Exploring the Book of Enoch: Vision and Faith


Please read till the end to see why I wanted my vision restored to normal. I still have much to say about my faith as a Christian. There is so much to learn. As I get older, I find the questions I have have increased exponentially. The Gospel is simple in the transition from Old Testament to New Testament times. However, I find that a lot was happening that required the death, burial, and resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ. There is still warfare going on. It will continue till the return of our Lord.

In the meantime, I apologize for the inconsistency in my writing. My vision is failing, and I need to get it corrected. I feel it has a spiritual facet in nature that also needs some adjustment in my spiritual vision. I want to get back to studying the books in the Ethiopian Bible.

Today I felt I should write yet another post. But I do feel the need to explain something my readers don’t know. I had cataract surgery about three years ago, coming up this December. At first it was a refreshing experience. For almost a year, I was without corrective lenses. Before the surgery, my vision was not far from legally blind by standards. Not only did the surgery fix the dimming of cataracts, but it also restored my vision to 20/20 with corrective lenses inserted inside my eye, replacing the ones I was born with.

About a year later, my left eye started crossing. I drive a school bus and in the early morning it was becoming difficult to focus on the road. After a visit to the optometrist, I found out my vision was deteriorating. I was fitted with new contact lenses. That fixed the problem for about a year, but there has been a steady decline in the vision of my left eye. It is crossing as I type this post. About three weeks ago, I had my eyes checked, and new lenses were prescribed, but the left one is still insufficient. I will go back again this Wednesday to determine where to go at this point.

Friend, my eyesight is important to writing and driving. Being unable to see is discouraging. Yesterday, it dawned on me why I started having failing grades when I was in elementary school. After the fourth grade, my vision started failing, and when I wanted to read, I could not get past about fifteen minutes without a terrible headache from eye strain. It took my teachers telling my parents for the next two to three years to get me to a doctor. In the meantime, I floundered through the next few grades. I barely passed.

Between the sixth and seventh grades, my parents finally conceded to my teacher’s requests and took me to an optometrist. Dr. David was my doctor. He said I was the most farsighted person he had ever encountered. So the next step was glasses. The day I put them on it was like a new day for me. I could finally see again.

Then came another problem. I had ingrained in myself a lack of desire to study or read. Unwinding that entanglement from me took almost as many years as it did to get back to decent study habits. It was so bad that I was a Sophomore for two years. During the summer after that second year, I woke up. I went to summer school to catch up. I passed. In doing so, I skipped my Junior year of school and joined my classmates as a Senior. That year I ended with an overall B+. I went on from there to Chicago Technical College, where I studied Architectural Drafting. I was acing that course, but got cut short by the military draft during the Vietnam War. During Army Basic Training. We were trained to fire weapons in the field out to 500 yards downrange. I qualified as an Expert Rifleman with the M-16 automatic rifle. I suppose that sealed the deal on my vision. I was hitting those targets farthest away.

My vision remained stable over the next few years, with only minor changes. Overall, those small changes added up over time. In the late 1980’s the opportunity came along to be fitted with soft contact lenses. Before the contacts, I found my depth perception was not what it should be. With contacts, I got a new lease. I regained everything I’d lost over time.

I’ve worn contacts since about 1987. The exception was the few months after the cataract surgery. Contact lenses are the best option I have now. I just need a resolution for my left eye. I want so much to get back to reading more in-depth material.

I want to get back into studying the Book of Enoch. Really, what I want most is to get an Ethiopian Bible, which contains 88 books instead of the 66 books I’ve used for decades. An Ethiopian Bible, which contains 88 books instead of the 66. I want to get back into studying the Book of Enoch. Really, what I want most is an Ethiopian Bible, which contains 88 books instead of the 66 I’ve used for decades.

I wanted to know where the giants came from. I wanted to know who the sons of God were who came to Earth and mated with women. When I read the Book of Enoch, I found it to be very settling for me to know even the names of the fallen watchers who took women for themselves. It is very eye-opening to know just how pervasive evil became in those days after God’s initial creation. That explains why God decided to destroy the Earth with a Great Flood.

Many of the things that happened in the Earth in the beginning years of time are so well explained in the Book of Enoch. Another of my problems has been finding an accurate version of the Ethiopian Bible. I will find one for sure. I had started studying the Book of Jubilees. It deals a lot with a mathematical approach to who God is and why things happen as they do.

If you wish to journey with me on my path into these studies, stay tuned.

Posted in Absolute(s), Christian Mission, Common Sense, God's Guidance, Growing up, Health, Hearing God, history, Maturity, More of God, Old Age, Patience, Ponderings, Priorities, Salvation, Sobering Thoughts, Spiritual, Spiritual Growth, Spiritual Investments | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Podcast Insights: Spiritual Warfare and Modern Manipulation


Students of what has happened in the world. The opposition to Christianity is discussed on a podcast with Jack Hibbs, pastor of Calvary Chapel Chino Hills. I’m not an alarmist, but I am a student of how people in this realm are manipulated by those in the unseen realm.

If you want to put together what God has said to us and present-day scenarios, here is a likely answer to a question that you have not asked. I would strongly urge anyone who wants to know to view the podcast linked below. The verse right below this is meant to tell you where the warfare is. The podcast introduces the cast of characters in this realm whom I deem puppets from the other realm. I don’t consider it philosophical. I consider it the whole reality of what is happening in real time.

Ephesians 6:12 – For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

The Secret Deal with Satan That Changed America Forever

Posted in Biblical teaching, Christian Mission, Common Sense, Failure Not An Option, Hearing God, More of God, Sobering Thoughts, Spiritual | Leave a comment

The Journey from Child to Adulthood: A Spiritual Perspective


A child is born.  The newness of life has begun outside the womb.  All things are new and miraculous.  The exploration into life begins where everything is new and fascinating.  There is indeed nothing old, for nothing has been before.  A babe begins to grow in stature and mentality.  It then takes on the traits of its father and mother with the passing of time.  The mother feeds the babe and cares for it, and for a while the father only watches on. 

            The mother waits upon this child hand and foot for days, weeks, and even months, and then years.  The child grows more as it develops in walking and talking.  This child begins to say what he hears and to imitate those closest to him, and before long his character begins to take shape.  The world around this child has begun to quiz their little mind and begins to ask unanswerable questions.  The young child’s father only looks at him with a loving smile, and his answer to the child is that they will know soon enough.  But the child is not completely satisfied.

            Then come the first inklings in his young mind of what he wants to be when he grows up.  Surely someone will ask him what it is he wants to become.  Does he want to be a fireman, policeman, or doctor?  This child may even say, “I know what I want to be”, but will change his mind at the whim of some new toy.  The father continues with the smile of anticipation. 

            Time goes on, and the child begins to face growing pains of entering the years from childhood to adolescence, or teenage years.  This is a very trying time.  This time of life has the teens assuming knowledge that they sometimes think is beyond the years of the adults around them.  Trial and error bring emotional moments in their life.  Parents will have to endure defiance or even possible rebellion.  Also, during this time, he finds peer pressure comes upon him, trying to conform this character to a particular social status.  The mother may come to exhaustion and mental collapse, but the father only looks on and smiles, for he knows all too well what lies ahead.

            But turmoil isn’t for naught, even as it rears its ugly head perhaps a multitude of times.  As they come, the young man somehow manages to go through with a little more experience in life and from it a more intelligent approach to the problems that confront him.  The father is indeed the one who is smiling more as the day of adulthood approaches.  The father has anxiously awaited the impending day when he can say to all, “This is my son in whom I am well pleased,” and now it has come.  Those things that once seemed miraculous are now merely everyday occurrences in life.

            The day comes when mother no longer must tutor her son to put away his clothes or clean his room, take a bath, and brush his teeth.  These things have become rudimentary.  They are a necessity for daily functional tasks and appearance’s sake but have nothing to do with conducting the transactions of business.  The day came when the father smiled long enough over a bumbling youth.  He shall now take over the task of setting this young man into a place where he may take a seat of authority beside his father and help his father conduct business in the father’s name.

            He must now put into practice the things that have been ingrained into him by the trials that he has passed through.  He has learned that consideration toward others and their problems will gain him their respect.  He has learned that by patience, he will gain advantage in life.  He has learned that being happy in all situations will make the significance of the problem decrease, and so on.  The father is indeed pleased that his son has made his way through the wilderness of adolescence, and he has seen well that his son will make a good businessman and partner.  And so, in the end, the son receives the inheritance of the father and carries on the business as his father had done so from the beginning.

THE MEANING NOW BECOMES CLEAR

This may sound strange, but I must tell you that the Lord told me this story.  At some point we are all in this process of growth in God.  We will all recognize ourselves somewhere in it.

A child is born.  Do you see this as your beginning or birth as a Christian?  It is or was a time when God births us out of the nonexistence of our past as lost souls looking for that something missing in our lives.  We were looking for something to get us out of our sinful past.  Our past becomes nonexistent to God in that we should look at it like Paul did when he spoke of not looking at those things behind us, but unto the things that are set before us (Phil 3:13).  We are to look diligently to that which God has called us.  But as children, we are not yet settled in our ways.  We have much growth to do.  As children, we will play with God, not listen to our mother, and try her with many things.

The church world today has many born-again people playing church that really should not be holding positions of authority.  They have yet to reach adolescence.  They really do not know what they want to be or should be.  One day the child wants to be a preacher, the next day a choir leader, never listening to their real mother, which is from above, the heavenly Jerusalem (Gal 4:26). They have no ear for higher things in life.  Despite it all, God smiles upon those who sincerely have a heart after Him.  He gives to them the fruit of growth and increase that will bring them to a full maturity.  There will also be pruning to rid life of unnecessary unproductive limbs. For these children comes the teen years of adolescence. 

This adolescent stage is the experience that the Pentecostal people have been through.  The Holy Ghost Baptism is a necessary part of our growth and development to get through to the next level of God.  I say this without reservation.  It must be.  We must be tried to bring about the production of fruit in our lives (Gal 5:22-23).  This fruit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance.  All nine of these fruits will and must come to fruition in this season of our growth.  If not, the next realm of growth will not be entered with a productive nature.  I would dare to say most will never develop further until they do.

Let’s look at this from the eyes of a gardener.  Pressure from the ground tries to keep the seed from coming forth.  Such are the trials of life.  The ground is our flesh.  It must be laid aside for the higher calling in the spirit realm.  The sun (son) is forever pulling us upward from the ground to reach into the air (heavenlies).  The earth, our body, tries to keep the investment of God inside our form (body) of ground.  The seed must be strong to break through this, and indeed it is, for our Father has come through the Spirit, by the investment and payment by our Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross.  God is breaking ground now, today.  He is building a building, to put it another way.  He is cultivating an orchard.  Call it what you may, but God is putting together a people that will break forth from their ground with a word of God that will deliver mankind from the curse of the first Adam.  God is building a building that shall stand in the evil day with a covering that is made up of lively stones.  Praise God!

God is preparing a people who are presently in the state of adolescence.  In the Tabernacle of Moses, this stage of growth can be seen in the Holy Place, where the priest made final preparations before entering the very glory of God beyond the veil.  We are in a place just before entering into this very presence.  Adolescence is almost to a close.  Adulthood is around the corner for the few who will dare to enter in.  Will you be one who enters?  There is a way.

In the Tabernacle, the last stop on the way into the presence of God in the Holy of Holies was the Altar of Incense.  This is the place of prayer.  Are we willing to stop our daily lives, as did Daniel when he saw the captivity of Israel coming to an end and began to pray that God would honor His Word in keeping with the prophecy that deliverance would come?  Will we pray for the deliverance of this creation?

The Bible says that the whole creation groans for the manifestation or revealing of the sons of God (Rom. 8:14-25).  This calling was for these sons to come into adulthood.  The day that our Father says that it is a time to teach us the business.  It is time to teach us the ways of government.  Authority shall be given to those who show that they have overcome, and not until (Rev. 3:21).

From childhood to adulthood, one must realize in truth that to be born again is not the end of it all.  It is not the ultimate in the Christian walk.  In addition, one will note that adolescence is certainly not the time for authority.  That would lead to disaster at the hands of sophomoric wisdom.  To pick fruit before its time results in it having to be thrown away.  It will be found too hard or green.  To say that a Spirit-filled Christian has arrived or made it would also be a disaster.  Even in this stage, many have not died to self quite enough to lead their own lives, let alone that of others in counsel.

My fellow Christian, I beseech you to search the Word diligently for those things that shall bring into being fruit in your life.  Do not look at the world around you and allow yourself to be ruled by the circumstances that govern it, which are quickly passing away.  If your intent is to obtain eternal life, you must then set your standards by that which shall rule in eternity.  That is the everlasting Word of God.  God said that His Word shall not pass away (Matt. 24:25). 

Adulthood is where God wants us.  It is a place where God can look upon us and say to us corporately, “This is my Son, in whom I am well pleased”.  It is a place where Jesus Christ is Head and we, His body, function, eternally joined together.

“And hast made us unto our God, kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth.” (Rev 5:10)

We shall reign.  Will you be a part of those who reign?  Think about it.  David was anointed to be king but when a child, a teenager, but his throne, the place of authority and government and responsibility, was not given to him until he reached adulthood.  That was the age of thirty.  Who else do you know who rose to authority at the age of thirty?

Posted in Abundant life, Biblical teaching, Common Sense, Maturity, Old Age, Patience, Ponderings, Prayer, repentance, Respect for Life, Salvation, Spiritual Growth | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Patristics: The Early Church’s View on Salvation


In the last few years, I’ve studied the Bible from the perspective of the culture and the words used to expound the Gospel. Today’s Westernized version of the Gospel is so far off base. We should not be looking at the perspective of dying so we can go to heaven and avoid hell. My first question came when I saw that hell is to be done away with.

Rev 20:14 – Then death and Hades (hell) were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death.

So there goes eternal punishment in a burning pit. Lots to explore there. What is your view of the “second death”?

I have concluded that I will pass through the veil into eternal life, but not just to go to heaven. The real reason for being saved is to restore fellowship with a loving God. I came to realize I’ve had this relationship for most of my life, but never thought of it in these terms, since I thought this was what happens with all Christians. It’s not as I had thought.

The heavenly realm is a busy place. I want my relationship/fellowship with my Father to be productive. I want to do what He wants me to do. I will have a position to fill. I sense music is the foundation of what I will be doing. Worshipping God for eternity in music. Call me crazy. That’s okay.

Heaven to some has become la la land. Change your way of thinking. Sure, you were born under the nature of sin in the first Adam, but when you accept salvation, you are translated from the kingdom of darkness into the newness of God’s realm by the grace and mercy of the act of sacrifice through our Lord Jesus Christ. Then we become blameless and no longer condemned under the blood sacrifice. That was a one-time event that reconciled all men to God. It was done.

All of mankind’s names were written into the Book of Life. Sad to say, if we live a life without acknowledging that fact, our name will be crossed off from the Book of Life when we pass from this world. We will no longer have the ability to obtain the blood covering of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.

The early teachings of the apostles up through that age in early Christianity gives us the true vision of what God wanted to accomplish and did. God spurred me to study the culture and words that were written in that day.

Today I read a type of study that I was not aware of. Patristics.

Patristics or patrology is the study of the early Christian writers who are designated Church Fathers. The names derive from the combined forms of Latin pater and Greek πᾰτήρ (father). The period of the Church Fathers, commonly called the Patristic era, is generally considered to run from the end of New Testament times or end of the Apostolic Age (c. AD 100) to either AD 451 (the date of the Council of Chalcedon) or to the Second Council of Nicaea in 787. (Wikipedia)

We need to get back to this type of thought process and dump the Westernized versions of “religion”. We should actually be dumping the idea of “religion” for something deeper. That, being reestablishment of relationship of the Father, through Jesus and His sacrifice that accomplished the fulfillment of the Old Testament law.

My prayer time, as well as yours, should be aimed towards foundationally establishing relationship and fellowship with our Father. That, I feel is the aim to which God wanted for us through the plan of salvation. Salvation is more than a one-time event. Yes, it has a one-time event which is the opening of the door for us to enter the Kingdom of God, but then it is ongoing as we walk into it. Our walk in the Kingdom of God in this life concluded with the final act upon our death when salvation closes the door as though a certificate that we finished the race and our salvation will be sealed for eternity.

How we end this walk determines our place in the eternal Kingdom of God. So, it behooves us to do our very best to follow God, learn our lessons in a positive manner so we can mature to the highest level in order to find placement in the Kingdom best suited for our eternal occupation. For me, I want to be a musician. What do you want to do with accomplishing your place in eternity?

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God’s Guidance in Everyday Life: A Personal Story


Do you ever have one of those days where God prompts you to do something you normally don’t do? This morning I knew Libby and I were going for lunch in Swansboro. Today is our 11th wedding anniversary. We went to The Boro Restaurant. Not a bad place to eat. Even mid-afternoon, there was a steady crowd. We had an appetizer of calamari, but the waiter accidentally picked up a plate of batter-fried hot banana pepper rings that closely resembled fried calamari. We were not charged for them when he realized what happened.

Anyway, before we left, I spotted one of my books lying in the office, and God said for me to take that with me. So, I picked it up, walked it to the back door, and put it on the dining table to make sure I picked it up on the way out. Well, it went with us in the back seat, and I thought nothing else of it.

When we finished eating, we went to the Willis Produce Stand on Cedar Island to pick up some fresh veggies. I backed into a space and got out. I got to the back corner of the car, and a lady was toting a cantaloupe as she headed to her car. I looked at her, and she looked at me. Then she said to me, “I know you, don’t I? I’m Carolyn Amdahl, and you’re Jim Rowe, right?” I had not seen her in years. We had a small “coworker reunion”. Then God prompted me again. I got my book out of my car and told her I was to give this to someone today, and she was to be the one. She’s a Christian woman. She said she likes “light” books to read. Mine is small, so I suppose that fits the bill.

Like I’ve said so many times, I am always open to what God wants. This was one of those days. I was very happy to see her. She retired a few years ago and is enjoying life. Good for her.

If you’re interested in my book, it can be found on Amazon Books, Walmart Books or Barnes & Noble. Or contact me through this blog.

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Understanding Your Divine Purpose: Chosen Before Time


I follow a minister of deeper things. His name is Doug Fortune. His question for today is Did your story really begin at birth? Or were you chosen before time?

My answer to that question comes from scripture.

According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Eph 1:4

All of His chosen have been around since we were created in Him. We were before we were born. We existed before we walked into this physical realm. We will continue to walk in eternity in Him.

There is too much already said about us being created before time. Before time to me is saying we’ve always been. . . How we presently are is a refining and maturing time, for after this moment in growth, like a caterpillar in the chrysalis stage, we become a butterfly. Imagine our “before” versus our “after”. Think about all that goes on in the place of change. In the chrysalis, all that we were becomes something completely different, yet still holding our identity.

The awakening is simply the unfolding of our lives as we mature in the nature of who we are. So yes, we were before the foundation; now we are in the process, with yet-to-be-seen results, as we mature into an eternal state because of His divine process.

God’s eternal knowledge/intentional plan: God sees and wills your life from before birth. A widely cited verse is:

    Before I formed you in the womb I knew you… – Jeremiah 1:5

    Many times I’ve been in prayer, and I hear God say that I am chosen by Him. I got curious as to just what that means. To be chosen in Christ means to be selected by God for a special purpose, which includes the opportunity for salvation and a relationship with Him through faith. This concept emphasizes that being chosen is a gift from God, not something earned, and it calls individuals to live in obedience and service to God’s teachings.

    How does one know they are chosen? Let’s go to a starting line to where it all begins.

    For many are called, but few are chosen. – Matt 22:14

    In Bible discussion, someone can be sure they are among God’s chosen by having faith in Jesus—because the idea is that faith happens because God calls and draws people to Christ. One commonly suggested way to check is to confess that Jesus is Lord and to believe in his resurrection, since that is considered evidence that God’s Spirit is at work in you.

    When I read Matt 22:14, I ask the obvious question of “many” vs “few”. How does this occur? Then it dawned on me that God doesn’t delineate the chosen from the called. The appropriation of being chosen is up to the individual who is called. God offered the grace and mercy that comes with salvation. With our free will, we can accept or deny the gift of life He offered; hence, many are called, few are chosen by acknowledgment by the individual He called.

    If you’ve never considered acknowledging what God has offered, I would ask that you do so. Your eternity depends on your answer to that calling God has put out there for you, as stated in Matthew 22:14.

    Posted in Absolute(s), Abundant life, Biblical teaching, Christian, Christian Mission, Common Sense, Follow God, God's Calling, God's direction, God's Guidance, Ponderings, Priorities, repentance, Respect for Life, Salvation, Sobering Thoughts, Spiritual Growth | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

    Understanding the Impact of Missing Biblical Texts


    Most of the time, my posts here come from something I posted on Facebook first. Then I copy/paste it here and add on. To tell the truth, unless my soul and spirit are stirred, I don’t write. I don’t want to write just to write. I have to get my eyes examined in a week. My left eye crosses when my lenses get weak, and it makes it difficult to see what I’m writing. I see double.

    I have a lot to say. I could write about salvation and its need for this lost world. I’ve found in the last year, maybe two, a new view of what it all means. I could write about what is presently going on on the other side of the veil. There is a lot of activity there. I found this out by reading materials that were left out of the Protestant Bible. The Book of Enoch has taken me there. The Protestant Bible has tidbits that reference the Book of Enoch.

    I have studied the politics that went into forming the sixty-six-book version of the Bible. Yes. There was a good deal of politics involved. I figure there should be at least eighty-eight books. The reason it isn’t this way is that these extra books explain spiritual things that scared the elite of those early days. They knew the common people, knowing what was in those scriptures, would strip them of their power over people.

    There is the Ethiopian Bible with 88 books and the Catholic Bible with 72 books. But they were hidden from the general population. Thank goodness for revelation that was given to Martin Luther and others that tore that wall down. Then Gutenberg came along with a method to put the Bible into mass production.

    Printing was a factor in the Reformation. Martin Luther‘s Ninety-five Theses were printed and circulated widely; subsequently he issued broadsheets outlining his anti-indulgences position (certificates of indulgences were one of the first items Gutenberg had printed). Due to this, Gutenberg would also be viewed as a proto-Protestant.[73] The broadsheet contributed to the development of the newspaper. (Wikipedia).

    Then there is the present-day view of heaven and hell. Both are highly mistaken for absolute truth. There will not be an eternal place of burning called Hell. It will be thrown into a Lake of Fire along with Death as stated in the Book of Revelation. So the preaching of “turn so you don’t burn” won’t work for me. It should not for you. As far as judgment for the righteous was a real eye-opener for me. God will judge the righteous, but not to determine their good or bad deeds. They will be judged to determine their place in the Kingdom of God so as to be placed in their best service to God. What we do here as Christians will determine our place there. With that thought, it behooves us to do our very best to serve God to the best of our abilities here and now.

    I have so much more to say, but I’ll let you chew on that for now. If you have a question, feel free to inquire. Reply to this post, and I will attempt to answer. God wants you to shine your brightest. There is no reason to not want to.

    Posted in Biblical teaching, Common Sense, Follow God, God's direction, God's Guidance, Maturity, Ponderings, Possibilities, Priorities, repentance, Salvation, Sobering Thoughts, Spiritual Growth, Spiritual Investment | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

    Eden to New Covenant: A Journey of Faith


    Copied from Facebook from a minister friend of mine: Lynn Hiles. If you would like further studies of his, he can be found on YouTube and several other types of media and books.

    Humanity’s first temptation was not toward immorality but toward independent morality. The tree was the knowledge of good and evil. Ever since Eden, religion has often repeated Adam’s mistake by trying to produce righteousness through the correct knowledge of right and wrong. But God has always desired something deeper. The Tree of Life comes first. In Christ, we no longer begin with the knowledge of good and evil; we begin with union. As we partake of His life, our senses are exercised, our minds are renewed, and discernment emerges as the fruit of communion rather than the product of self-determination. The mature believer does indeed know good and evil—but unlike Adam, he knows it through participation in the life of the Son, not by grasping at autonomy.

    That, to me, is one of the grand narrative arcs of Scripture: Eden, Sinai, Calvary, and the New Jerusalem all revolve around the same question—will humanity live from the Tree of Life, or from the independent knowledge of good and evil? The New Covenant announces that in Christ the Tree of Life is once again open, and from that life flows the wisdom, discernment, and love that the first Adam sought by another path

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    Living with God’s Love: A Christian Perspective


    Something occurred to me this morning. We all know God loves us unconditionally. How many of us really consider the full import of this knowledge? I see so many Christians expounding on questions concerning what we do and how God frowns (well, maybe more) on the foibles of human nature.

    He has afforded us salvation coupled with forgiveness. But Christians seem to want to find fault with any Christian’s walk. Why? Then I see a good bit of condemnation about what is found. Why? God wants us to have His mind in all situations. He set up a way to live properly, yet we want to live by the OT law. We live in the age of mercy and grace, folks.

    We should be living with God’s mind at the forefront of our thinking. What I saw was two-fold. Number one is that we are to love God unconditionally. What I mean is I hear so many people who don’t stop to consider that God is in control. But we blame God for sickness, untimely death, and numerous circumstances that we encounter in life as being negative. That is putting a condition on His love for us. We think He doesn’t know how to treat us better. That type of thinking comes from selfishness.

    Then, on the other side, we are to love all other people with the same unconditional love. That’s not to say we condone sin. We should not. I have to say, my wife was blessed with the gift of extolling unconditional love. I’m not saying she has this gift in perfection, but she practices it quite well. I’ve found that this type of love has left me in a state of surrender to my own thinking.

    The idea of unconditional love is elusive to many. Instead, we jump to judgment long before we consider God’s way of approaching his creation. What really struck me this morning was the fact that I should love God unconditionally as well.

    I love Him because He is my creator. That is a fact in spite of whatever circumstance I encounter. Why? Because, like the title of that old family sitcom from decades ago explains it. “Father Knows Best”.

    Posted in Abundant life, Christian, Follow God, God's direction, God's Guidance, Love, Ponderings | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

    Understanding the Spirit vs. Worldly Thoughts


    1 Corinthians 2:12 – Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.

    To those who lived by the natural world, this creates a conundrum. The “world” that we live in is governed by an entirely different method. On a side note, let me give you something to think about.

    “World” – The world is the totality of entities (governments), the whole of reality, or everything that exists. This doesn’t have anything to do with “the earth.” “World” refers to the governance of the Earth. They come and go over time, such as changes in rules among groups of people.

    “Earth” is the third planet from the sun. It is a place, as opposed to the world. It is governed only by its own set of rules from the nature of the universe. It cannot be ruled by man.

    The spirit of the world is not in congruence with God. It is governed by the fallen nature. Once we are saved, we find a thought process used in the term “flesh”. We no longer live in the flesh. We now live by the Spirit of God. We cannot know God without this change of thought process.

    The worldly thought process cannot know God. Once we are saved, we need to put aside this thought process. This is why so many people misunderstand the Bible. They read it with worldly eyes.

    Once we change to the process of thinking like God, we will begin to gain knowledge of our creator. This kind of thinking will revolutionize our lives. As opposed to the “flesh”, we start thinking with the “mind of Christ”. This revelational thinking will expose us to the nature of eternal life. This place is a place without time. This is a place of freedom. It is a place without worry. It is the place of true victory.

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