Spiritual Ponderings

And He found in the temple those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. And He made a scourge of cords, and drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen; and He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables; and to those who were selling the doves He said, "Take these things away; stop making My Father's house a place of business." (John 2:14-16) And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the tables of the moneychangers and the seats of those who were selling doves. And He said to them, "It is written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer'; but you are making it a 'robbers' den.'" And the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that He had done, and t...

The LORD God commanded the man, saying, "From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die." (Genesis 2:16-17) Adam and Eve were created totally free. I believe that for too long we have missed that point because of the lies passed down generationally that have been infused into the human psyche by their choice to exchange freedom for a bunch of empty promises by the great exploiter. But in truth our first parents had no restrictions whatsoever limiting their freedom up to that point. Of course the question instantly arises, “Didn't God restrict their freedom or at least inhibit it when He threatened that if they ate of that one forbidden tree that they were certain to die?” This seems like a legitimate question on the surface, but upon closer examination it is seen as based on faulty assumptions and misunderstanding of true freedom. ...

My growing awareness that the issues of exploitation and vulnerability are likely the basic criteria for entrance into the society of heaven weighs heavily on me. It is becoming so clear in my mind that I at times shudder as I sense how pervasive is this spirit of exploitation, not only in the world but in my own heart. The more I realize how infected I am and have been all my life by this spirit, the more appalled I become as I sense my own unreadiness to live in the presence of saints and angels. As I have pondered this over the past few days another insight has come to my attention. Like nearly everything in Satan's kingdom, exploitation is a counterfeit of something important that God created that is good, positive and life-giving. But at this point I have not been able to discover a specific word that seems to express a counterpart for exploitation. Maybe it is because we are so acclimated to counterfeits and so unfamiliar with God's original design tha...

Now the serpent was more astute than all the animals of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Has God indeed said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? (Genesis 3:1 JB2000) The link between the vulnerable and the exploiter is something I explored a few months ago. Yet it is a truth that keeps coming back insistently to my mind as I see how it applies pervasively to nearly everything I think about. In fact, I am coming to believe that the temptation to exploit may involve the core issue of our fitness for heaven. This may come as a shock to some of the pious and religious, but I am starting to see this as possibly the central issue for living in the presence of God and holy angels. Can we be trusted to live around the delicate balance and beauty of creation found in the rest of the universe? This may be the real issue when Jesus said we will be judged by our works. We have too often assumed that by works He meant doing good deeds i...

...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame , and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2) Much of my life I have puzzled over what this phrase really means. What does it mean to despise shame? Is that the same as living in denial when I feel shamed? Why would Jesus despise anything in the first place as it seems so out of character for Him? What is shame? That might be a good place to start, for if I don't even know what the word means I am likely to arrive at wrong conclusions about what this verse is trying to tell me. If I understand what Jesus despised it might be easier to arrive at an understanding of why He despised it. Some clues have recently surfaced that have brought my attention back to this verse and phrase, clues that have accumulated from diverse sources over the years that have helped make sense out of many other things...