him to rescue them.  The people didn't recognize Moses as anything but a murderer.  Why doesn't Moses succeed even though Moses clearly understands God has called him to save the Hebrew slaves???   Who does Moses go to???  The Hebrew slaves, right?!  40 years later who does God send Moses to visit?!   God tells Moses to go to Pharaoh!   Moses goes to the slaves, but when God sends Moses he sends him to Pharaoh.

 

When Moses calls himself, to the role of savior, he goes to the slaves.  But when God calls Moses he sends him to the slave master, Pharaoh.  When men call themselves they deal with the result of a problem.  When God calls a person to service it is to deal with the root, or cause of the problem.  Moses with all of the wisdom of Egypt can't achieve the salvation God desires.  God doesn't merely break the chains of bondage, he wants to destroy the very source of bondage.  Egypt is a model, held up for the Jews, as an explanation of human bondage to sin.  Pharaoh, is the model for Satan as slave master.  God demolishes Pharaoh and Egypt.  If Moses had lead the slaves in rebellion he might have succeeded, but what one man took from Pharaoh and Egypt could be retaken by a new Pharaoh.  What humans do for themselves can be undone by other humans.  If God does the work then the work stays done!  Of course humans are so used to bondage we tend not to stray far from it.  This is why God tells us,

 ¹ "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery."

~ Galatians 5:1

When God destroys something he kills it at the root.  Humans have no choice but to compromise, with sin, for we can never truly free ourselves.  God does the work completely, or he doesn't do it at all.  God had to come down, and perform his call in and through Moses.  Moses could never have even comprehended all that God could and would do.  The only person who can accomplish God's work is God.  God has always worked through human beings to achieve his ends, but there is no doubt, whatsoever, that it is God who is doing the work, from beginning to end.

 

God doesn't become angry with Moses, because Moses is telling the truth.  Moses is absolutely incapable of doing what God has called him to do.  But when Moses speaks a fourth time God becomes angry.  Ignorance doesn't make God angry.  Disobedience makes God angry.

 

¹³ But Moses said, “O Lord, please send someone else to do it.”  ¹⁴ Then the LORD’s anger burned against Moses..."

Exodus 4:13-14a

"I don't want to do it," is what makes God angry with Moses.  God has no need for Moses to know what to do.  All God needs from Moses is obedience.

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT...

God is, "the same yesterday, today, and forever..."  If God became angry at Moses for being disobedient will he be any less angry with us when we are disobedient?   Do you think God is at all impressed with Christians who don't obey?   Will God excuse those who claim ignorance, saying, "I don't know what to do?"   Moses wasn't filled with the Holy Spirit, but since Christ, every believer is filled with the Spirit of God.  Those who claim belief in Christ have less excuse than Moses!

Lonnie

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THEORETICAL CHRISTIANITY ISN'T CHRISTIAN!  Part 2 C

The Moses Principles:

C) Obedience Gives Us Eyes To See God, 

And Fills Us With An Indefatigable 

Desire For More Of God

  

THEORETICAL CHRISTIANITY ISN'T CHRISTIAN! Part 2 A

The Moses Principles:

A) God Has And Is All The Answers

B) Why God Condemns Ignorance

C) Obedience Gives Us Eyes To See God, 

And Fills Us With An Indefatigable 

Desire For More Of God

 

"But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us."

~ 2 Corinthians 4:7

A) God Has And Is All The Answers

For most of 20 years I've asked Christian why the Church doesn't reach out to those who struggle with sexual brokenness in our midst.  The answer I always get is, "We don't know what to do."   I've stopped asking because all it does is bring God's judgment upon their heads.  I admit that used to give me a smile of satisfaction, but now my past behavior appalls me.  As I said in the last post, "An Obedient One can never become the accuser of the brethren for that is satanic.  Still whenever Christians claim ignorance as an excuse for not following Christ's commands know that it brings the judgment of
God.  How can God judge any Christian for ignorance?  If God judges us for what we do not know isn't his judgment unfair??

God's judgment isn't unfair, and a Christian who proclaims ignorance deserves God's judgment.  Don't believe me, well sorry, the Bible has the story:

In Exodus 3 we find the story of Moses and the burning bush.  God calls to Moses and commissions him to go to Pharaoh and demand the release of the Hebrew slaves.  The call of Moses begins in Exodus chapter 3 and ends at chapter 4:17.   What is important to remember is there are two accounts of Moses' story.  The other account is found in Acts 7:17-36, as part of what is commonly called, "Stephan's Defense". 

  

First look at God's call of Moses:

 ⁷ The LORD said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. ⁸ So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians..." "⁹ And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. ¹⁰ So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”

~ Exodus 3:7-10

{I have edited out the end of verse 8, and all bold script is my addition}

If you look at the two verses I've made bold it appears that God is making contradictory statements.  First God says, "I have come down to rescue them (the Hebrew slaves) from the hand of the Egyptians."  Then God says in verse 10 "So now, go.  I am sending you to Pharaoh..."   Hold the phone...God first says, "I have come down to rescue, and then he says to Moses, "...now go..."  What up with that???  Is God a little kornfused?; a little schizophrenic perhaps??   Is God going or is Moses going?

  

When God calls us to go, it is for us to go with him.  We become the conduit for God's work to those he chooses.  So God has come down to rescue, and Moses is God's chosen vessel for the work.  

  "But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us."

~ 2 Corinthians 4:7

¹⁰ "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them."

~ Ephesians 2:10

"...and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. ⁴ And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice."

~ John 10:3-4

God always leads the way.  The only time a shepherd would drive the sheep was if he was leading them to slaughter.  God has come down himself, is going out ahead of Moses, and when he tells Moses to go he knows he'll arrive first.  So when God calls us to obey him, he's already got all the prep work done, and when we go it is to meet God there.  The work of the believer is to simply go.

  

Three times Moses raises objections about God calling him to the work of salvation.  First Moses doubts Pharaoh will listen to him.  Second Moses doubts the people will believe him.  Third Moses tells God he doesn't talk well enough for the job.  Each time God painstakingly explains to Moses how Moses is to respond.  Finally with the Moses third objection concerning his inability to speak well, God seems to say, "HELLO! You're talking to God!  Remember I created humankind!?  I've got it covered Moses; cool your jets dude!!" 

God doesn't become angry with Moses, no matter how many times Moses says, "Sorry God, I can't do this."   Why doesn't God get mad when Moses says, continually, "I can't do this!"  God has no reason for anger.  Everything Moses says is absolutely true.  God can only work in and through people who know, "I can't do this!"  When God calls the right answer, all the time, every time is, "God, I can't do this...", but with that response had also better come, "Here I am Lord, send me."  It isn't about us, we're cracked pots.  The treasure in us is God's, the call is God's, the completion of the call is God's. 

Our role is to receive God's gracious salvation when he enables us to choose it.  Keep (obey) the teachings of Jesus (and by extension, the teachings of Jesus Apostles), which makes us his true disciples, and as we become more and more obedient disciples we know him better and better.  When God has developed in us enough godly character then he can begin to fulfill the call which will fulfill your life, open your eyes to see God more clearly, and will fill you with an unquenchable hunger for more of God!! 

BOTTOM LINE:  Don't ever worry that you can't do what God calls us to do...YOU CAN'T, you'll never be able to, and if you could you would be God.  If God has all the answers then we don't need to, we simply need to obey.  If we do not obey, its not because we don't know what to do.  If we don't obey God it is because we have more faith in ourselves than we do in God. This leads us to Moses Principle "B"

NEXT POST:  THEORETICAL CHRISTIANITY ISN'T CHRISTIAN!  Part 2 B

The Moses Principles:

B) Why God Condemns Ignorance

THEORETICAL CHRISTIANITY ISN'T CHRISTIAN! Part 1

Be Doers Of The Word

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"All you Bible "believing" Christians, who deplore the actions of the Presbyterian Church USA's decision, opening the way for ordination of LGBT persons, do you think you will escape the judgment and wrath God pours out on those who reject the Bible's doctrines?"...

---

For nearly 20 years I've pleaded with God for understanding of my fellow Christians.  "WHY!?" I would cry out, "WHY! Doesn't the Church understand how to lead people toward your hope, life, light, peace, freedom and love?!?!?!"  Always, and I mean always, John 8:31-32 would pop into my head:

 ³¹ To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. ³² Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

If I look back at all of the posts I wrote, on Xanga blogs, more than 80% of them have these  two verses of Scripture in them.  Do you know why so much of what I write had these two verses from John in them?  Because I've asked God so many times, "God why doesn't the church know how?"   I thought John 8:31-32 was something God wanted me to tell my fellow Christians, but it was much simpler than that.  God wasn't telling me something for anyone else...God was merely answering my question: "Why don't Christians understand?"  The Church doesn't understand God's freedom, because the Church won't obey Christ's teachings.

If you're one of those people who think the term "Christian" has too much baggage, and too much sin attached to it, then try, "Obedient Ones".  Obedient is what Jesus calls his true disciples.  All anyone has to do is look at John 8:31-32 to see that; its right there in black and white, and has been there for more than 2,000 years. 

John 8:31-32 is why I had to come back to Xanga.  I never had any plans to return here and blog.  I'd visit some of your blogs, but I had no intention of coming back.  Why did I have to come back?  Because of the "Such _were_you agenda".  And what exactly is that agenda?  To give my fellow Christians enough verbal "rope" with which to hang yourselves.  For years the majority have acknowledged what I was saying on my blog was truth, but you didn't want to do anything with what I was teaching.  You wanted me to be your source for dealing with all things LGBT.  What I know that you don't know is that every time I tell you the truth, but you don't apply it, you bring judgment upon your own heads.  If I am such a good teacher; so full of good spiritual insight, then why didn't you do what I taught?   I've told you all for years what and how I teach is exactly how God gave it to me.  If it all comes from God and works for me, it will work for anyone.  When we acknowledge the truth without practicing the truth we are according to God "foolish and deceived".  (See Matthew 7:26 and James 1:22).  I don't want to reach/teach the Church, none of them will listen to me.  If you people on Xanga, who appear to like me, won't listen then no other Christians ever will.  So the agenda was to set you all up: 

• Tell you the absolute truth of God
• You pat me on the back, "Atta boy, Lonnie!"
• You would acknowledge, but never practice the truth for yourselves
• I get to say, "See God, no one will listen.  Even those who acknowledge I'm teaching the truth won't do it themselves!"

This created two great sin problems for me.  1) My agenda cast me in the roll of "accuser of the brethren".  An Obedient One can NEVER be the accuser of the brethren, for that is satanic.  2) My cousin James pointed out that God expects one thing from those who claim to be his:  FAITHFULNESS.
 

Some of you might argue my increasing harshness was part of my sin problem as well, but that was also part of setting you up.  I'll explain later in the second or third part of this post why the harshness isn't really the issue you think it is.
 

God has called me to reach/teach the Church.  That is the overall call, every aspect of what God desires to do in and through me flows from that particular call.  I have no desire to reach or teach the Church.  I used to be gay!  I am the last person Jesus Christ should call.  No one in the Church will ever listen to me, and in fact that always proves to be the absolute truth.  Still there is this call hanging over my head like an axe blade.  Anyone and everyone would be better suited to God's call than I could ever be.  All my life I've believed everyone, and I mean just about everyone, is smarter, more capable, wiser, just better in every way.  That's the source of all my frustration and confusion with the Church.  I should be able to tell my fellow Christians; Obedient Ones, and they'd simply do it all so much better than I ever could.  The added benefit is, of course, that the Church would listen to someone who hadn't been gay.  Gay is such a terrible word to Christians.  Its so terrible no Christians will ever put themselves out to obey God to the point where they'll truly understand how God saves and frees.  How do I know the Church won't ever obey God?  Well...It has been 42 years since the Stone Wall Riots started the modern LGBT rights movement.  After 42 years churches either accept homosexual orientation as natural, or they, increasingly, see homosexuality as a sinful proclivity some Christians will struggle to endure in this life.  These two positions will bring Christians the eternal condemnation of God.   The Bible is absolutely clear on this point:

"I have overcome the world.”

John 16:33b

"...for everyone born of God overcomes the world."

1 John 5:4a

God doesn't close his eyes to and accept sin, and God doesn't merely struggle against sin.  God completely overcomes; destroys; burns up; vaporizes sin.  Nothing else but God's standard will be acceptable for God.  You and I don't overcome anything.  God does all the overcoming in and through us.  All we do is obey what Jesus tells us to do, and even that is completely enabled and empowered by the Holy Spirit.  God saves us from top to bottom, but our part is to walk in it.

 

We can study theology all we want to, but we'll never know God's freeing, life giving, salvation, for us or others, until we do what he says.  Don't believe me?  Its right there in John 8.  Jesus tells us, "Do what I teach, and you are my true disciple.  As you do what I teach you will know the truth (the truth is Jesus, not merely a set of spiritual standards), and the truth will set you free."  Don't keep Jesus teachings and you won't know the truth; both Jesus and the deep spiritual standards.  This is what James is talking about when he says in James 1:22,

"But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves."

Why doesn't anyone in the Church understand how God makes a sexually broken person, "...and such were some of you..."  The Church doesn't understand God's freedom for sexually brokenness because we haven't been obedient to keep Christ's teachings.  We've accepted that theoretical is acceptable to God.  "All you Bible "believing" Christians, who deplore the actions of the Presbyterian Church USA's decision, opening the way for ordination of LGBT persons, do you think you will escape the judgment and wrath God pours out on those who reject the Bible's doctrines?"...  You conservative believers still don't know what to do with sexually broken people.  It is not enough to claim you believe the Bible.  Jesus and those who belong to him overcome sexual brokenness.  If you do not understand that God always overcomes, then you do not yet know God.  Don't believe me?  It's right there in the Bible, and has been for over 2000 years.  Both left and right sides will be condemned, for you do not know Jesus overcomes Same-Sex Attraction, and every other manifestation of lust in human beings.  It isn't a work we do, it is all God's work to in and through us.  Our part is to obey!!!

Now of course obedience isn't merely about reaching the sexually broken with the overcoming truth and power of Jesus Christ.  I didn't set out to reach sexually broken people either.  I started working in a soup kitchen reaching out to everyone there.  But since I was obedient to Christ's call:

"And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’"

~ Matthew 25:40

God lead me to street walking hookers.  It is through my experiences with hookers that God was able to open my eyes to the root of my own sin, and the sin of the Church.  Had I not been obedient to serve everyone at that soup kitchen I still would not know the overcoming power of Jesus Christ.  Since the Church does not yet know the overcoming power of Jesus Christ for the sexually broken then the Church has not obeyed Christ.

I hope you will stick with me as I write this series.  I've just scratched the surface thus far.

Lonnie