BTZ Blog

Family life is built on an entirely different set of methods and goals than Institutional life. In a healthy family people are not cooperating as a means to an end, they are simply learning to relate to each other in love, acceptance and forgiveness. In a healthy family diversity is not only allowed, it is cherished. People don't relate to each other through lines of authority, but by functional gifting. If someone's computer started to malfunction they feel no compulsion to ask the older brother to attend to it. They will already know who in the family has the most 'computer savvy' and seek their help. Healthy families don't press people to conform, but let people grow together at their own pace. They have the freedom to disagree without separating into multiple families. They share together in each other's journey, serving with their particular giftings, offering insights and abilities that are helpful, and supporting each other no matter what they go throu

The Church is made up of people who have a growing PERSONAL  RELATIONSHIP  with God. The criteria is not to have a relational relationship with an institution in order to have a relationship with God!  The Church is only effective as people are equipped to know the living God and follow Him, not follow an institution's perception of Him. Having a growing relationship with God will teach us and equip us to relate to other people based on their humanity, not based on their affiliation with a group and adherence to their belief system. Having a relationship that is confined to an institutional group stifles our relationship with God and with other people. In fact it causes disillusionment to people in the relational group who really want to know God, because of the closed mindedness regarding their approach to and who God is. Institutions are spawned by modeling what people think is a the correct bible model of what Church is. It is because of the human element and the disregard

People belonging to the segregated groups within Christendom accuse people who do not belong to, or remove themselves from a segregated group as being lone-ranger believers. Because of their shaded denominated spectacles they themselves fail to see that the denominated segregated group mentality also are lone-ranger-ranger believers because of the spiritual elitism fostered by the idea that they are more right and understand the bible more clearly than the other groups which makes them a lone-ranger group. Their members are clones of the founders and the hierarchy of the group. As it is with individuals who are classed as loners by them, they themselves will never thrive in the life of Jesus. But that is a long ways from who God's people really are. Just as individuals can't be the Church by declaring it so, neither can segregated denominated groups. Who is the Church in the world? Is it not those who live the same confession Peter offered" "You are the Christ, th

To many “church goers” sit and listen to the written word from the wisdom of men without listening to the Living Word from the wisdom of the Holy Spirit. This over-saturation of the written word and under-saturation of the Living Word leads to self-righteousness pompous attitudes that justifies people to load up their spiritual cannons with out-off context scripture verses and use the scripture as cannon balls to fire at people who do not believe the way they do. The fleshly tendency, after being inundated with the written word without experiencing the Living Word is that the pew-warmers sit back and become a "discusser" of the written word without living the reality of the Living Word! You can sit and share about all the great meetings you've attended, the famous ministers you've chased after and can even report about all the supernatural things you have personally observed, yet you know not what it is to live in the Living Word and have the Living Word live in you.

Matt. 16: 18, “I will build MY Church” In the above verse we find the only recorded instructions Jesus gave to his disciples about the church. "I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it." He didn't ask them to do it. He didn't give them a blueprint of an organization. He simply said he would build his church and it would be strong enough to withstand any assault by darkness. So it only seems natural to assess how he's doing. If he's been at it for almost 2,000 years, what do we have to show for it? People know better than to say he hasn't done well, but they also know the church is fragmented by division, scandalized by immorality, vilified for its arrogance, exposed by its misplaced priorities and far from replicating the ministry Jesus found in the Gospels. We either have to conclude that Jesus hasn't done an exceptional job, or consider that there is a vast difference between what he calls church and what we do. Is th

If we saw people through the eyes of Jesus, understood people with the heart of Jesus, treated people with the respect of Jesus, loved people with the love of Jesus, would people have a different view of God? I believe they would…people would be drawn to our loving God.

The freedom of not being told how and what to believe. The freedom of not being told how to interpret the bible. The freedom of not being told that God is a angry God. The freedom of viewing God through the lens of Jesus rather than the lens of traditional understanding. The freedom of accepting Jesus as the Word of God who has all authority, as more authentic than the translated by men bible being held as the word of God with all authority. The freedom of living in God’s grace and love rather than living in how His grace and love is perceived by others. The freedom of associating with, congregating with and loving sinners and sinning saints rather then shunning them. The freedom of accepting my faults and failures without the fear that God is going to punish me for my bombing out. The freedom to believe that I can do nothing to make God love me more, nor can I do anything to make God love me less. The freedom that I can be me without having to adhere to rules and regulations of people

 “God’s readiness to give and forgive is now public. Salvation’s available for everyone! We’re being shown how to turn our backs on a godless, indulgent life, and how to take on a God-filled, God-honoring life. This new life is starting right now, and is whetting our appetites for the glorious day when our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, appears. He offered himself as a sacrifice to free us from a dark, rebellious life into this good, pure life, making us a people he can be proud of, energetic in goodness.” What a powerful grace, it gives us the power to live a grace controlled life and say no to ungodliness and worldly passions and live upright and godly lives. Those who make light and degrade God’s grace are at the point of blasphemy and need to know that grace is not a pass card to sinning because God will forgive me, that is not the message of grace. Grace provides the power to live righteously, it is not permission to sin. When we miserably fail we do not become unsaved and sa

Our priority in living is to LOVE PEOPLE! If we have other priorities that trump loving people we have a wrong priority structure. People are what matters most to God therefore, people should be what matters most to us! It seems that we have adopted the premise that the people that matter to us are the ones that believe like we do, think like we do, understand Jesus the way we do, interpret the bible the way we do, believe in heaven and hell the way we do, go to church the way we do, believe in the fivefold ministry the way we do, believe in tithing the way we do, etc. If Jesus was to have adopted that premise that people were to be like Him before He would love them He would have loved very few. Thank God He loved us while we were sinners and the proof of that is, “while we were yet sinners He died for us!

Knowing God through Jesus. Knowing Jesus in all His glory requires a deeper understanding than just repeating the “sinner’s prayer”, following a programmed structure of Bible study, or accepting a certain theological doctrinal stance from the many that are out there. To be transformed into His likeness is not accomplished by anything we might do, it is entirely a work of His Spirit, but it requires that we KNOW Jesus. If we have a false knowing of Him the Spirit cannot transform us into His image because we will always try to conform to our idea of who He is. Though we be introduced to Jesus and get to know about Jesus through the teachings of man, getting to know Jesus through the teachings of man is an impossibility, The only way to truly know Jesus is through a relationship with God where each new day we look to Christ Himself as we discover more of the treasures, the glory the power, the beauty and majesty of Christ. As this happens we become more aware of the quality of His love w

To be able to live as a loved child of God and rest in His radical love, it is important to comprehend and understand the finished work Christ accomplished on the cross and through His resurrection. The greatest blessing we have as believers is the privilege of knowing Christ and being in relationship with Him by being in Him and He in us. When we understand the extent of God’s grace and love for us we want to extend that grace and love to other people. By knowing we are loved by God, resting in that love and living out our lives in His grace and love, is the greatest witness we can demonstrate to affirm the reality of the Kingdom of God.

I am sure most women, on times, believe they are and maybe they are justified in some cases to come to that conclusion. But sometimes women act as if the world has come to an end over frivolous issues that doesn't mean a roll of beans. For example, if after the man gets a cookie from a container and they go to get one, the cover is not completely sealed to them it's a major event. .  Sometimes their reaction to the man not putting the dinner bowl that she left out on the counter for him to get His supper from is left on the counter instead of being put in the refrigerator results in a remark on the mindlessness of men.  Other times when she goes to the garbage container and it is full because of the trash deposited by the man, yet he did not have enough sense about him to remove the garbage to the trash as His being lazy. These are all things that we as men should be cognitive of. But, because we sometimes fail to cary through on the expectations of our spouses, does t

Any relationship that you may be involved in that demands you uphold man-made constitutions even when they are against the character of Jesus Christ, or expects you lie to in order to save the face of the organization, is not a relationship designed by God and really it is no relationship at all.

Guess what…worship is not necessarily activities during a time set aside in a building holding event-drive-meetings. I wonder, what would be the reaction of people if they went to a “church building” and saw this sign in the door…The Church Has Left The Building To WORSHIP God. Worship should never be relegated to a performance, but an expression of the heart to our loving Father. It is not expressed to gain the approval of man, nor even the approval of God for we are already approved of God. It is directed only to our loving Father out of appreciation, love and respect. Worship to God is expressed by the life we live in living our life in the world we live in. It is not the life we live during a twenty minute time frame set aside for worship in Sunday-go meetings!

Any institutional group that does not open their hearts to people and become a true comunity of the redeemed that present The gospel of His grace and love by expressing the kindness and wisdom of God, will not endure...they may continue to exist as an entity but fail as truly identifing with Christ. The purpose of theology is not a methodical study of scripture to support man's superstition and give credence to their intrepretation and understnding of scripture. Instead, to gain correct theology is to study Jesus the Word and not what men say is the true understanding of the written word...this is what has supported the segreation of the Body of Christ.

As children of God, it is the reality of the sufficiency of God’s grace that keeps us in dynamic relationship with Him and gives us full confidence in His love. Don’t be tricked and slip back into believing grace is not enough; for it is when we try to earn our right standing with God that we are snared by all kinds of fear, weakness and self-condemnation and become trapped in the performance trap of the do’s and don’ts of controlling systems that seek to control God’s people. As believers remain in the truth and the reality of His grace, and take hold of the confidence of being wrapped in His unfailing love. This is the good news gospel of Jesus given to Paul and the divine reality we need to take our stand upon. This is the gospel message that will fill the people of the world with hope and assurance that has been made clear because of the finished work of Christ through His death and resurrection and the new creation of life of Christ Himself that was revealed to and through Paul th

Sin’s power cannot stop the flowing river of God’s Grace and Love, rather the river of God’s Grace and Love empowers us with the power of the Spirit to stop stepping in the river of sin that entices us to swim in its controlling waters. The Church that Jesus is building is Grace Shaped, Grace Based and Grace Laced with Grace Love so we can be Grace Encased to protect us from the great enemy of Grace…the river of sin, even when it flows from people who call themselves believers yet refer to Grace as cheap and a license to sin.  People do not need a license to sin rather, they need a license not to sin, and that license is nothing less that the power found in God’s Grace!

God has no expectations set for you to be accepted by Him, nor is there any failure that you may succumb to that will move Him to reject you! In our relationship with God we are to be so infused with and in tune with His Spirit we rest in Him as He does His work through us. Anytime we claim to be doing His work because we are the instruments He uses is a shame, but it is still done by people who seek fame. We are not to claim fame to spiritual success that God does through us mere mortals yet, Christendom thrives on the so called “spiritual elite”, “God’s generals”, “celebrity preachers” and “spiritual do gooders”. God knows me, He knows you…He knows those who have claimed fame because of His name and He knows that all people apart from Him can do nothing in and for His Kingdom. We don’t have to prove ourselves to God. We don’t have to be concerned about disappointing God. We do not have to obey the law to earn His respect. We don’t have to perform to deserve His blessings. We d

What if some of what we have been traditionally taught about God, the way of gaining heaven, the how of going to hell, the way of doing Church, the systems that maintain they are godly, etc, which we have rooted our faith in as being the gospel, turned out to be wrong? As I look through the lens of Jesus rather than the lens of tradition, for me at least, questions arise as to the validity of some of what I held to as the gospel truth, seems to be fabrications of men where I have permitted deception to deceive me into upholding the fabrications as truth. Are we victims of a great deception that has blinded us and hindered the reality of the Gospel of Christ as the avenue of showing the people of the world the awesomeness of our gracious and loving God? If the “what if's” are false…where do we stand with regard to being the “Church” that Jesus said He would build? Could the "what if's" be false, or am I just a disillusioned illusionist?

When our hardened hearts, hardened due to the acceptance of traditional interpretations of scripture handed down by men who were influenced by their environment and belief systems in their interpretation, the barriers erected because of traditional influences begin to break down and our hearts are softened to understand spiritual revelation. The eyes of our understanding shed its traditional spiritual blindness that has held back our understanding regarding the fullness of God’s grace. The floodgates open and His love washes away the confusing cobwebs of tradition and frees our minds from the deception, and revelatory understanding of scripture becomes clearer and the grandeur of God’s gracious grace takes on a richer meaning. The awesomeness of God is only fully understood by a richer understanding of His awesome grace and our living in the awesomeness of His grace.

Jesus informs us that His yoke is easy and His burden is light. If the yoke we are under is hard and the burden we bare is heavy, we are yoked to the wrong yoke and burdened with the wrong burden. If you are laboring under a heavy burden and struggling against the yoke you are in, it is time unyoke from the thing you are yoked to and yoke up with Jesus and cast your burden on Him for He cares for you.

Until we know who we are in Christ, we will never know who we are through Christ, to be able to rest in Christ, to work His work through us to bless people.

Growing up in the church atmosphere for us kids Sunday school was a source of our indoctrination. We were taught about God and to be careful, little eyes what you see, little tongue what you say, little hands what you do, and little feet where you go. For the Father up above is looking down in love, so be careful little…what you…. I tried my best to conform to what was right, but after a while for some reason it seemed that wrong got the better of me and bingo, I was accused of not trying hard enough and the blame and shame game was played on me. Along with that came the teaching that God was upset with me and did not love me as much when I did wrong as when I did right and that God punishes people for doing wrong. So if I wanted to be on God’s side and in His good favor I had to try harder. For me as a young believer, this “do right” and “don’t do wrong” mentality caused much stress and anxiety in my  life, especially after being taught that if I did wrong and died without asking for

I wonder....how many people would be influenced for the Kingdom of Christ if we weren't credit seekers out to claim a name to fame by influencing the spiritual score keepers? If we all started coming together in unity instead of segregating from each other in disunity, if we all extended more grace, mercy, compassion and love instead of law keeping, fault finding, indifference and exhibiting territorial control, would we impact the people of the world more? In exercising what we deem to be our rights, and fight to maintain territorial control we make it all about us...our accomplishments...our resources and compete with others to be the best, yet we fail to recognize that God is not in it! Let’s lay aside such pettiness to help other people achieve their God given potential.

It has been said that the percentage of people that "Think for themselves is a measly 5%." The percentage of people that "Think they Think is a staggering 10%." The percentage of people that "Do Not Think for themselves is a whopping 85%." Sad to say this percentile breakdown is about the same in Christendom when it comes to why and how people believe what they believe. By the way, when it comes to your theological belief system which percentile grouping do you fit in?

If acceptance and appreciation are not qualities we exhibit, understanding has eluded us for understanding is the first building block to acceptance, followed by appreciation.  Nothing dissolves away barriers as thoroughly as understanding, accepting and appreciating people.  Contentment is directly proportional to your acceptance of people and inversely proportional to your expectations of people. We need to accept and be contented with the fact that everything is in perfect order whether we understand it or not.  Loving with the love of God requires, acceptance of the person, understanding and appreciating the person, if we lack any one of these three qualities we are not really loving with the love of God.

Knowing the Bible without knowing God is futile for spiritual growth. It leads to self-righteousness, and standards of conduct to be adhered though external obedience which is then recognized by the Bible Knowers as being spiritual. One problem with Bible School learning is people waste our time trying to solve theological issues that men who were probably much wiser and better educated than we are, yet have been unable to solve the same issues in some 2000 years. Different theological seminaries have professors whose theological beliefs differ from one another based on their indoctrinated doctrinal philosophy. Yet, they all maintain their particular theological persuasion is the right one. Some of them may admit they are not always right, yet they act as if they are never wrong! You see, most, if not all people are theologians to some degree. A theologian is a person who has opinions about the nature of God and we all do in one way or another. It is a system of theory and beliefs that

  A true Believer is not one who uses people in pursuit of things and is not one who develops a friendship in order to manipulate the other party for the reason of personal fame or personal gain.  The world perceives "Christians" as self-serving and manipulating people rather than be self-sacrificing for people. The history of Christendom is littered with self-serving dishonest practices of "Christians" for advancement of egoistical positions to maintain their "spiritual self-identity".   What a sad representation of Christ when the only thing He asked of us is that we would love each other in the same way He loves so that the whole world would know who He is! We have failed miserably in the love mission of Jesus. And we continue to fail. This is one case where history will not repeat itself because we have constantly failed to express His love from the time that He initially asked us to love. Why does authentic, caring and loving a community with o

None of us are immune to storms along the journey of life. Why some people seem to to spend most of their time sailing in storms while others have long periods of sailing in smooth waters, I do not understand. The people who are constantly in storms are prone to fighting the rough waters of the storm within a storm whose winds assail them at the time the outer storm is at its worst. This storm within a storm we face on the sea of life is the storm of doubt! We begin to accuse God for punishing us for what we might have done wrong. We accuse Him of not caring and has His face turned from us. If He is aware of what we are gong through He is callus, distant and cold. In the storm of doubt we accept the drudgery and sink into discouragement and despair. We become so overwhelmed some people give up on God. God is higher than the storms. He's kneeling their on the hills of Sea of Life. And just like God's eye is even on the smallest sparrow, so too Jesus the Savior of the world has h

People need people. People relationships are most important therefore, be careful and thoughtful and kind in how you treat people!

Knowing the written word does not ascertain that you KNOW God. Many people know the written word inside out, quote the written word verbatim as a proof text that is lifted out of its context to backup their  misinterpreted interpretation, use the written word as scriptural bullets to squelch questions that could reveal the misinterpreted interpretation but, still do not KNOW God! The only way to KNOW God is to KNOW Jesus! The scriptures declare that before Christ no one KNEW God! It is only viewing God through the lens of Christ can we truly KNOW God. If we think we can KNOW God without knowing Jesus, the express image of God, we deceive ourselves, as well, we are responsible for deceiving the people we try to persuade to KNOW God.

Stagnation at the information well of doctrinal infusion by the indoctrinated seminary graduate is not a characteristic of believers who are on a truth seeking relational journey with God through Jesus. Learning from the well of doctrinal infusion produces theologians and experts in the man-made doctrines and the theology of a particular belief syste m. They in turn parrot what they have been programmed with to further influence people to accept their particular belief system. The truth they teach is heavily laced with doctrinal hogwash (man-made doctrines) that they have been infused with at the stagnate well of learning. Unfortunately this mixture of man-made doctrine mixed with truth makes the truth an untruth.  The characteristic that is predominate in us as believers, that indicates spiritual growth in our relational journey with God is the ability to be open to change and to change when it is shown that it is needed. Change is good when it is in the right direction.

Our inverted understanding of love and trust and implying that misunderstanding to God, is why people view Him as controlling, demanding and even abusive if we fail to prove our love and pass His test to confirm our love is genuine. We have been led to believe that God’s blessings are dependent on our trustworthiness and to question what we are taught as theology and doctrine was to question God Himself and that exemplifies that we don’t trust Him and that renders us untrustworthy. That philosophy leads to the performance mentality that is so prevalent today in Christendom where proving our love for God, and assures He can trust us is based on our performance. This thinking is indicative that we have fallen for the deception that our trustworthiness and our believing that God is trusting is proven by our adherence to and our support of what it means to be a “Christian” in Christendom by obeying the rules set by the hierarchical hierarchy of the different systems that are out there. We

God's people need to firmly establish in their though process and in their involvement in caring out His mission in the community of humanity on the earth that Church is not a place to go, rather it is who we are, the way we live as the Body of Christ as a community of the redeemed as we live in the community of humanity in life living. The phrase "go to church" is a misnomer and should be dropped from the vocabulary of the redeemed because it leaves an incorrect connotation to both believers and nonbelievers alike. Implying that phrase as the reason why we get up on a Sunday morning to attend a Sunday-go-meeting gathering of God's people leaves the impression that it is the primary driving force behind Church and its actions when in actuality it is not, or at least it shouldn't be.  Some of the reasons for "going to church" are thought to be good by church goers when in actuality they are not because most of the reasons for "going to church&q

Inside every person, including the people that do not treat us so good, there is a hidden treasure that is unlocked by love and opened by a cherishing smile. When we love and cherish somebody and show them respect, the person realizes we have discovered their inner value and they too are made aware of the inner value that is within them. Some people wait a lifetime without someone discovering the treasure within them. Hey, how about we all be treasure hunters and go treasure hunting today!

True wealth is not in the abundance of houses or land nor silver or Gold. True wealth is in the love we show to others and the good we do for souls. And if our faith is honest and true, the good we have, we will desire for others too. And being kind and love wealthy, is the means to keeping our spirits healthy.

In the the Church at Corinth there were people committing sin by doing things that were not in tune with the Spirit of God. Yet Paul’s way of bringing the sinning Christians out of sin was not by bombarding them with condemnation  by the misuse of scripture, but to remind them of who they were in Christ. Paul being a leader did not want people that were a part of the Church of Jesus Christ to fall captive to sin, and he was not one to sweep the problem under the rug and pat the sinning people on the back and tell them the grace gospel allows them to do such, as believed by many out there today. But he also knew that making them focus on their themselves, their weakness and their sin would only make them weaker, more sin conscious and susceptible to sinning more. Paul’s way of dealing with the issue was to point them back to who they are in Christ; that through the perfect finished work of the cross they had all been made new creations in Christ. He reminded them of the righteousness th

The following was reported by Amanda Terkel on Feb 22, 2010 Bob Marshall On Thursday, Virginia State Delegate Bob Marshall (R) spoke at a press conference against state funding for Planned Parenthood. He blasted the organization for supporting a women’s right to choose, saying that God punishes women who have had abortions by giving them dis abled children: “The number of children who are born subsequent to a first abortion with handicaps has increased dramatically. Why? Because when you abort the first born of any, nature takes its vengeance on the subsequent children,” said Marshall, a Republican. “In the Old Testament, the first born of every being, animal and man, was dedicated to the Lord. There’s a special punishment Christians would suggest.” Really, are babies with disabilities a result of God’s punishment on women who previously had abortions. If that is the predominate view of bible literalism law keepers, no wonder God is viewed as a sadistic, egotis

If we are honest with ourselves we must admit that our theological and doctrinal stance has evolved with the passing of time. Without mentioning the obvious, many things we were taught are no longer a part of our belief system. Why is that? Because we have gained a fuller understanding of what we had been taught as truth and have concluded that the information supplied to us, was either misguided or false. This does not mean that scriptural theology or doctrine is wrong, but that in some instances man's understanding of scripture is misguided or wrong. Because we are human, the relational path we travel with Jesus is also a spiritual journey of truth seeking. By getting to know God in a richer way through viewing Him through Jesus, we are made aware that what we accepted as “truths” in the past were not truths at all or at the least, were misguided truths. The “truths” that we believe as a “unified group”.  Shared beliefs unify groups , but also segregate them fro

The Confused Confusion that is prevalent in Christendom today is a result of wrongly dividing the word of truth.  The question that needs to be asked is who is to give us understanding regarding rightly dividing the word of truth...the scriptures?  If we take to heart what Timothy says in his second epistle  and consider what he says in ch, 2, verse 7, ...the Lord give thee understanding in all things." we at least know who we should receive our understanding from! The sad part about it is that much of Christendom does not consider what he says therefore are self-deceived into believing that the understanding that men feeds them is the right understanding.  This is often accepted because the expounders are accepted as the spiritual pipeline that flows spiritual understanding from God to man. This bypasses the instruction from God that His Holy Spirit is to be the revealer of spiritual matters.  Now, God does use man to instruct us but, we have to be constantly aware that

If you have a phobia of how other people think of you it empowers such people to manipulate and control you, and to submit and agree to their philosophy of life and their belief system. This type of manipulation and control numbs your thinking ability and your brain sensors are blocked preventing you from thinking for yourself. Be it known, it is not as important what other people think of you as it is what you think of yourself, or what God thinks of you!

Make sure you demonstrate your love to people when you think they deserve it the least, because that is when they need love the most!   To be a lovely loving person, love the unlovely the same  as you would love the lovely!

I quote, William R. Newell:  “You can judge any man’s teaching by this rule is he Pauline? Does his doctrine start and end according to those statements of Christian doctrine uttered by the apostle Paul? No matter how wonderful a man may seem to be in his gifts and apparent consecration, if his gospel is not Pauline, it is not the gospel, and we might as well get our minds set tled at once on that point.” “For instance, if you were to take Paul’s Epistles out of the Bible, you cannot find anything about the Church, the Body of Christ, for no other apostle mentions the Body of Christ.” “Would that we had grace to defend just as vigorously this great message today, FOR IT HAS MANY ENEMIES, and even real friends who do not yet see it clearly; and there are others, who like Peter (Galatians 2:11), THROUGH FEAR OF OTHERS, ARE READY TO COMPROMISE and tone down the gospel of God.” End quote Another quote by Dr. H. A. Ironside that is revelatory and important for those who dis

If the doctrine in your head overrides the love in your heart and your treatment of, or respect for people, you are carrying around the wrong doctrine in your head, no matter how mind convinced you are that it is right doctrine! You see...God is love, God is in your heart, love is in your heart...if your doctrine is overriding the love in your heart you are overriding God!  Jesus died and rose again for people...not doctrine.

A sure way to grow old gracefully yet stay young at heart, is to have a heart that truly loves and forgives, and have a smile so large that it makes your face disappear.

The Goodnes of God has Given us the Grace of God! God is good, He sent His Son to give us a revelation of His goodness, for in His humanity Jesus was the express image of His Father. We know what God is like because of Jesus His Son. We are no longer distant from Him, we no longer need to be scared of Him or ashamed before Him. It is no longer necessary to qualify ourselves to be able to relate to Him base on our own ability, strength or our faithfulness. Rather, through a glorious act of His grace, His, love, His faithfulness our new covenant is based on Hid divine strength and His limitless ability to be faithful to us, even when we are less than faithful to Him. We have entered into a relationship with God that is not dependent on our doing the do's but on His perfect doneness by His perfect sacrifice. How stress releasing is it to know that the relationship we are in with the living God is not only based, but is also sealed with the blood of Hid precious Son. Jesus  paid

To often the gospel message we preach to others is built around our perception and interpretation of the word about the Messenger rather than focused on the Messenger Himself, who is the WORD!  It is not enough to study the scriptures and interpret them based on what and how we believe. The doing so has led to man-inspired interpretations that are false leading to the formation of false doctrines that have been accepted as truth, when in reality it is the deception of the truth that has allowed the acceptance of man-made doctrines as the truth of the gospel message.  We are admonished to "study the scripture to prove ourselves a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth".  We need to study the scriptures through the Jesus lens, for only through Him can we correctly understand the scriptures, thus, enabling us to share the true message of the gospel without being ashamed.

Living in the written word and quoting the written word without living in the living WORD and knowing the living WORD does not make one an authority on the written word in regards to the interpretation of the word. Knowing the book without knowing the Jesus of the book enables one to know ABOUT Jesus. Knowing the living WORD is the only way to KNOW Jesus. Even Satan knew the scriptures and knew about Jesus but he did not KNOW Jesus, nor did he know prior to its happening, what the finished work of Jesus on the cross would accomplish. Neither did people know the extent of the quality of the effect of Jesus’ sacrifice. The thing is...Satan now realizes the awesomeness of the accomplishment of the finished work of Christ and is dead set on deception tactics to keep people in darkness concealing the revelation of its reality by influencing people to accept another gospel other than the gospel Jesus died to give us...the gospel he gave to Paul to reveal to humanity.

Some people, when they read prose that does not contain verses from the written word, consider the writing as not having any spiritual merit even though Jesus the Living Word is who the writing elevates beyond the institutional interpretations of the written word. The myriad of interpretations out there that people hold to, though they differ depending what camp's interpretation they agree with, is one reason I do not populate my writings with an overabundance of the written word, instead I prefer to honor Jesus the Living Word that is drawn from the written word about Him. Some believers are put more trust in the written word  (`the letter') and end up having the righteousness of the law and the blessing of the institution, rather than Jesus the Living Word the author and finisher of our faith. Other people however trust more in the Living Word and desire the Living Word to be manifested in and through them, and thus end up having the righteousness of God, the divine nature. S

Western Christendom in their missiology is focused on planting and building churches and the more churches they plant and build under their chosen denominational flag is accredited, by their hierarchy, as helping to fulfill the great commission and a means of making disciples. This philosophy makes people dependent on institutional systems as their source instead of Jesus, the Source Giver ...the  question is, who are we to make disciples of, a denomination or Jesus? The focus in Christendom ought not to be focused on planting or building churches, but to plant Jesus and let Jesus build His Church and work through His Church while be 100% dependent on Him. If we planted Jesus, the seed of the gospel from which it has grown, for the purpose of extending His Kingdom...instead of planting denominational churches to make disciples of denominations to extend institutional influences, Jesus would build His Church and the fruit will be changed lives of people who live out their fai