BTZ Blog

God is gooder than the goodest...The devil is badder than the baddest. God is kinder than the kindest...The devil is meaner than the meanest. God is greater than the greatest...The devil is lesser than the lessest. God is meeker than the meekest...The devil is pushier than the pushiest. God is righter than the rightest...The devil is wronger that the wrongest. God is higher than the highest... The devil is lower than the lowest. God is stronger than the strongest...The devil is weaker than the weakest. God is holier than the holiest...The devil is unholier than the unholiest. God is blessor than the blessors...The devil is the curssor of the curssors. God is wiser than the wisest...The devil is stupider than the stupidest. Jesus is better than the best...The devil is worst than the worst. God is the lover of lovers...The devil is the hater of haters. God is the forgiver of forgivers...the devil is the condemner of condemners. God is ...

There may be a time when it is wrong to do the right thing because it is the wrong time to do the right thing but, is it ever right to do the wrong thing?

The Bible is a book about God that contains some of the words of God penned by fallible men with fallible minds and fallible hands. Jesus is the infallible Word of God with a infallible mind and infallible hands, living in men. The scriptures does not say that the Bible is the WORD of God, it tells us that Jesus is the WORD of God. It is impossible to understand the word about God without knowing the Word of God. Knowing the word is not the same as knowing the Word! The idolization given to the Bible in churches today prompts me to wonder how the early church could ever maintain faith in Christ without their own personal Bibles and all these scholastic resources and Bible teachers believers depend on today? The early Church had no seminaries or Bible schools, no Sunday school classes or Vacation Bible schools, no study guides, but they had the Holy Spirit Guide, no concordances or ordinances, no daily devotionals to read celebrity preachers books to read, yet they had a faith in Christ...

The myriad of voices calling believers in the market place of religious theologies within Christendom is wide to say the least. "Come to God through us" is the cry of religions today, "join our church and be heaven bound". But by and large the the practices of the proponents of religion indicate an abandonment of their "claimed" creator. But is God the creator of such "meisum"? The me first syndrome, the clinging to pet doctrines, the reducing of grace to a formula to recite in order to be heaven bound and get off the fast train to hell, the promoting of healing formulas to recite to get out of unpleasant circumstances we find ourselves in, in order to move to the bliss of the health, wealth and fame gospel is far removed from the Grace Gospel of the Christ of God!  The drawing card to God through religion is the setting up of God as the Santa Clause of adults who gives them their every wish. But the Christ that is claimed as the center of who w...

I fully realize that my view of Church is different than most people I know. Though I am not out to insist that  people believe the way I do, I am hopeful that the truth I share about Jesus and His Church will be helpful to some and will shed light on a way of seeing God and Church Life in a positive and affirming way and that Church is not about denominations but about Jesus. I trust that people will come to know that God didn't create the Church for religion, and He doesn't want people to be "religious" towards Him. God is not a hard taskmaster who forces people to clean up their sinful lifestyles before He will consider accepting them into a relationship with Himself. Rather, He loves everyone right where they are. and He went to great lengths to show His love to all people, "while we were still sinners," by sending Jesus into the world...not to condemn the people of the world but rather so that the people of the world would become His dwelling place. I d...

What is sin? According to Rom 14:23 "...and whatsoever is NOT of FAITH is SIN." Here is a bomb shell that should shock the law socks, the law boots, the law hats and strip the law clothes off people who still try to justify themselves by maintaining their relationship with God by obeying the law or the rule regulated regulations of religion so they can be clothed with the GRACE and LOVE of God. Even the doing of good works that is not of faith' is sin. "And the law is NOT of FAITH..." What an eye opener...provided that traditional beliefs have not dulled the eyesight of or dulled the ears of those enamored with the religious mindset! Since the LAW is NOT of FAITH...and since anything that is NOT of FAITH is SIN, those who try to maintain their relationship with God, become spiritually mature, be established in the faith by doing good works and try to live godly by keeping and practicing the law or the rules of religion are LIVING in SIN!

Independence and self-sufficiency is a Handicap.  Self-sufficiency and stubborn independence does not lend to the sufficiency of and dependence on Jesus. Most religions are in rebellion to the teachings of Jesus Christ and His gospel, given to Paul by Him. Religion is intolerant against change of their post-cross religious view to the post-cross religion-less reality, As such institutional churches idolize their independent segregationists traits and their self-sufficiency. This trait is in direct contrast to the character of Christ. He spoke of coming to the Father like a little child which confirms that His children are in a relational family relationships and not an island unto themselves. He said that He didn’t do anything that He didn’t see His Father do first and that apart from Him, we could do “nothing”. That is a picture of absolute dependence, which isn't a quality of the religions of the day.  Self-sufficiency and stubborn independence keeps the institutional ch...

Why are there so many screwed-up doctrines, screw-up theologies, screwed-up religious practices, all claiming to come from the same book...the Bible? It is NOT that the Bible is a screwed-up book! Unfortunately people read the Bible based on a screwed-up understating through screwed-up religious spectacles, resulting in a screwed-up interpretation lending to the false assumption that the Bible is a screwed-up book.   It is the screwed-up understanding of people that lead to the screwed-up conclusion that the Bible is screwed-up!

If we are going to be a God-pleasing, Jesus-following, Spirit-abiding, Love-giving, Grace-living believer, more often than not we will be the subject of religious-speculating, religious-rejecting, religious-condemning, religious-judging and the religious-fighting behavior of the religious because of religious understandings that misunderstands the reality of the Gospel of Grace.

Why is it that in today’s society the mention of God turns people off and Jesus is disliked and even hated by some people? “Christians” have had it thrown in their face...”if God is the way you say He is, or the way you demonstrate Him as, I do not want anything to do with your God! If God hates me because I am not a Christian, yet loves you, who claims the title of Christian, yet you lack showing love, compassion and understanding, which I am told are God’s qualities, and seem to take delight and satisfaction in judging, condemning and sentencing me and you even dod the same to other religious people because they do not believe the way you do...tell me...why would I want to serve a God like that?” Why do some Some Christians go around acting as if they are chosen by God to police the morality of the world? God is represented by some Christians as one who is against people and who is their condemning judge, this is due to their living on the wrong side of the cross. Rather than putting...

In response to a few of my posts some people, to support their view that standing and demonstrating  for "Christian causes" is a positive witness for the gospel, have referred to God's Love and Grace message in such a way that causes me to think they deem it as frivolous, fluffy, fraudulent, false, and futile concluding that my promotion of the Gospel of Grace and Love puts me in the class of being a false prophet. This response is due to the fact that they view God as both loving and hateful, dispensing good and evil, depending on whether or not He had His coffee fix in the morning to calm His nerves! Jesus, our example, never organized people to demonstrate for one "Christian cause" during His time upon this earth, neither has He called people to demonstrate for a "Christian cause" since His resurrection! Standing for "Christian causes" is not a Grace Gospel stand rather it is a stand for the gospel of man! The words of J...

Many sincere believers ask the question, "What must I do", without understanding the answer to the  question, "What did Jesus do"? What Jesus has done is not necessary for believers to do! Even the doing believers do in His Kingdom is not of our doing, but His doing through us. It is not our work, it is His work!  Jesus has done everything needed for a believer's involvement in His Kingdom. We cannot do anything to gain or maintain our status in Him or for Him to love us more, Jesus has maxed out regarding His love for us...He has no more love to give because He has given it all. Our problem is, we have not understood or accepted the magnitude of His love. Not only can we not do anything to cause Him to love us more...we can do nothing to make Him love us less! His love is a CONSTANT! When people swallow the deception that they are the reason that miracles are in season and convince the pew people that they are the source of blessing in "their ministry...

The hierarchical leadership culture is leader-centric in that it places more importance on leadership than follower-ship. Institutional organizations seek out leaders who can gather followers who will follow the leader whom they have indoctrinated with their belief system. Jesus did not recruit leaders for His ministry, He invited people to be followers by His words "follow me". A believers fundamental identity is: I am a follower. There are to many leaders who have followers who follow them as they lead for Christ, but their leading more often than not does not lead them to Christ. If a leader is not a follower of Christ, he is not a godly leader even though he may be know as a leader for Christ that has many followers. Paul's words were "follow me as I follow Christ". If a leader is a follower of religion instead of a follower of Christ he is not to be followed by believers in Christ! Followership is more dynamic than leadership because without followership th...

According to the stand that thousands of Christians took a stand for earlier this month, I am led to believe that they believe that standing for a "Christian Cause" is taking a stand for Jesus....but, IS IT? I anticipate that Mr. Huckabee considered it one of his most rewarding actions that may have resulted in the most profitable day for his chicken killing, because of chicken-eating, chicken-loving Christians who deemed their stand and their chicken eating as supporting a Christian principle. These Christian chicken-lovers, claim to love Jesus, trust God and the goal of their chicken eating was a means of sharing the gospel, which is suppose to be "good news" to the unbeliever. Was this action on the part of Christians a means of sharing the good news of the gospel of Christ? Being good news for Chick-Fil-A sales, or satisfying the guts of Christian-Chicken-lovers by their chicken eating, nor the unifying together of thousands of Christians who normally live denom...

In my interaction with some people in the institutional churches, I have learned that one of the most misunderstood theological understanding is their understanding of the reason Jesus came to earth and what constitutes the Gospel of Jesus…the Gospel of Grace…and what its reality really is. When they are made known the Grace Gospel in its undiluted reality they become defensive to the point of condemning and discrediting the very Gospel Jesus provided for us without realizing that the rejection of the Grace Gospel is a rejection of Jesus Himself and is non-acceptance of His accomplishment on the cross! The extent of their understanding of Grace is that yes, you are saved by Grace but there it ends. Once born again they revert back to the practice of what a person does as the path to maintaining one’s salvation and proof of one's spiritual maturity. This list of do’s include, but are not limited to, obeying the ten commandments, bible reading, religious rule k...

Part 15 We see this clearly spelled out in 1 Chronicles 21:1, and in 2 Samuel 24:1. It’s the same story in both passages: David is incited to take a census of Israel and Judah, and then later says that by doing this he had sinned against Go d. The interesting thing, however, is that in 2 Samuel 24:1 it says that God incited David to commit this sin, whereas in 1 Chronicles 21:1 it says that Satan incited David to commit this sin. God is not the one who tries to get us to sin, therefore Satan was the one that incites us to sin and the one who incited David to take the census. Still, the Old Testament writer of 1 Chronicles attributes this work of Satan to be the work of God. Jesus came to correct this gross misunderstanding of God. He told us about a very real enemy known as Satan, and showed us a very real God known as Father. Jesus the express image of God showed us that death and destruction were not the works of God, but rather the works of the enemy as...

Part 14 If the God we see in the pre-cross era is different than what we see in the person of Jesus...who was the only person to show us God’s true character, we must side with the expressed image of God in Christ, and interpret that Old Testament passage through Jesus if we are going to get the right perspective of God. The Old Testament is not the expression of God or His nature.  If you want to know what God is like or how He acts you have to view Him through Jesus Christ.  Jesus is the picture that God paints of Himself.  And it is only through Jesus that we can properly interpret the Old Testament. Christendom may say they believe post-cross reality, but in most cased they they live pre-cross ideology in the post-cross era not completely believing all that Christ accomplished by His sacrifice! We understand that scripture is revealed through “progressive revelation.”  That means that God reveals Himself in scripture over time, and not all at once. If we are tr...

Part 13 Based on what we have been discussing...how should we as Believers treat the Old Testament? The correct answer is, like Jesus did! By the Spirit of Christ that lives within us, we are able ministers and very capable of dividing the word according to 2 Cor, 3:6, Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life, but that entails that we KNOW Jesus, not just know about Him! If we want to know what God is like...we have to observe Jesus. He was and is the expression of God. He displayed God. And He showed us that God is compassionate, kind and loving. He is not hiding behind some corner with a big stick waiting to pounce on us when we do wrong. Jesus said that He and His Father are one. He also said that if you have seen Me you have seen God. Therefore, it is only through Jesus that we see who God truly is; we do not find out who God really is by reading the Old Testament, nor reading...

Part 12 Luke 4:18-19, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. Isaiah 61:1-2, reads. The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn. The Luke passage is a quote by Jesus from the Old Testament, but he left something out. He didn’t mentioned anything about “the day of vengeance”. Was this an intentional exclusion or did He just forget it? Jesus never said or did anything He didn’t see the Father doing. Believer, are we to ignor...

Part 11 I have not read anywhere in scripture where Jesus said; “The Father said, but”. He simply states His position as being different then what they had heard. It is worthy to note that many other times Jesus said; "Moses said, but I say" , once again making no reference to the Father having anything to do with the statement at all. Jesus never "butted" the Father. He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts, suffered you to put away your wives. (Matt 19:8), but in Duet 24 we are told: but from the beginning it was not so. Because of their hardness of heart, the deception of Satan’s lie had clouded their vision so they cannot see clearly. Because of this they were allowed to divorce for just about any reason. But, who did Jesus say told them this was okay? MOSES, but from the beginning it was (not) so.... Jesus was in disagreement with what Moses had to say about divorce. Are there cases where He disagreed with other prop...

Part 10 Have we as post-cross believers become like the Pharisees and Sadducees? Will we remain behind a curtain that Christ Himself removed? Will we continue to give as much weight to the the writers of the Old Testament as we do to Jesus Himself? Over and over we are told no one really knew God, no one saw God’s true nature. Jesus was here to clear up the ungodly like thing that were attributed to God. Jesus the express image of God is telling us that if we have seen Him we have seen the Father. Jesus tells us He didn’t do or say anything He didn’t see the Father do. The Word, God in flesh was here to say; look at Me, I’m dong the will of the Father.  I am what you have been looking for in the scriptures. I am here in bodily form to show you exactly what I am like. All things written before, all things seen before are just shadows; you did not see me clearly. Here, I AM. Right about now you may be thinking, if this is all true where does it leave us in relation to the  Old T...

Part 9 In John chapter one we read, “No man has seen God". The word "seen" when expanded means "to know by experience, to perceive or to be acquainted with”. Nobody in history past really knew the nature of God. Jesus comes from heaven to ea rth, He is the embodiment of the Father, to reveal the Father’s true nature to humanity, He is the express image of God. Have we missed the reality of this statement? When John said no one knew God, did he really mean it? Was John inspired by God when he said it? When John said no one had a clear understanding of who God was, wouldn’t that also include all pre-cross people, including those known as the sacred writers? Jesus Himself says in John 5:37 And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape. Again in John 17:25-26 he prays, O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known ...

Part 8 Is God the villain or is it or Satan? In 2 Samuel 24:1 we are told that the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah. Yet another writer of the Old Testament sees the exact same incident, same David, same story, same result, differently. 1 Chronicles 21:1 says that Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel. The writer of 2 Samuel tells us it was God’s (anger) that moved David to number Israel. The writer of 1 Chronicles tells us it was (Satan) who provoked David. This leaves us with a staggering truth. The Old Testament writers (from the pre-cross side of the lie) saw God’s anger and Satan as being the same thing. This systematic theology shattering information should not be swept under the rug. Scripture just told us Gods anger and Satan are interchangeable and we also learned that Jews believe Satan is the angel of death. Unless we are so deceived in this deception that we remain ...

Part 7 The religion of the Jewish people is purely monotheistic. This necessitates that God has no no equal therefore, it is concluded that He has no real enemies because, among other things, He is all powerful therefore, the concept of Sata n existing as a distinct being that can act from his own will was unknown in their religious concept. By reading the Old Testament it is clear that the writers did not see Satan as the New Testament reveals him. They saw him as an angel of God, the death angel, an attribute of God. It is extremely important for us to understand that the Old Testament writers did not have the revelation that came from Jesus in the post-cross era. The encyclopedia of Jewish Concepts, teaches that Satan is the one who leads people astray and is the “accuser of the brethren”, he is also known as the angel of death, he is the hinder-er who in biblical history is known as the adversary. He is thought to do what he does under the control of God. The...

Part 6 Understanding what happened and the effect Adam and Eve’s sinning had on mankind is a necessity in order to see God through the life of Jesus, unclouded by the religious tunnel vision spectacles. Before the eating of the forbidden fru it, Adam and Eve were like God in that they were created in His image. Life was seen from the vantage point of purity and wisdom. Titus 1:15 tells us that to the pure all things are pure but to the defiled, nothing is pure. Before sin entered the universe mankind was pure; as a result mankind saw everything with a pure heart in perfect clarity. God was seen as being only good. In actual fact, the lie of Satan was an was to get them to become unlike God, for they were already created in His image. After sinning mankind was defiled with evil and no longer saw anything as pure, including God, as was demonstrated by their hiding from Him because they thought that that in that state He would be displeased with their nakedness. The ...

Part 5 If Gen.3:22 as read in the KJV, And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil is rendered correctly it means God is agreeing with the serpents lie. It would also mean that sin makes us more like God. That is truly absurd, we know neither of these is true. God can’t lie and sin doesn’t make us more like Him. Gen. 3:22, understood correctly is the key to unlocking what actually happened when Adam and Eve ate from the tree of good and evil. And Jehovah God saith, `Lo, the man (was) as one of Us, as to the knowledge of good and evil…. (Young’s Literal translation) The KJV’s rendering of this verse is a complete contradiction of the literal Hebrew translation The KJV states mankind became more like God after sin (knowing both good AND evil by experience). The original Hebrew says the opposite. The serpent is the one that said God was acquainted with evil by experience and the serpent is a liar! We were the ones that becam...

Part 4 Everything God made was good thus, God is a good God and only good comes from Him. But that raises the question, what do we do about the but what about the “abouts”? Many people quote the phrase "God is good all the time." That true statement means that God is only good and He is not the producer of anything bad. But that leaves us with a Biblical dilemma since certain scriptures do ascribe evil to God. The "Christian religion" has come up a perceived answer to this. It might be evil if we kill or destroy but if God does it’s not really evil because whatever God does is good and He knows the big picture, followed by with God’s ways are higher than ours. Another way of saying it is, the evil we think is evil done by God is not evil at all, if we could see the big picture as God sees it, But the scriptures declare, Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitt...

Part 3 In the book of Beginnings we are told over and over that everything God created was good. The repeated use of the word does not go without meaning. God is revealing an essential truth to us, everything about God is good. Then in the final verse God leaves us with an absolute. Everything He created was good, not some things, not most things, everything (Genesis 1:31). Creation provides us a glimpse into God’s character. The first chapter of the Bible leaves us with the understanding that since everything God created was good, God is good. Jesus confirms this; “A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.” (Matt 7:18). God didn’t create anything evil, for there is no evil in Him. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit. The good tree represents Jesus from which all things were created and it is impossible for Jesus to bring forth anything evil. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The sam...

Part 2 The understanding of the dualistic, opposite characteristics of God leads to the confusing image of God that many people in the secular and religious realm have swallowed hook, line and sinker. In the pre-cross era we are told that God is a killing and a evil creating God that commanded that small children be destroyed. In the post-cross era we see Jesus expressing a message of life, love, grace and forgiveness. Jesus healed, set the captives free and always overcame evil with good. Jesus never hurt anyone and He never condoned violence of any kind. According to scripture Jesus is the express image and the perfect reflection of the Father. What He said and did was what He saw the father say and do. The scriptures also declare that if we have seen Jesus we have seen the Father. Jesus perfectly and profoundly revealed the Fathers complete nature to humanity. Jesus is the Word of God, Jesus IS God. Believers themselves hang on the fact that Jesus is God...not a part of God but God...