Spiritual Ponderings

Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him.... Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments and standing before the angel. (Zechariah 3:1, 3) Satan relies on our faults of character as his excuse to demand the withdrawal of Christ's protection from our life. Satan is the one who has clothed us with filthy rags. Those filthy rags are called sin and shame and are identified as an attitude of dis-allegiance to God. Satan's accusations center around the fairness of God. Christ is the one who causes our iniquity to pass from us and transfers them to Himself. He puts on us His own robe woven in the loom of heaven. To be 'in Christ' must be synonymous with being covered with the identity and filled in character with the disposition of Jesus Christ. The robe has Jesus Christ clearly woven into the fabric as its identity; it totally and clearly belongs to Him and not to us, yet He declares t...

There are two kinds of law – prescriptive and descriptive. Prescriptive law involves arbitrary rules made up to control people and are invented by people. They are easily changed and often contradict each other. They require that someone be in control and they also need arbitrary punishments to be associated with them and artificially enforced by someone in power. This system supposes that by punishing people for violations of such laws that enough fear of punishment and associated pain will be produced that they and others will not want to break those laws again. Descriptive law is a totally different situation. Descriptive law is simply describing natural principles of cause and effect. Principles are not arbitrary or made up; they are fundamentals of how reality works and are unavoidable. Most are familiar with what we call the laws of nature, the principles of physics, chemistry, etc. We have little problem believing in these laws and understanding that if we violate them the con...

What do people have in mind when they think about being filled with the Spirit of God? How do they think that Spirit will make them feel, cause them to act, empower them to do or be? Why would the Spirit of God cause a person to be or act any differently that it caused Jesus to act and live, the attitude of Jesus as best described in Philippians 2? If our notion of the effects of God's Spirit pouring into our lives looks anything different than the effects on Jesus' life as described there, then we are likely deceived about the whole idea of being filled with His Spirit. We are really longing to be filled with some other spirit, which is a rather frightening revelation I would think. Why are our assumptions about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the last days so different from the descriptions of the fruit of the Spirit and the character and attitude of Jesus mentioned above? Why do we have ideas related to the outpouring of the Spirit connected with suddenly having lots ...

Light tubes. That's what God is looking for, people who are willing to become light tubes. A light tube has no means of generating light of itself. However, unlike a normal pipe or other less useful channel or conduit in relation to light, a light tube is specially designed to convey light through some obstruction that normally blocks light from entering a dark place, usually a roof. A good light tube consists of an inlet, normally a transparent cover on a roof allowing light to enter the tube, an outlet on the bottom side consisting of another cover, often a diffuser that softens and spreads out the light, and in between a highly reflective tube that has a surface that absorbs almost no light at all. Its surface is like a mirror and bounces the light around in the tube that allows an intensity to be passed through it that rivals a bright, powered source of light yet requires no power to operate it. The only thing a light tube needs is access to the light from outside. Our world...

Why are we told that Jesus is the only way to God? In what sense is He the only way? It is usually assumed that this means that if one does not have enough factual knowledge about who Jesus is, does not say the right prayer or believe certain things about Jesus and what He taught, that they will be excluded from heaven. There are many versions of this teaching but generally all of them involve some level of bigotry and condemnation. But what is the real truth about this concept? I am starting to see something about this that makes more sense in the context of what God has been revealing about Himself and the truth about the relationship between the Father and the Son. The confusing and fearful pictures of God that inevitably infect teachings about this must be laid aside. They may more or less accurately reflect a very limited legal model that is sometimes employed in Scripture, but the legal model alone is woefully insufficient to explain and empower the truth as it is in Jesus. We ...

I have increasingly come under the feeling that I am not fully converted yet. While I was thinking about this early this morning I was impressed with the thought that I cannot remember any instance in the Bible where someone was pressured to be converted, at least not by Jesus. He talked about it and described what it looks like, but I do not recall Him ever urging anyone to be converted. This actually brings some peace for me, for I think Satan has been exploiting my awareness of this issue to discourage me recently. He has been taunting me and trying to convince me to worry about this, insinuating that God is going to remain aloof or distant from me until I am fully converted. Yet I have been reminded that Peter was told by Jesus just before Calvary that he was not yet converted, yet Peter was one of the closest companions of Jesus who had been entrusted with all sorts of privileges and responsibilities and supernatural gifts previous to this time. He, like all the other disciples, ...

It just occurred to me what might be going on. I find myself unusually resentful when certain people dominate conversations wanting to keep attention on themselves. They go on and on telling their own stories, presenting their own ideas and steering the conversation back to themselves no matter what subject is being discussed. Whenever someone else begins to share a story or idea they seem to listen long enough to regroup only to continue their own thoughts and agenda. Although few others get any chance to participate in the conversation and be really heard, these people don't seem to notice how disproportionate their dominance of the conversation has become. What bothers me beyond the annoyance of observing this mindset, is my own puzzlement as to why I feel so intensely triggered myself. Am I jealous because I cannot dominate the conversation? Possibly, at least sometimes. Are there other factors completely out of sight in my heart that are creating this tension? Very possibly. ...