BTZ Blog

  Have you ever wondered why the religious "spiritual elite" pharisees, the priests of the synagogues, the Jewish theological Bible Scholars of the day were unaware of their Messiah’s birth...yet...the nonreligious, "spiritual pauper" sheep herders received the announcement of, and an invitation to go where the child lay to worship the Christ child. Why was the great spiritual event of the birth of the Savior not revealed to the religious Bible Scholars skilled in their own eyes and/or in the eyes of the religious world? Surely God knew that it would be the ultimate insult to those who pride themselves in their theological expertise, by revealing this liberating spiritual event to the unschooled "spiritual paupers" in religious theology. Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. . . .”Mat. 11:25 In the world of religion the making

I have noticed striking differences between Christians and Christ. I find this ironic because you would think that people who would preface a name-tag that they are known as with Christ, (Christ...ian) would live like and find their identity in Christ rather than living like a religionist and finding their identity in denominalism. One problem that a lot of Christians have that Christ didn’t have is developing a relational friendships with people who believe different than they do or who are not believers at all. And in most cases Christians have only a superficial relationship with people who believe the way they do. When Christians try to befriend others, including nonbelievers, the doctrine of hell looms large. Fear of God sending people to hell propels most Christians into such an unloving state of mind that it renders them unable to relate to the very people they feel so cocksure are going to hell. Christian religionists say in some shape or form to sinners, “Jesus loves you an

In the movie, Jesus (who is in fact the figure of the Antichrist/Satan and not the true Jesus) is depicted as God and has all the attributes of God. The Antichrist is the master of disguise and has deceived many in the Community of the Redeemed yet, they are unaware they are deceived and are singing his songs of deception  as if they are godly. Who can dispute that we are living in a day where we are seeing an increase in Satan’s efforts to trap people in sin...and I am not referring to the overt sin that the sin condemners are preaching against that is rampant the land. I am referring to him being among us as an angle of light standing among us as He tries to solidify his stranglehold of deception on all of God’s creation especially believers.. Most believers and are looking forward to a future event in the future, where the Antichrist will sit himself down on a throne in a new temple to be built in Jerusalem, while at the same time they are oblivious to the truth t

What if the Bible was treated by believers the way it was meant to be and not idolized and understood to be the Living Word? What if the the Bible doesn’t need to be protected and defended, by the literalist, but rightly understood in the reality that it is? What if the real problem isn’t the Bible but the false expectations religionists sometimes bring to it? If we let the Bible be the Bible rather that try and make it what we want it to be...what we think it ought to be...or need it to be...we will not only find a deeper understanding of its truth, we will also find a God that loves people without condemning them, and a Bible that does not need defending in the process. Is it the religionists’ place to protect and defend the Bible (or I should say, their interpretation of it) from all questions and challenges that may be put to it? Hasn't the time come to expose the fear-based contradictory doctrines, the fear-based understanding and the fear-mongering preaching that is do

  Hell Bound Train or Heaven Bound Train The title of the sermon tonight is: “Get off the hell-bound torture train...get on the heaven-bound glory train.” That to most Christian religion pulpit preachers is the essence of the gospel. Earth is the train station whereby you can deboard the hell-bound train...that you have been traveling on since you picked up your hell-bound ticket at birth...and board the heaven-bound train, provided you have your salvation ticket by having said the “sinners prayer” here on earth. Now mind you, you did not have to do anything about picking up your ticket for the hell-bound train, you had no choice in that matter. God saw to it that you acquired that ticket the moment you were born...that is the way most religions see it. In essence they are saying our loving Father God saw fit to supply the crowing of His creation (mankind) with a one way ticket on the hell-bound train with no choice of their own to refuse it...it is mandatory whether

Why do so many Christians sing the song of “gloom, doom, despair and agony on me” and encourage people to take a stand against what is happening on the world scene, because if not we will be tortured due to terrorist attacks, and our cities being flattened by tsunamis, hurricanes, earthquakes, floods and typhoons...all brought on by God because of the sins of the people? As if that wasn’t enough, the vast majority of Christians believe, support and purport the endless torture of the unbelieving dead...including, the billions that have never heard the gospel, those who have never heard about Jesus, infants and children, teenagers and adults who have never said the “sinner’s prayer”...all brought on by God because of people’s sins. Wow...this God is a very revengeful God! In essence the vast majority of God’s creation that He created because of His love, He knew before He created them would spend eternity in the torture chamber. Is there not something wrong with this doctrine t

In the modern Church, people are more concerned about announcing what they BELIEVE about God than LIVING as the Community of the Redeemed so that God will do His work through them in the Community of Humanity so others will believe in God. The modern Church, without a doubt, can shout the Gospel out without living the Gospel out. They can quote and twist scripture to validate man-made doctrines to validate their creed. Such actions suggest that these religionists are so completely locked into their belief systems that they have relinquished all responsibility for reflective analysis as the Bereans did. They are, for whatever reason, unable or unwilling to question, probe or show any doubt about what they believe. They settle for a second-hand doctrines that offers them...security (heaven when they die)...comfort (God is on their side)...and feelings that they are really special (they have the truth)...therefore, they are going to escape tribulation and hell. I wonder if many religi

Is what we see and hear in Sunday-go-meetings all there is to Jesus and His Gospel, or is there more to the Gospel and Jesus than we have been led to believe? Could it be that what is missing in relationship with God is actually that we are not focused on Jesus as the centrality of the Gospel...without our realizing it because we are so focused on religion as central to the Gospel? Aren’t people who claim to be believers suppose to follow Jesus and allow His life to be lived through them? As the Community of the Redeemed should we not be focused on Jesus and bring His grace and love to the Community of Humanity to influence and transform people rather than being escape artists who are seeking to escape from the world by some secret rapture. I wonder...should the Gospel be saved from “Christians” so that people can be “saved” from the gospel that is preached over denominated pulpits today that is at odds with Jesus and His teachings. Should we not remove our focus from religio

Jesus, protect people from those who claim to be Christians and call themselves your followers, many of who hang out in what is called sacred buildings where on times they berate, manipulate, control, abuse, judge and condemn people because they do not believe as they believe. Father, on times we may hold to man-made traditions, mindsets, and doctrines that aren’t Scriptural, and misuse the bible to validate the validity of such beliefs. Because of your grace and love you try to reveal truth so we will change direction. Whether we are obedient to your Spirit of Truth or not, and whether we will cease from our error to walk in relationship with you or not, is largely determined on how we respond to your revelatory revelation. Father, help us to realize that your correction of us is not by the preaching of seminarians who berate, manipulate, control abuse, or condemn us because of wrong beliefs or we do not believe what they believe. Rather, it is because you love us and want us to

According to the chicken-little fear-monger's mongering fear tactics “The Sky Is Falling In”. The gloom and doom say-ers have more faith in Islamic power to bring destruction and chaos and give rise to “the antichrist” than in God’s power of love and grace. These gloomers and doomers sing their song of “gloom, doom, despair and agony on me” and encourage people to take a stand against what is happening on the world scene, if not we will be overthrown by the terrorists, our cities will be flattened by tsunamis, hurricanes, earthquakes, floods and typhoons brought on by God because of the sins of the people. Should not the gloomers and doomers know, if the Bible...a book they believe is error-less...prophesy's such, is not standing against all the perceived evils the Bible prophesies will happen, standing against the Bible and God? I understand that it is easy to get people to believe their fear-mongering tactics; the choir of voices out there singing the “gloom, doom, de

  Narcissism is about the allusion of self-righteousness that is delusional. The thinking goes like this, "If I am religious, if I can quote scripture, then I must be good, because people that read the bible are all good and if I am good and I know the word of God, that means that if you disagree with me, then you must be wrong." Narcissists can be exceedingly charming that is why they make, what people deem to be, good preachers . Their charismatic ability to manipulate and control is perfectly suited to a pulpit abuse  and bent on luring people into deception. A Narcissist uses his bible misplaced knowledge and his out of context quoting of verses for the selfish reason of proving his beliefs are right.  Although passed of as being used for the purpose of spiritual teaching, it’s used to manipulate and control people into believing that they themselves are spiritually righteous and that we,

God said..."let us make man in our image" and in His image created He them (Gen. 26-27). God's creation of man was the crowning glory of His creation...that means that there was nothing in all of God's creation any more important to Him than the Community of Humanity. God created man to be in fellowship with. Before any person is conceived God knows them. God created people out of His love and a desire to be loved by them. While people are in the womb God loves them. When people exit from the womb God loves them. God's loves people from infancy to adulthood. God loves people from the beginning of adulthood to the end of adulthood. God loves people...sinner or saint...from the cradle to the grave. God knew that the vast majority of people He created out of love and loved would die either not knowing anything about Jesus, not hearing the gospel, or would not choose to accept what the gospel th

"Of His fullness have we all received, blessing upon blessing (John 1:16)." Just how full is "full"? How many people does "all" include? We have to believe that full means complete, and all includes all. "Of His fullness we have all received." No one, no matter how "anointed" they may appear, has more of His fullness than anyone else. And if we have received it already then there is nothing for us to DO to get it. If I leave here to go there, once I am there I do not have to do anything else to get there...I am already there. We entered into Christ when He entered into us: we do not have to enter into Him over and over again to get Him to enter us...He is already there. How do we partake of this fullness? How do we walk in it? What practical application exists for living according to this Truth? We see what God says, but we also see our situation. We see Jesus, but we also see ourselves. God says we are complete in

People, what can we to do about all our sinning sin? Strive to keep the rules of religion so God will not condemn? And when we fail at keeping the rules and feel the guilt and shame As religion on us lays, by playing the blame game. Oh...you didn't read your Bible enough, pay enough tithes or say the "sinners prayer" And now hell fire stares you in the face, causing you much despair. In it you will spend year after year, world without end...no wonder the religious gospel causes so much fear. The gospel of hell-fire is not the Gospel of Grace, Don't despair from fear that you will go to such a religious place. Jesus did not teach such a despicable cruel doctrine. That was devised by man, and is man's concoction. Don't be trapped in religious deception used to keep you under its control. God loves you with a love that can never be bought or sold. God has dealt with the issue, there is nothing for us to do about sin. So discover God's Oc

  Is the English Gospel of the western world preached from the different denominated pulpits  "good news" that was announced at the birth of Jesus Christ? The beliefs of the followers of religion are completely arranged around their beliefs based on their interpretation...or I should say misinterpretation of the Bible.  Projecting unrest, fear and torment on people by religious pulpiteers  who should be bringing them the good news of the gospel, not teaching them that the prison and punishment of hell is for eternity for all people who have not said the "sinner's prayer. People hearing the doctrine of religion's hell-fire grieve and lament over the fate of their departed children, parents and love ones; and they often show their grief by blaming religion's egoistical, retributive God of horror that religion projects Him as.  They ask if there is any hope . . .and the religionists based on their misinterpretation of the Bible, is obliged to answer that

  The false sinister religious doctrine that is propagated that says: If I am faithful God will bless me…If I do this, God will do that for me… If I serve him, then my business is going to prosper… if I tithe, I will be blessed of God… The doctrine of “Divine Retribution” is the idea that God will return blessings for good doing and vengeance for wrong-doing. In short, God rewards people for being good and punishes people for being bad. In simplistic terms, divine retribution sees all negative situations as God’s punishment, and all positive situations as God’s blessings. This thinking is a spillover from the pre-cross law keeping gospel. Retribution is defined as recompense for merits. Sadly many religionists approach God’s faithfulness with the mindset of self-righteousness and retribution. We fear that something will happen to the things that we love the most, and so we stand on God’s side only to be blessed in everything. The truth is that if we love God for who He is, then He

Many people in the Commuity of the Redeemed have become bound within the limitations of denominational man-made doctrines and imprisoned within the shell of traditional ideologies and religious concepts until they are locked into a pattern of thought and life, thinking they have reached a fullness of stature in Christ. When in reality all they are full of is denominational pride and traditional arrogance! The life that has been hidden in the believer behind the walls of ecclesiastical religion has to break out and and allow the Christ life within to come into a new life where there is resurrection life flowing through the Community of the Redeemed and benefit the Community of Humanity. Believers need to stand up and move forward in the power of grace and love, allowing resurrection life of Christ to flow. We need to allow the the Spirit to project Christ through us until the across-our-path people are catching a true vision  of "WHO" God is and what it means to be a fol

We are so used to tolerating sin in our lives that we fail to see it as sin that needs to be repented of. But if we desire to follow Christ there comes a time when the Spirit of Truth  reveals the sin we commit as “sinning saints” that is not considered "sin" because of the deception we are in. In humbleness of heart and spirit we must repent. Have we given to God our sacrifice of a broken spirit and a contrite heart, without a broken spirit and a contrite heart demonstrating the grace and love of God our sacrifices to God futile sacrifices. "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit and a contrite heart--these, O God you will not despise" (Ps. 51:17). Do believers have a broken heart over the way denominations segregate the Body of Christ? Do believers have a broken heart over the way religionists judge and condemn people whether they be “sinning sinners” or “sinning saints”? Do believers have a broken heart over the way some denominationalists treat people that

  "As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him... beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And you are complete in Him..." (Colossians 2:6,8,9) The Believer’s life is a life that is lived IN CHRIST. That is to say, to allow HIM is to live HIS life through you is to live life as a Believer. The Gospel of Grace is not a works oriented...it is relationship oriented. A Believer is a branch that grows out of the Vine (Jesus) and continually produces abundant fruit for the Husbandman. The true  “Church” is a living organism, an observable reality, not man-made philosophies or set of teachings. It is by Grace we received the Lord Jesus, It is by Grace continue to walk in relationship with the Lord Jesus. Receiving Christ is through the Grace Gate, and walking in Him is the Grace Path. A t

Many of you have had some devastating circumstances last year that had you feeling like your heart was being ripped out of your chest. The storm sank your hope-ship and also threatened to sink the lifeboat that you depended on for survival? The wind, the waves of adversity, the surges of heartbreak rolled, one after another. How did you survive? How did you pull through when you were at weakest point? Because, in the middle of your storm, you heard a still small voice telling you that God provides sufficient grace for this trial, and though you are weak He is always very strong. "Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me... For when I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Corinthians 12:9-10). Well, here you are...present and accounted for, you made it through the storm. The hard times, the unhealthy times and the hurting times revealed your weaknesses, however, also during those times you experienced the stren

Is your praying more about preying on people rather than praying for people.

Evil committed for religion by religious people is the evilest form of evil because it defames God’s name. And belief in a morally demanding and morally judging God of love as the only means to a better world is the heart of the Gospel. When God is rendered the source of evil rather than the source of good, hope for a good world is shattered.  Understanding evil done in religion's name is difficult because of living in and agreeing with religion’s deceptive deceptions. Religious evil should be suspected by religions: Claiming that their interpretation of the Bible is absolute truth. Giving blind obedience to religion’s hierarchy. Establishment of the "ideal" end-time starting point by taking events that are happening in the world and fit them into the end-time jigsaw puzzle to validate their ludicrous predictions (that historically have failed them in the past) to come to pass. When people have an end-justifies-the-means mind-set. When people are dominated with a pu

Fear-Mongering people are like birds of prey soaring in their self-righteous spiritual heaven of high mindedness, waiting to swoop down on the spiritual uninformed and and the religiously deceived to scare the hell out of them in effort to conform them to their like mindedness. The spiritually uninformed are overwhelmed and deceived by their self-righteous piousness and deceptiveness and become trapped; they fall prey to the strength of religious self-deception a weapon that the devil has used to remove Jesus from the Headship of His Body and made Him subservient to man's philosophies. Oh, they lip-service Jesus as Head, butfrom the same mouth pay homage to the man-made hierarchy as the controlling head, which they then confirm by the upholding man-made beliefs in their actions. The fear-mongers, while calling themselves “believers" in Christ, claim to be representatives of the very things Christ absolutely detest, and no I’m not referring to prostitutes, beer drinkers,

Does a building called "church" or buildings called "churches" in a community mean that the "Church" is involved in the community...Or is it just taking up space in the community? Does a building called "church" in a community mean that the "Church" is relational in the community...Or is it merely being relational with the people who participate as members who go to the building. Does gathering together of like minded people in a building called "church" mean that what happens in the building, is "Church" participaction...Or is it participaction in churchianity? Does merely meeting the clothing or hunger needs of people from a building called "church" from 1-3 on a Saturday constitute the "Church" in action? Does merely being relational with like minded people gathered in a building called "church" on a Sunday being relational to the community. From a Bible perspective, doe