Theocentric Musings

I've found when discussing the scriptures with others that we don't disagree, or debate, the words written, we disagree, or debate, over the interpretation. I find as humans that type of mentality infiltrates more than just books, it infiltrates our interactions with those we are in relationship with, or that we speak with in passing. We seem to place so much value on our own interpretations of a variety of things, that we end up elevating an interpretation, no matter how fal se it may end up being, above Love. We stop walking in Love because we in fact have made our interpretations of things, whether it's due to past experiences, hurt, pain, our self centered wisdom, or a variety of other things, into an idol. An idol that rules our lives. We don't have to live like this. We have a better way. We know a better Way, Truth, and Life. Let's walk in Love, and only Love. What do we really have to lose walking in His way, walking in Love?

  I agree with Jeff Turner  on this wholeheartedly, please visit his blog at http://jeff-turner.org/  for many messages and videos of his preaching. Enjoy these words by Jeff Turner: If you are in the same place in your beliefs today as you were 10, 20, or 30 + years ago, one of two things is going on - 1.) You are the luckiest son of a gun on earth, and out of 7 billion + people just happen to be the *ONE* who believed everything right the first time around, or 2.) You've stopped listening, learning, and running headlong towa rds truth at all costs. Christianity, and life in general, while being a place of rest and arrival, is also a continuous journey on which beliefs are shed and new ones are gained; old paradigms are challenged and new ones emerge to take their place. There is something to be said for stability, sure, but there's also something to be said about stagnation. Teachers specifically ought to be constantly growing in their understanding of Who God is...

    Life and death are in the tongue, I wonder how many storms, sicknesses, deaths, broken relationships, troubled children, calamities, hardships, depressions, anxieties, and more have occurred due to what people, and more specifically Christians, are speaking into the air. You think Christianity is under attack, "judgment" is coming, a political agenda you disagree with is taking over, darkness is winning, whatever other negative thing you verbalize and plant power into on a daily basis? Well of course those things are gaining in power, you keep saying it is as loud as you can, you are empowering those things with your own words, you are cursing and giving power to darkness. People like me, and millions more around the globe, are the ones that have to speak out into the spiritual realm against the silly curses Christians are speaking out on a daily basis.

My friend Richard Murray with another great observation for all of us to meditate on: Satan has the power OF death (Hebrews 2:14-15). He ruins. Jesus has the power OVER death. He resurrects. (Revelation 1:18) Know your spiritual prepositions. Follow him at his website: 'The Goodness of God',  http://www.thegoodnessofgod.com/index.html

Jesus is the same, yesterday, today, and forever... Numbers 15:32-36 Penalty for breaking the Sabbath One day while the people of Israel were in the wilderness, they discovered a man gathering wood on the Sabbath day. The people who found him doing this took him before Moses, Aaron, and the rest of the community. They held him in custody because they did not know what t o do with him. Then the Lord said to Moses, “The man must be put to death! The whole community must stone him outside the camp.” So the whole community took the man outside the camp and stoned him to death, just as the Lord had commanded Moses. Mark 3:1-6 Jesus Heals on the Sabbath Jesus went into the synagogue again and noticed a man with a deformed hand. Since it was the Sabbath, Jesus’ enemies watched him closely. If he healed the man’s hand, they planned to accuse him of working on the Sabbath. Jesus said to the man with the deformed hand, “Come and stand in front of everyone.” Then he turned to his critics...

I've always found it interesting that those who believe God kills, steals, and destroys to teach us or train us, wont practice what they preach and teach or train their children that way. Hmmmmmmm... Prove me wrong... I dare ya... Or... Be humble enough to realize and admit that those negative things were attributed to God by a people that didn't have a full revelation of who He is and Christ showed with crystal clarity the character of God and His desire to heal, set free, and give life to the world, not a chosen few, and His manner of doing that was through love.

Many people believe strongly that God killed countless numbers of little children, as well as unborn children in the womb, in the OT. They also believe strongly that God is against abortion. Which one is it? 1 ) He either did those things and is then holding man to a higher standard than He holds Himself, and His Son's words and actions on Earth were lies. Or.. 2 ) He didn't do them and is wanting man to love others and consider life as sacred as He obviously does by His Son walking to the cross to give man eternal life and union with Him, and telling His followers to walk in love for even their enemies. I pick #2 even though it goes against trusting traditions of man. It does go along with trusting Jesus and right division of scripture.

Sometimes we can confuse an action that glorifies God. We have a tendency of looking at things in the "here and now" and sometimes we think violence or something else negative is the best course and gives God glory. As an example we can look at the many deaths in the OT, but Jesus came to show us a different way. I wanted to take a moment to use a word picture to define something glorifying God and something that doesn't. Here we go. ... .. 1 ) Karen is bathing her child, she gets a phone call, she never usually answers the phone, but this time runs to get the phone, she is lost in the conversation and without realizing it 20 minutes pass. She finally goes to check on her child and the child has drowned. When she conveys the story to others she says " I was distracted, and left my child in the tub and she drowned. Glory to God!" 2 ) Karen is bathing her child, she gets a phone call, she never usually answers the phone, but this time runs to get the phone...

1 Chronicles 21:1 was written approximately 400-500 years after 2 Samuel 24:1. It began to be revealed to the Israelites who satan was and the power he had. They began to see how his actions were not determined, used, nor "allowed" by God. This was further revealed by Christ in scriptures. This is what led to an earlier scripture attributing an action to God and a latter attributing it rightly t o satan. This is not something that requires a PHD in theology, yet many with PHDs don't recognize this. If you simply research the Jewish beliefs you see what they were, and you see how they still influence Christianity today in a negative way. As a prominent Rabbi writes: It is very important to understand the difference between the Jewish understanding of Satan and the Christian understanding of Satan. First of all, in doing a quick search of the Hebrew and Christian bibles, we find a remarkable difference. In the Jewish bible (Tanakh), we find three separate refer...

My friend Derek Flood with a great observation: Now let's talk about sin and hell: I don't mean the trivial "did you ever tell a lie" nonsense. I mean real harm, real brokenness, real hurt. Do people do really hurtful and horrible things to each other? Yes, they certainly do. Are people hurt and broken? Yes, more than you know. Abuse is real. Rape is real. Starvation is real. War crimes are real. In short, there is a "hell" right here that many ... people are in the middle of, and that matters, and we should care. This idea of hell right now is vital because it means we need to care about people's lives right now, and not just about life after death. I believe in that, too, I hope for heaven with all my heart, I long for eternity. But life here matters. People matter. That's why Jesus spent all his time caring for people and their very real needs. When we have a theology that makes all of that a waste of time then we suck the life right out of ...

This is one of the most important things I will probably share, other than the gospel of course. It was written by my friend Richard Murray. You owe it to yourself, and your children if you have any, and your families to read, pray, hear from the Holy Spirit with absolutely no emot ional biases, even if it goes against any and all teachings you've heard, and let Him guide you to Truth. If you allow Him that freedom in your life, your life may change. Please understand and be humble enough to accept that many times that voice we think is God's is our own subconscious, emotional, biases speaking.  Please give Him freedom to speak and guide you, even if you think you already do, humor me and clear your mind. I've walked this path and had to learn true humility before Him. WHAT DO WE TELL OUR CHILDREN ABOUT THE KILLING GOD OF THE OLD TESTAMENT? Before I answer that question, I want to propose a thought experiment which will highlight how important this issue is,...

If you take life too seriously, life will eat you up. Always have something to laugh about, even if it's something the world would make fun of you for laughing about it.  Just laugh, and smile, and jump, and dance, and be goofy, and quirky.

But in my own life it was only when I came to the end of self-effort--when I saw that I couldn't do all the things that Christians are supposed to do--that I gave up and turned to the Lord. When a man turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. When we stop trying to do it ourselves and rest in Jesus, trusting Him in us to live the Christian life, we are no longer blinded by the veil. - Juan Carlos Ortiz

In a half hour this gospel will be etched in my flesh, it has already been firmly entrenched unto my soul... John 14:6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

 "We have to adjust and balance the quality of music we listen to. Constant negative input leads to negative living." - brother j