All the turmoil in the ’60s came because this massive generation of people—the Baby Boomers--came on the scene at a time coupled with tremendous affluence, which brings in boredom.
Jordan says, “You know the old saying, ‘The idle mind is the devil’s workshop.’ But when you bring affluence into a culture you bring boredom. Now you don’t need to slop the hogs and feed the chickens—‘We can sleep in late that morning.’
“Children no longer have to go out and do the chores. I heard many times from my dad that every morning his first job was to get the firewood and when his mother got up he had to have the kitchen stove roaring hot, and if he didn’t he was in trouble.
“You know the nature of adolescents—‘If mom and dad do it this way, I’m going to do it that way.’ So they produce this tremendous cultural revolution. And though the children have grown up they still have the taste of children because the whole of society has been changed and picked up like a rising tide from its moorings and set adrift.
*****
Isaiah 3 is a time in Israel’s history when they were exactly the same kind of situation we are culturally and there’s a strong statement by Isaiah about what happens to a people in that situation:
[1] For, behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water,
[2] The mighty man, and the man of war, the judge, and the prophet, and the prudent, and the ancient,
[3] The captain of fifty, and the honourable man, and the counseller, and the cunning artificer, and the eloquent orator.
[4] And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them.
[5] And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbour: the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient, and the base against the honourable.
[6] When a man shall take hold of his brother of the house of his father, saying, Thou hast clothing, be thou our ruler, and let this ruin be under thy hand:
[7] In that day shall he swear, saying, I will not be an healer; for in my house is neither bread nor clothing: make me not a ruler of the people.
[8] For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen: because their tongue and their doings are against the LORD, to provoke the eyes of his glory.
*****
Jordan explains, “Israel had contracted with God through Moses and the Mosaic covenant to receive certain blessings if they obeyed, and to receive certain cursings if they didn’t. They didn’t obey and so God is sending the cursings. He is directly intervening in the life of this nation to bring about disaster that they had contracted to receive if they rebelled against--morally and spiritually rebelled against His covenant. So He’s sending it to them.
“Notice what he says. The first thing they lose is prosperity. They’re going to lose the store that they have--the bread, the water, the basic elements of life. They’re going to lose their economic prosperity. They’re going to begin to be in want. ‘The mighty man, and the man of war, the judge, and the prophet, and the prudent, and the ancient, the captain of fifty, and the honourable man, and the counseller, and the cunning artificer, and the eloquent orator. And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them.’
“I mean this country is going into judgment and God is going to take the blessing away from them and their enemies are going to surround them and take them captive and they’re going to go up into that 5th course of captivity in Leviticus 6 and they’re going to be taken away.
“Famine is going to come on them. Economic disaster is going to befall them. They’re going to lose their leaders. The mighty men, the leaders of the nation. They’re going to look around and there aren’t going to be any statesmen to lead them in the political and economic realm and in their institutions. They’re going to be adrift.
“Their military is going to be decimated. Disarmament is going to be the idea of the day. The judges are going to be so corrupt that they’re going to corrupt the law to the point that when you need them you’re not going to be able to depend on the legal system of the day. The prophet and the preachers are going to be prophesying lies. Jeremiah said the ‘people prophesy lies and the people love it so.’
“You see, the basic institutions of their society are just going to be decimated. ‘The prudent and the ancient.’ Prudence is the ability to make good decisions and their government is going to be in a situation where there aren’t going to be men and women in government who have the capacity to make good judgments and decisions about things.
“The ‘captain of fifty’ is going to go right down through the structure. It’s not just going to be the people at the top; it’s going to be the people that come down through the structure of government in society. The honorable men.
“They go out in their culture and they look for somebody that they can trust. Somebody in government, somebody in leadership; somebody in public position in the church and in education and in the government that they can say, ‘There’s somebody who can tell me the truth. There’s somebody who’s decent and honorable that I can trust what they say.’ Those people are going to be gone!
“The counselor. That’s somebody who gives you good advice. You’re not going to get good advice. Not just bad decisions but there’s nobody there to tell you what you ought to do! That’s not going to be found anywhere in their institutions and government society anymore!
“ ‘A cunning artificer.’ That’s the artist. And the oracle. The real true artist, whether it’s with painting or music or words, the real true artists are going to be gone! And all that’s going to be left is the filth. When I read down through that I think, ‘You read that and you say Wow, somebody’s been reading the Chicago Tribune, the Sun-Times and the US News and World Report! Somebody’s been listening to NBC, CBS, CNN, ABC!’
“But this Isaiah, 750 years before Christ. But it really sounds similar. ‘And I will give children to be their princes and babies shall rule over them.’ That’s what Bork called those ‘wave of savages who must be civilized’ by their parents and by their schools and churches.
“What’s happening are the people who have been charged with civilizing the children and the babies, and bringing them in and teaching them the traditions of the culture they’re in so they would know how to live, and teaching them in their history of who they were as a nation and what God’s purpose for them was, in Israel’s case.
“Those people have lost their moorings and there’s no one there to do that. And the impact of that absence is when, every year, this new generation of kids that come on the scene, there’s no one there to give it to them! So they’re set adrift and they’re left to their own devises.
"The adults have lost the strength of character, the will, the backbone. There’s no one there to tell the child, ‘NO! You can’t do that! NO, this is wrong!’ There’s no one left to give them the directions and teach them what’s right and wrong.”
Monday, November 28, 2011
Friday, November 25, 2011
These birds back here!
Jordan was a young man working in the Mobile Rescue Mission when Brother Reynolds taught him “one of the most fascinating things.” He recalls, “I never really appreciated it back then but in later years I came to realize this thing is SOMETHING!”
Genesis 5 starts with, “This is the book of the generations of Adam.” It compares with Matthew 1 that starts, “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ.” There are only two of those books in the Bible.
“Everybody in that chapter in Genesis dies except Enoch and he’s taken because God took him,” explains Jordan. “Everybody in Adam’s lineage dies because in Adam all die, but in Christ all should be made alive. So when you go to Matthew 1 and the book of the generation of Jesus Christ nobody dies, but he says, “Abraham begat Isaac.”
“Everybody in Jesus’ genealogy in the book of the generation of Jesus Christ gets life; everybody in Adam’s genealogy gets death. And you go, ‘Hmm . . .’ You know why that is? As in Adam all died. As in Christ, all shall be made alive.
“It’s fascinating the way the people are listed here. First there’s Adam. The name Adam means ‘man.’ The next guy, Seth, means ‘appointed.’ The next one is Enos; his name means ‘mortal.’ After him is Cainan and his name means ‘sorrow.’ Mahalaleel means ‘the blessed of God.’ Jared means ‘shall come’ and it’s the idea of come down. Enoch means ‘teacher or teaching.’ Methuselah means ‘his death brings.’
What happens with Enoch is God gave him a revelation because Enoch walked with God until after Methuselah was born and when that guy dies he’s 969 years old. Methuselah’s the oldest guy that lived and when he died, that’s when the Flood came.
“So God had a man in the earth who demonstrated His longsuffering in the days of Noah. After Methuselah, in the text is Lamech and Lamech means despairing. After him, Noah (no. 10) means ‘comfort or rest.’
“Think about that: ‘Man, appointed mortal sorrow, but the blessed God shall come down teaching; His death brings the despairing rest.’ You see what I did? I made a sentence out of their names. You go figure, there isn’t any way under God’s heaven or the devil’s hell that you could arrange the names of a bunch of guys in Genesis 5 that share the gospel message like that! You can’t know that message until you come to the Apostle Paul!
“In I Corinthians 2, Paul says that there was some info about the Cross (and that info in Genesis 5 is it) but that it couldn’t be known--it was kept secret because if it wasn’t kept secret they wouldn’t have crucified the Lord of glory.
"But God had it encoded into the Word of God in such a way that once you come over here and you know it, and then you go back and start reading and studying, you uncover, ‘Wait a minute, in the names of these birds back here in Adam’s line he’s got the secret message encoded for you!’ ”
Genesis 5 starts with, “This is the book of the generations of Adam.” It compares with Matthew 1 that starts, “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ.” There are only two of those books in the Bible.
“Everybody in that chapter in Genesis dies except Enoch and he’s taken because God took him,” explains Jordan. “Everybody in Adam’s lineage dies because in Adam all die, but in Christ all should be made alive. So when you go to Matthew 1 and the book of the generation of Jesus Christ nobody dies, but he says, “Abraham begat Isaac.”
“Everybody in Jesus’ genealogy in the book of the generation of Jesus Christ gets life; everybody in Adam’s genealogy gets death. And you go, ‘Hmm . . .’ You know why that is? As in Adam all died. As in Christ, all shall be made alive.
“It’s fascinating the way the people are listed here. First there’s Adam. The name Adam means ‘man.’ The next guy, Seth, means ‘appointed.’ The next one is Enos; his name means ‘mortal.’ After him is Cainan and his name means ‘sorrow.’ Mahalaleel means ‘the blessed of God.’ Jared means ‘shall come’ and it’s the idea of come down. Enoch means ‘teacher or teaching.’ Methuselah means ‘his death brings.’
What happens with Enoch is God gave him a revelation because Enoch walked with God until after Methuselah was born and when that guy dies he’s 969 years old. Methuselah’s the oldest guy that lived and when he died, that’s when the Flood came.
“So God had a man in the earth who demonstrated His longsuffering in the days of Noah. After Methuselah, in the text is Lamech and Lamech means despairing. After him, Noah (no. 10) means ‘comfort or rest.’
“Think about that: ‘Man, appointed mortal sorrow, but the blessed God shall come down teaching; His death brings the despairing rest.’ You see what I did? I made a sentence out of their names. You go figure, there isn’t any way under God’s heaven or the devil’s hell that you could arrange the names of a bunch of guys in Genesis 5 that share the gospel message like that! You can’t know that message until you come to the Apostle Paul!
“In I Corinthians 2, Paul says that there was some info about the Cross (and that info in Genesis 5 is it) but that it couldn’t be known--it was kept secret because if it wasn’t kept secret they wouldn’t have crucified the Lord of glory.
"But God had it encoded into the Word of God in such a way that once you come over here and you know it, and then you go back and start reading and studying, you uncover, ‘Wait a minute, in the names of these birds back here in Adam’s line he’s got the secret message encoded for you!’ ”
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Connecting point
Romans 4:4. “The only response grace will accept is faith. Grace will not accept works as a response. Romans 6:11. I Thess. 2:13. What is it that makes God’s grace work in your life? Believing it! Verse 19. God’s grace requires a participating response of faith. It’s the response it will accept but it requires it in order to activate it!
“The gap between what you know about what God says and how it impacts your life is faith. The key to appropriating into your experience the reality of who you are in Christ is faith. ‘It’s not I but Christ.’ The connecting point is to believe that and to walk by faith.”
*****
“All the little Christian celebrities who write books on leadership all write on Nehemiah. Okay, that’s a great thing, Nehemiah was a great leader, blah, blah, blah and all that stuff. But boy, when you read back there, you know there’s a picture of New Jerusalem in the third heaven in the book of Nehemiah?! I read that and I say, ‘Wow, now I’m more interested in that than I am trying to figure out how to make you do what I want you to do because I want you to do it!’ Which is what all these leadership things are about.”
*****
“There’s going to be universal healthcare then. Isaiah 33:24 says that. He’s going to remove the curse of sickness. He brought Israel out of Egypt, took her into the wilderness and said, ‘If you don’t behave, I’m going to smite you with the botch of Egypt.’ I love those phrases. I don’t know what that is but it sure don’t sound like I want it. And diseases were inflicted on Israel for their disobedience.
“Leviticus 26 talks about one of the curses God would place on them for their disobedience was the burning ague. You say what’s that? A fever in your eyes. The kingdom is going to remove that curse and you won’t have to have hay fever in the spring and the fall.
“If you die at 100, Isaiah 65 says, you’ll be considered a child, because
the longevity will be for a thousand years. In fact, the inhabitants of that kingdom aren’t going to have to die. They’re going to be able to have eternal life.
“By the way, they don’t just live, they’re going to be able to populate the earth again and have children. The difficulty when you have a child, though, is whose that kid kin to? In the Millennium only saved Gentiles go in but when they begin to have kids, those kids aren’t just automatically saved.
“Nobody’s automatically saved. So there’s going to be some problems in the Millennium. That’s why it’s going to be ‘the judgment of the nations.’
“Zechariah 14:3. He’s going to come back and the first place His feet are going to touch the ground is the last place they were on the earth before He left in Acts 1. He ascended of the Mount of Olives and He’ll come back there.”
“The gap between what you know about what God says and how it impacts your life is faith. The key to appropriating into your experience the reality of who you are in Christ is faith. ‘It’s not I but Christ.’ The connecting point is to believe that and to walk by faith.”
*****
“All the little Christian celebrities who write books on leadership all write on Nehemiah. Okay, that’s a great thing, Nehemiah was a great leader, blah, blah, blah and all that stuff. But boy, when you read back there, you know there’s a picture of New Jerusalem in the third heaven in the book of Nehemiah?! I read that and I say, ‘Wow, now I’m more interested in that than I am trying to figure out how to make you do what I want you to do because I want you to do it!’ Which is what all these leadership things are about.”
*****
“There’s going to be universal healthcare then. Isaiah 33:24 says that. He’s going to remove the curse of sickness. He brought Israel out of Egypt, took her into the wilderness and said, ‘If you don’t behave, I’m going to smite you with the botch of Egypt.’ I love those phrases. I don’t know what that is but it sure don’t sound like I want it. And diseases were inflicted on Israel for their disobedience.
“Leviticus 26 talks about one of the curses God would place on them for their disobedience was the burning ague. You say what’s that? A fever in your eyes. The kingdom is going to remove that curse and you won’t have to have hay fever in the spring and the fall.
“If you die at 100, Isaiah 65 says, you’ll be considered a child, because
the longevity will be for a thousand years. In fact, the inhabitants of that kingdom aren’t going to have to die. They’re going to be able to have eternal life.
“By the way, they don’t just live, they’re going to be able to populate the earth again and have children. The difficulty when you have a child, though, is whose that kid kin to? In the Millennium only saved Gentiles go in but when they begin to have kids, those kids aren’t just automatically saved.
“Nobody’s automatically saved. So there’s going to be some problems in the Millennium. That’s why it’s going to be ‘the judgment of the nations.’
“Zechariah 14:3. He’s going to come back and the first place His feet are going to touch the ground is the last place they were on the earth before He left in Acts 1. He ascended of the Mount of Olives and He’ll come back there.”
Saturday, November 19, 2011
A permanent indwelling
The work of the Holy Spirit is to separate the Believer from the world and it happens when you get saved in any age.
Jordan says, “Coming to Christ and getting saved, whether it’s in our program or Israel’s program, isn’t just adding a philosophical idea to your repertoire of knowledge. It’s coming into an irresistible collision with the life force of God the Holy Spirit.
“We become new creatures. Israel becomes a new nation. In the Old Testament, the Spirit of God did not come to permanently reside in the Believer. In the new covenant, He will.
“When He says He dwelleth with you and shall be in you, you know Him for He dwelleth. Now that’s the contrast He’s getting at. He is with you. He shall be in you. He’s with you—that’s the Old Testament status.
“John 14:16 says, ‘And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;’ He’s already said that HE will abide forever. So this Holy Spirit, when He comes, is going to come not simply to be with them but to be IN them, and when He’s in them, He’s going to be there permanently. Now that’s part of the ministry of the new covenant that Christ is introducing here and is going to talk with them about in great detail in chapters 15-16.
*****
“In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit would come on people, would go in them and would be with them, but He didn’t permanently stay.
“There are three characters as great examples in the Old Testament. One is Saul. The Holy Spirit came on Saul, came into Saul and Saul prophesied, and then the Holy Spirit left him and never came back! Saul repented after Samuel told him he was going to lose the kingdom but God said, ‘It’s too late.’
“With Samson, the Spirit of God came on him but he thought it was the time he spent down at the gym and his pretty hair and all that stuff that made him such a hot buffed-up dude. Delilah cut his hair for him. He got a haircut down at the devil’s barbershop and what happened? The Spirit of God left and the Scripture says ‘he wist not that the spirit left him.’
“The result was the Philistines fell upon him, bored out his eyes, put him in a grinding machine and had him grinding. They bound him, they blinded him and had him grinding. There’s a famous sermon from Jeremiah about what sin does to you. ‘It’ll blind you, bind you and grind you.’
“There’s old Samson. The Philistines get him out one night and are going to make sport of him. He’s a blind, pitiful shell of himself but they use him to mock him. He had been a fearful guy to them. He’d slain many mighty Philistines. He was an enemy.
“They bring him in to mock him, tie him to a pillar. Samson says, ‘Lord, if you just let me one more time bring the house down I’m willing to go,’ and he did. The Spirit of God went back on him, gave him the strength and he knocked the pillar over and brought the whole house down and killed them all, himself included.
“With Samson, the Spirit was on him, was in him, left, and then came back. With Saul, the Spirit was on him, left and never came back. Then you got David.
“With King David, the Holy Spirit came on him, was in him and was with him even though David sinned grievously, personally. He commits adultery. He steals another man’s wife. Then he has her husband murdered. Dastardly things. When he repents, Nathan the prophet puts his finger in his nose and says, ‘Thou art the man.’ Remember that?
“David repented. He wrote Psalm 51 to describe what that repentance was like. He said it was ‘bloodguiltiness’ like the breaking of bones. It was a bitter, painful experience. And in the midst of all that, he cries out to God, ‘Take not thy Holy Spirit from me!’ Even in all of that, God never took His Spirit away from him. The spirit of God stayed with David and never left.
“You go back and read about when Moses gets the skilled laborers together to build the tabernacle. The Holy Spirit came on the artisans. You ever hear anybody pray, ‘Lord, guide the hand of the surgeon now as he goes to do surgery?’
"I used to wonder where they got that from and then a fellow told me it’s like what God did back there in Exodus when He guided the hands of the artisan to give them skill in doing their job to build the artifacts for the tabernacle. Yes, the Spirit of God came on him and did that but then you know what He did? He left.
“All that coming-going, coming-going-staying-and-not-leaving—that’s before the new covenant. So it’s not right to say that under the old covenant they never had the Spirit of God at all. They did—He came on them, He would go with them, He indwelled them. He went in Daniel, for example. But what He didn’t do is He didn’t regenerate them and He didn’t permanently dwell with them. That’s going to change.
“Jesus said, ‘I’m going to go away to the Cross, be resurrected, ascend into heaven and I’m going to send the Holy Spirit, and when He comes your relationship with Him is going to be new and different, permanent. He’ll be with you but he’ll be in you permanently. A permanent indwelling.
“Now if you want to see when that takes place, John 14:18 says, ‘I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.’ That’s not like verse 3 where He’s talking about the Second Coming. He’s talking about, ‘I’m going to come to you in the person of the Holy Spirit.’ Once again, you see the Trinity in action here. You had all three of them back in verse 16.
“Down here when He says, ‘I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you,’ He’s not going to leave the throne of heaven. It’s the Spirit of Christ that’s going to come. One of the members of the Trinity. Verse 19 says, ‘Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.’
“Think about what He’s saying: ‘Because I live you live.’ He’s saying He is the source of life and not just life, but spiritual life—eternal life. You know, when you read the Lord Jesus Christ’s conversation, when He just talks about Himself, the whole thing is He was either a liar, a lunatic or the Lord. One of greatest demonstrations of His deity is just the common assumptions He makes when He talks and He assumes life--all life--is there because of Him.
“Paul says it in Colossians 1. He says, ‘By him all things consist.’ The reason things hold together and life exists is because of Him; the consistency of His word, His integrity.
“Verse 20 says, ‘At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.’ That day is the day back in verses 16-17 when He sends the Comforter, the spirit of truth, who’s going to be in you. And when He’s in you, ‘They’re going to know that Christ is in my Father, that ye are in me and that I am in you.’
“That’s that new covenant relationship; the permanent provision and promise of the new testament and the new covenant. It comes into their experience and is inaugurated on the day of Pentecost when He comes.”
*****
Jeremiah 31:31: Ezekiel 36 explains how He’s going to do the heart-writing of His law into their hearts. It’s a supernatural operation. Ezekiel 36:24. What did He say in Jeremiah? ‘I’m gonna write my law in your heart. I’m gonna give you a new heart. A new spirit will I put within you.’ What spirit would that be? There’s the Holy Spirit coming.
“What does He take away? The stone, or the hardness of the heart. He takes away the rebellion against the truth of God’s Word. He that be often reproved hardeneth his heart. You hear the Word of God over and over and you reject it and that much reproof hardens. He said, ‘I’ll take that away. I’ll take away the effects of all that unbelief and I’ll give you a responsive heart. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes.’ Isaiah 32.
Jordan says, “Coming to Christ and getting saved, whether it’s in our program or Israel’s program, isn’t just adding a philosophical idea to your repertoire of knowledge. It’s coming into an irresistible collision with the life force of God the Holy Spirit.
“We become new creatures. Israel becomes a new nation. In the Old Testament, the Spirit of God did not come to permanently reside in the Believer. In the new covenant, He will.
“When He says He dwelleth with you and shall be in you, you know Him for He dwelleth. Now that’s the contrast He’s getting at. He is with you. He shall be in you. He’s with you—that’s the Old Testament status.
“John 14:16 says, ‘And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;’ He’s already said that HE will abide forever. So this Holy Spirit, when He comes, is going to come not simply to be with them but to be IN them, and when He’s in them, He’s going to be there permanently. Now that’s part of the ministry of the new covenant that Christ is introducing here and is going to talk with them about in great detail in chapters 15-16.
*****
“In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit would come on people, would go in them and would be with them, but He didn’t permanently stay.
“There are three characters as great examples in the Old Testament. One is Saul. The Holy Spirit came on Saul, came into Saul and Saul prophesied, and then the Holy Spirit left him and never came back! Saul repented after Samuel told him he was going to lose the kingdom but God said, ‘It’s too late.’
“With Samson, the Spirit of God came on him but he thought it was the time he spent down at the gym and his pretty hair and all that stuff that made him such a hot buffed-up dude. Delilah cut his hair for him. He got a haircut down at the devil’s barbershop and what happened? The Spirit of God left and the Scripture says ‘he wist not that the spirit left him.’
“The result was the Philistines fell upon him, bored out his eyes, put him in a grinding machine and had him grinding. They bound him, they blinded him and had him grinding. There’s a famous sermon from Jeremiah about what sin does to you. ‘It’ll blind you, bind you and grind you.’
“There’s old Samson. The Philistines get him out one night and are going to make sport of him. He’s a blind, pitiful shell of himself but they use him to mock him. He had been a fearful guy to them. He’d slain many mighty Philistines. He was an enemy.
“They bring him in to mock him, tie him to a pillar. Samson says, ‘Lord, if you just let me one more time bring the house down I’m willing to go,’ and he did. The Spirit of God went back on him, gave him the strength and he knocked the pillar over and brought the whole house down and killed them all, himself included.
“With Samson, the Spirit was on him, was in him, left, and then came back. With Saul, the Spirit was on him, left and never came back. Then you got David.
“With King David, the Holy Spirit came on him, was in him and was with him even though David sinned grievously, personally. He commits adultery. He steals another man’s wife. Then he has her husband murdered. Dastardly things. When he repents, Nathan the prophet puts his finger in his nose and says, ‘Thou art the man.’ Remember that?
“David repented. He wrote Psalm 51 to describe what that repentance was like. He said it was ‘bloodguiltiness’ like the breaking of bones. It was a bitter, painful experience. And in the midst of all that, he cries out to God, ‘Take not thy Holy Spirit from me!’ Even in all of that, God never took His Spirit away from him. The spirit of God stayed with David and never left.
“You go back and read about when Moses gets the skilled laborers together to build the tabernacle. The Holy Spirit came on the artisans. You ever hear anybody pray, ‘Lord, guide the hand of the surgeon now as he goes to do surgery?’
"I used to wonder where they got that from and then a fellow told me it’s like what God did back there in Exodus when He guided the hands of the artisan to give them skill in doing their job to build the artifacts for the tabernacle. Yes, the Spirit of God came on him and did that but then you know what He did? He left.
“All that coming-going, coming-going-staying-and-not-leaving—that’s before the new covenant. So it’s not right to say that under the old covenant they never had the Spirit of God at all. They did—He came on them, He would go with them, He indwelled them. He went in Daniel, for example. But what He didn’t do is He didn’t regenerate them and He didn’t permanently dwell with them. That’s going to change.
“Jesus said, ‘I’m going to go away to the Cross, be resurrected, ascend into heaven and I’m going to send the Holy Spirit, and when He comes your relationship with Him is going to be new and different, permanent. He’ll be with you but he’ll be in you permanently. A permanent indwelling.
“Now if you want to see when that takes place, John 14:18 says, ‘I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.’ That’s not like verse 3 where He’s talking about the Second Coming. He’s talking about, ‘I’m going to come to you in the person of the Holy Spirit.’ Once again, you see the Trinity in action here. You had all three of them back in verse 16.
“Down here when He says, ‘I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you,’ He’s not going to leave the throne of heaven. It’s the Spirit of Christ that’s going to come. One of the members of the Trinity. Verse 19 says, ‘Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.’
“Think about what He’s saying: ‘Because I live you live.’ He’s saying He is the source of life and not just life, but spiritual life—eternal life. You know, when you read the Lord Jesus Christ’s conversation, when He just talks about Himself, the whole thing is He was either a liar, a lunatic or the Lord. One of greatest demonstrations of His deity is just the common assumptions He makes when He talks and He assumes life--all life--is there because of Him.
“Paul says it in Colossians 1. He says, ‘By him all things consist.’ The reason things hold together and life exists is because of Him; the consistency of His word, His integrity.
“Verse 20 says, ‘At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.’ That day is the day back in verses 16-17 when He sends the Comforter, the spirit of truth, who’s going to be in you. And when He’s in you, ‘They’re going to know that Christ is in my Father, that ye are in me and that I am in you.’
“That’s that new covenant relationship; the permanent provision and promise of the new testament and the new covenant. It comes into their experience and is inaugurated on the day of Pentecost when He comes.”
*****
Jeremiah 31:31: Ezekiel 36 explains how He’s going to do the heart-writing of His law into their hearts. It’s a supernatural operation. Ezekiel 36:24. What did He say in Jeremiah? ‘I’m gonna write my law in your heart. I’m gonna give you a new heart. A new spirit will I put within you.’ What spirit would that be? There’s the Holy Spirit coming.
“What does He take away? The stone, or the hardness of the heart. He takes away the rebellion against the truth of God’s Word. He that be often reproved hardeneth his heart. You hear the Word of God over and over and you reject it and that much reproof hardens. He said, ‘I’ll take that away. I’ll take away the effects of all that unbelief and I’ll give you a responsive heart. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes.’ Isaiah 32.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Parting parts
Judgment of Israel in the 70th week of Daniel.
Jordan says, “There’s the passage where Paul says, ‘So all Israel shall be saved.’ That’s talking about how it’s only redeemed Israel that goes into the kingdom. The Antichrist isn’t designed to purge America or Europe or Africa or Australia. His purpose is to personify the lie program and purge the rebel out of Israel so you have the judgment of Israel.
“When Jesus Christ judges the nations, He does that when He comes in flaming fire with His mighty angels taking vengeance on them that know not God. After the millennium, we come to the final judgment—‘the last judgment.’ This is the one you often hear about that is confused with all the other ones.
“Revelation 20:11 says, ‘And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.’
“When he says the great white throne comes out of heaven, there’s no place to hide for these dudes. They’re going to stand before God small and great.
“II Peter 3:10 says, ‘But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.’
“Literally the atomic structure of the physical universe, as you know it, is going to be dissolved. Verse 12 says, ‘Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?’ That’s the time we’re studying about in Rev. 20. It’s the ultimate end of what’s going on.
“In Rev. 20 we’re coming to the climactic events in the history of fallen man. The climactic events of the satanic rebellion that sought to usurp God’s authority in the heavens and the earth.
“Revelation 20:12 says, ‘And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.’
“The first thing you want to notice is when he talks about the dead there, he’s talking about a certain category of dead people. Go back to verse 4: ‘And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
“When he says he saw thrones and they sat upon them, that’s going to be the Old Testament saints. They’re resurrected and then you have the tribulation saints (the souls) that die.
“I don’t know if you ever thought about the kingdom but there will be an inauguration day. There’s a coronation day for the king and it’s talked about all through the Old Testament.
“There are whole psalms written about this event. There are whole chapters in Isaiah that describe it. The first thing Jesus Christ will do is He will stand up and speak and command forth all of the saints from Adam all the way down—all through the Old Testament, to be resurrected.
“That’s how Psalm 99 can talk about Moses and Samuel. They didn’t live together but walk together into that kingdom.
“Jesus told them in Matthew 8:11 that the day’s going to come when Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and people from all over the world will come and sit down together in the kingdom. Not only them but the tribulation saints are resurrected. They’re raised to live and reign with Christ for a thousand years. You have all the saved people from Adam to the beginning of the millennium are now resurrected.
Verse 5 says, ‘But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.’ If you aren’t up at this time you in trouble. Verse 6 says, ‘Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.’
“Being in the first resurrection is important. By the way, you notice how he says blessed and holy is he that hath PART in the first resurrection? The first resurrection has different parts to it!
“It has a part that affects the church the Body of Christ. It has a part that affects the Old Testament saints. It has a part that affects the tribulation saints. It has several parts to it. That’s why in I Cor. 15, Paul says there is an order. Every man in his own order in his own place in his own part and that makes up the first resurrection; it doesn’t take place all in one moment. It takes place in a series of parts.
“That’s important because people come along and say see the resurrection doesn’t take place til the beginning of the millennium, therefore the Rapture can’t take place til the beginning of the millennium because you’re in the resurrection. But the first resurrection has several parts to it and there’s an order to them.
“If you’re in the first resurrection, you don’t have to worry about the great white throne because the lake of fire, the second death is not going to touch you. But the rest of the dead, they still stay dead for a thousand years and then at the end of the 1,000 years here were are in Rev. 20:12: ‘And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.’
“So what we’re dealing with in chapter 20 when he says the dead, you’re dealing with the rest of the dead; all the dead that haven’t been resurrected. Who are they? They’re the lost! They’re the lost from Cain all the way down.
“All the lost from all the ages are going to stand before God, small and great. That means that death is not annihilation. They still exist! They’re dead but they’re going to stand before God. They’re dead but they exist!
“Rev. 19:20 says, ‘And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.’
“They both were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone. When is that? That’s before the kingdom. Rev. 20: 1-5. The beast and false prophet are cast into the lake of fire before the kingdom. A thousand years after Satan is taken and he’s cast into the same lake of fire where the beast and false prophets ARE. You see it says ARE?! They’re still there!
“If you can be cast into the lake of fire and be there for a thousand years, you weren’t snuffed out. You weren’t burnt up. If you can last a thousand years, you can probably last a lot longer. People don’t go to hell and become annihilated and burned up into cinders and ashes.
“The verse in Malachi 4 and back in Psalms, where it talks about the Lord coming and people being burned and left as ashes, that’s talking about their physical body being burned and destroyed. But there’s more to you than your physical body. There’s your soul; there’s your inner man and these guys get cast into the lake of fire and exist for a thousand years and are still there squirming and worming.
“You say, ‘How is that possible?’ Moses comes out to a burning bush and the text says it burned but was not consumed. Hebrews says our God is a consuming fire, but it’s not a consuming fire that annihilates, it’s a fire that burns perpetually. How can that be? It’s a fire that God created. He does His will and accomplishes His purpose.
“Mark 9 says they will be salted with fire. What does salt do? It preserves. The fire’s literally going to preserve them from destruction.”
Jordan says, “There’s the passage where Paul says, ‘So all Israel shall be saved.’ That’s talking about how it’s only redeemed Israel that goes into the kingdom. The Antichrist isn’t designed to purge America or Europe or Africa or Australia. His purpose is to personify the lie program and purge the rebel out of Israel so you have the judgment of Israel.
“When Jesus Christ judges the nations, He does that when He comes in flaming fire with His mighty angels taking vengeance on them that know not God. After the millennium, we come to the final judgment—‘the last judgment.’ This is the one you often hear about that is confused with all the other ones.
“Revelation 20:11 says, ‘And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.’
“When he says the great white throne comes out of heaven, there’s no place to hide for these dudes. They’re going to stand before God small and great.
“II Peter 3:10 says, ‘But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.’
“Literally the atomic structure of the physical universe, as you know it, is going to be dissolved. Verse 12 says, ‘Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?’ That’s the time we’re studying about in Rev. 20. It’s the ultimate end of what’s going on.
“In Rev. 20 we’re coming to the climactic events in the history of fallen man. The climactic events of the satanic rebellion that sought to usurp God’s authority in the heavens and the earth.
“Revelation 20:12 says, ‘And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.’
“The first thing you want to notice is when he talks about the dead there, he’s talking about a certain category of dead people. Go back to verse 4: ‘And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
“When he says he saw thrones and they sat upon them, that’s going to be the Old Testament saints. They’re resurrected and then you have the tribulation saints (the souls) that die.
“I don’t know if you ever thought about the kingdom but there will be an inauguration day. There’s a coronation day for the king and it’s talked about all through the Old Testament.
“There are whole psalms written about this event. There are whole chapters in Isaiah that describe it. The first thing Jesus Christ will do is He will stand up and speak and command forth all of the saints from Adam all the way down—all through the Old Testament, to be resurrected.
“That’s how Psalm 99 can talk about Moses and Samuel. They didn’t live together but walk together into that kingdom.
“Jesus told them in Matthew 8:11 that the day’s going to come when Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and people from all over the world will come and sit down together in the kingdom. Not only them but the tribulation saints are resurrected. They’re raised to live and reign with Christ for a thousand years. You have all the saved people from Adam to the beginning of the millennium are now resurrected.
Verse 5 says, ‘But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.’ If you aren’t up at this time you in trouble. Verse 6 says, ‘Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.’
“Being in the first resurrection is important. By the way, you notice how he says blessed and holy is he that hath PART in the first resurrection? The first resurrection has different parts to it!
“It has a part that affects the church the Body of Christ. It has a part that affects the Old Testament saints. It has a part that affects the tribulation saints. It has several parts to it. That’s why in I Cor. 15, Paul says there is an order. Every man in his own order in his own place in his own part and that makes up the first resurrection; it doesn’t take place all in one moment. It takes place in a series of parts.
“That’s important because people come along and say see the resurrection doesn’t take place til the beginning of the millennium, therefore the Rapture can’t take place til the beginning of the millennium because you’re in the resurrection. But the first resurrection has several parts to it and there’s an order to them.
“If you’re in the first resurrection, you don’t have to worry about the great white throne because the lake of fire, the second death is not going to touch you. But the rest of the dead, they still stay dead for a thousand years and then at the end of the 1,000 years here were are in Rev. 20:12: ‘And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.’
“So what we’re dealing with in chapter 20 when he says the dead, you’re dealing with the rest of the dead; all the dead that haven’t been resurrected. Who are they? They’re the lost! They’re the lost from Cain all the way down.
“All the lost from all the ages are going to stand before God, small and great. That means that death is not annihilation. They still exist! They’re dead but they’re going to stand before God. They’re dead but they exist!
“Rev. 19:20 says, ‘And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.’
“They both were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone. When is that? That’s before the kingdom. Rev. 20: 1-5. The beast and false prophet are cast into the lake of fire before the kingdom. A thousand years after Satan is taken and he’s cast into the same lake of fire where the beast and false prophets ARE. You see it says ARE?! They’re still there!
“If you can be cast into the lake of fire and be there for a thousand years, you weren’t snuffed out. You weren’t burnt up. If you can last a thousand years, you can probably last a lot longer. People don’t go to hell and become annihilated and burned up into cinders and ashes.
“The verse in Malachi 4 and back in Psalms, where it talks about the Lord coming and people being burned and left as ashes, that’s talking about their physical body being burned and destroyed. But there’s more to you than your physical body. There’s your soul; there’s your inner man and these guys get cast into the lake of fire and exist for a thousand years and are still there squirming and worming.
“You say, ‘How is that possible?’ Moses comes out to a burning bush and the text says it burned but was not consumed. Hebrews says our God is a consuming fire, but it’s not a consuming fire that annihilates, it’s a fire that burns perpetually. How can that be? It’s a fire that God created. He does His will and accomplishes His purpose.
“Mark 9 says they will be salted with fire. What does salt do? It preserves. The fire’s literally going to preserve them from destruction.”
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Context is king
A woman recently came to Jordan and told him her real estate agent was using Jeremiah 32:15 on her to pressure her into buying. The verse says, “For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land.”
Jordan says, “By the way, isn’t it interesting--almost 300 times in your Bible God is described as the ‘God of Israel’? The God of the Bible is never described as the God of Ismael. He’s never described as the God of Muhammad. He’s never described as the God of America. He’s always described as the God of Israel; the God of Jacob.
"If you’re going to understand the God of the Bible you’re going to have to understand something about the nation Israel because that’s whose God He is throughout Scripture.
“But back to Jeremiah, there’s something fascinating going on in this passage. Jeremiah’s not having a very good day. Verse 2 says, ‘For then the king of Babylon's army besieged Jerusalem: and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the prison, which was in the king of Judah's house.’
“Nebuchadnezzar has invaded the land and taken Israel captive. Jeremiah never gets carried away to Babylon like Ezekiel and Daniel but is left in Jerusalem. He prophesies that ‘Nebby’s gonna come.’ This got him in trouble. Everybody said, ‘Agh, you’re a nut job! We don’t like you!’ Well, here Nebby did come and Jeremiah is said to be carried to Babylon, stays in the land and watches his beloved nation collapse. Think about an invading army coming in and taking over.
“Jeremiah is in the land and watches the economic collapse and the cultural demise as Israel is uprooted and carried into Babylon into captivity. It would make no economic sense . . . it would be somewhere between risky and stupid in that context to go buy a piece of real estate.
“In verse 6 his uncle comes and says, ‘Look, here’s a piece of property, it’s in the family and I’m getting out of here. I’m going to get my money out of it. So Jerry, it’s yours to buy.’
“That passage’s not talking about buying a piece of real estate in 2011 in the U.S. of America, telling you, ‘No matter what the economic condition might be where you are, you can pray and get God to change your little neighborhood’s economic situation.’
“That’s not advice about buying real estate in the dispensation of grace. It’s advice about what God’s going to do with Israel. He scattered them and He said, ‘I’m going to bring them back and where it doesn’t look good now, listen, I’m not going to forget what I intended to do with my people.’
“That passage has a context. When you see the context you get over the pretext and thinking, ‘Well, I can just claim something because God said it and l like it.’ People love that verse back in Jeremiah 29:11, ‘For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.’ But they don’t like the ones over at the end of the book about war and being scattered.
“Paul said, ‘I’ve learned; I’ve been instructed. The Scripture corrected my bad thinking and told me what was right and what the truth of what God said gave me inner fortification that I could stand and, no matter what, go ahead. ‘In all thy ways acknowledge the Lord and he will direct thy paths.’ You know that verse in Proverbs?
“If in every area of your life you acknowledge the Lord He’ll direct you. He doesn’t put a sign post down, ‘SELL NOW.’ The way He directs your path is the counsel of His Word. But that doesn’t happen unless you acknowledge Him in all the details of your life.”
*****
Paul writes in II Corinthians 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.”
Jordan reasons, “It’s interesting he doesn’t say new covenant. You know the difference between a testament and a covenant?
“Hebrews 9:16 says, ‘For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.’ You can have a covenant, that’s a contract, and death doesn’t enter into it. You go and buy an automobile. That sales contract does not envision your death; it envisions you living.
“A testament is something that envisions death; in fact, it doesn’t come into effect until after you die. It’s the ‘last will and testament.’ Your testament spells out the inheritance of your heirs. Verse 17 says, ‘For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth.’
“By the way, that’s an important verse dispensationally. That verse means Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ, is not in the new testament. Why? Because a testament is a force after the death of the testator and when did Jesus Christ die? At the end of those books, not the beginning, and not through almost all of the ministries in those books.
“If you can’t rightly divide the word of truth you never figure that verse but you can’t read that verse and NOT rightly divide the Scripture. You see the Bible forces you to be a dispensationalist. It’s religion that keeps that way from you.
“The old testament did not begin in Genesis, it began in the book of Exodus when God gave it to Moses. The new testament begins after the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. When he says God’s made us able ministers of the new testament, He’s talking about the fact that you and I have been given a part in the inheritance.
“Ephesians 1:11 says, ‘In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:’ You and I, as members of the Body of Christ do not have any inheritance in what Jesus Christ won at Calvary through a covenant.
“God covenanted with the nation Israel to give those benefits to Israel. But He’s included us in the benefits of the Crosswork, not by covenant but by His grace. Not by the covenant, but by His death and resurrection. We’re not part of the covenant God made with Israel. You don’t go back there and take that statement about God making a covenant with the house of Jacob and say, ‘That’s me!’
“You say, ‘Well how do I get in?!’ You get in by God’s grace. You get in because before the foundation of the world, before He ever made the covenant with Abraham, He’d already planned to include you in the benefits of the death of His Son. He just didn’t tell anybody but now we know. He did it in a secret fashion.”
Jordan says, “By the way, isn’t it interesting--almost 300 times in your Bible God is described as the ‘God of Israel’? The God of the Bible is never described as the God of Ismael. He’s never described as the God of Muhammad. He’s never described as the God of America. He’s always described as the God of Israel; the God of Jacob.
"If you’re going to understand the God of the Bible you’re going to have to understand something about the nation Israel because that’s whose God He is throughout Scripture.
“But back to Jeremiah, there’s something fascinating going on in this passage. Jeremiah’s not having a very good day. Verse 2 says, ‘For then the king of Babylon's army besieged Jerusalem: and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the prison, which was in the king of Judah's house.’
“Nebuchadnezzar has invaded the land and taken Israel captive. Jeremiah never gets carried away to Babylon like Ezekiel and Daniel but is left in Jerusalem. He prophesies that ‘Nebby’s gonna come.’ This got him in trouble. Everybody said, ‘Agh, you’re a nut job! We don’t like you!’ Well, here Nebby did come and Jeremiah is said to be carried to Babylon, stays in the land and watches his beloved nation collapse. Think about an invading army coming in and taking over.
“Jeremiah is in the land and watches the economic collapse and the cultural demise as Israel is uprooted and carried into Babylon into captivity. It would make no economic sense . . . it would be somewhere between risky and stupid in that context to go buy a piece of real estate.
“In verse 6 his uncle comes and says, ‘Look, here’s a piece of property, it’s in the family and I’m getting out of here. I’m going to get my money out of it. So Jerry, it’s yours to buy.’
“That passage’s not talking about buying a piece of real estate in 2011 in the U.S. of America, telling you, ‘No matter what the economic condition might be where you are, you can pray and get God to change your little neighborhood’s economic situation.’
“That’s not advice about buying real estate in the dispensation of grace. It’s advice about what God’s going to do with Israel. He scattered them and He said, ‘I’m going to bring them back and where it doesn’t look good now, listen, I’m not going to forget what I intended to do with my people.’
“That passage has a context. When you see the context you get over the pretext and thinking, ‘Well, I can just claim something because God said it and l like it.’ People love that verse back in Jeremiah 29:11, ‘For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.’ But they don’t like the ones over at the end of the book about war and being scattered.
“Paul said, ‘I’ve learned; I’ve been instructed. The Scripture corrected my bad thinking and told me what was right and what the truth of what God said gave me inner fortification that I could stand and, no matter what, go ahead. ‘In all thy ways acknowledge the Lord and he will direct thy paths.’ You know that verse in Proverbs?
“If in every area of your life you acknowledge the Lord He’ll direct you. He doesn’t put a sign post down, ‘SELL NOW.’ The way He directs your path is the counsel of His Word. But that doesn’t happen unless you acknowledge Him in all the details of your life.”
*****
Paul writes in II Corinthians 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.”
Jordan reasons, “It’s interesting he doesn’t say new covenant. You know the difference between a testament and a covenant?
“Hebrews 9:16 says, ‘For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.’ You can have a covenant, that’s a contract, and death doesn’t enter into it. You go and buy an automobile. That sales contract does not envision your death; it envisions you living.
“A testament is something that envisions death; in fact, it doesn’t come into effect until after you die. It’s the ‘last will and testament.’ Your testament spells out the inheritance of your heirs. Verse 17 says, ‘For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth.’
“By the way, that’s an important verse dispensationally. That verse means Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ, is not in the new testament. Why? Because a testament is a force after the death of the testator and when did Jesus Christ die? At the end of those books, not the beginning, and not through almost all of the ministries in those books.
“If you can’t rightly divide the word of truth you never figure that verse but you can’t read that verse and NOT rightly divide the Scripture. You see the Bible forces you to be a dispensationalist. It’s religion that keeps that way from you.
“The old testament did not begin in Genesis, it began in the book of Exodus when God gave it to Moses. The new testament begins after the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. When he says God’s made us able ministers of the new testament, He’s talking about the fact that you and I have been given a part in the inheritance.
“Ephesians 1:11 says, ‘In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:’ You and I, as members of the Body of Christ do not have any inheritance in what Jesus Christ won at Calvary through a covenant.
“God covenanted with the nation Israel to give those benefits to Israel. But He’s included us in the benefits of the Crosswork, not by covenant but by His grace. Not by the covenant, but by His death and resurrection. We’re not part of the covenant God made with Israel. You don’t go back there and take that statement about God making a covenant with the house of Jacob and say, ‘That’s me!’
“You say, ‘Well how do I get in?!’ You get in by God’s grace. You get in because before the foundation of the world, before He ever made the covenant with Abraham, He’d already planned to include you in the benefits of the death of His Son. He just didn’t tell anybody but now we know. He did it in a secret fashion.”
Friday, November 11, 2011
'And found the eleven gathered together . . .'
• Hint: The only verse of Paul's that has all of them is II Corinthians 11:11, in which he pleads, "Wherefore? because I love you not? God knoweth." Here’s a list from MSN’s website this morning about the significance of 11/11/11:
•
• You may have to be a mathematician to get excited by the numerical tricks that 11—which is the sixth prime number—can perform: When multiplied by itself, the number 11 equals a palindrome every time—from 11 x 11 (which equals 121) to 1,111,111 x 1,111,111 (which equals a pleasing 1,234,567,654,321) and beyond.
•
• Today is also Armistice Day, marking the end of World War I, when Germany and the Allied nations called for resolution on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. Some hotels and resorts in the U.S. are using today's special date to pay homage to men and women who've served in the military, with special discounts and donations to the USO.
•
• When broken down into separate digits (1+1=2), the number 11 resonates with the number two and, therefore, takes on additional attributes. Today is plush for matters of the heart, since 11 is commonly associated with intuition, inspiration, compassion, and tolerance, while two, the number associated with feminine energy, embodies union and partnership.
•
• According to numerology, each number holds a unique vibration with associated traits attached to it. One and two symbolize masculine and feminine energy, respectively, with one deemed as "the creator." When repeated, one becomes 11, which is considered the Master Number, representing rebirth and, you guessed it, new beginnings.
• Couples worldwide have long hitched their marital fortunes to special dates, signing their nuptials on ones that bear the same number for the month, day and year. Wedding industry experts believe it's a combination of superstition and meaning that make them so desirable, but many couples simply want an unforgettable anniversary date. According to David's Bridal, 57,000 ceremonies will take place today, surpassing the 39,000 weddings that commenced last year on 10/10/10.
•
• You may have to be a mathematician to get excited by the numerical tricks that 11—which is the sixth prime number—can perform: When multiplied by itself, the number 11 equals a palindrome every time—from 11 x 11 (which equals 121) to 1,111,111 x 1,111,111 (which equals a pleasing 1,234,567,654,321) and beyond.
•
• Today is also Armistice Day, marking the end of World War I, when Germany and the Allied nations called for resolution on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. Some hotels and resorts in the U.S. are using today's special date to pay homage to men and women who've served in the military, with special discounts and donations to the USO.
•
• When broken down into separate digits (1+1=2), the number 11 resonates with the number two and, therefore, takes on additional attributes. Today is plush for matters of the heart, since 11 is commonly associated with intuition, inspiration, compassion, and tolerance, while two, the number associated with feminine energy, embodies union and partnership.
•
• According to numerology, each number holds a unique vibration with associated traits attached to it. One and two symbolize masculine and feminine energy, respectively, with one deemed as "the creator." When repeated, one becomes 11, which is considered the Master Number, representing rebirth and, you guessed it, new beginnings.
• Couples worldwide have long hitched their marital fortunes to special dates, signing their nuptials on ones that bear the same number for the month, day and year. Wedding industry experts believe it's a combination of superstition and meaning that make them so desirable, but many couples simply want an unforgettable anniversary date. According to David's Bridal, 57,000 ceremonies will take place today, surpassing the 39,000 weddings that commenced last year on 10/10/10.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Beckoning with his hand
Acts is probably the most difficult book in the Bible for people to get straight and keep straight.
Jordan says, “It’s amazing, it’s hard enough to get it right and then you’ll see somebody get it right and then later they will have lost it. The Book of Acts, the more you keep reading it, if you don’t get it started right and get something nailed down . . . it’s so fluid as you go through it that it just sort of jumps around on the page.
“There are three books in the New Testament that, if you’re going to kill yourself, you’re going to do it in these three books. Every heretic, every cult, ever ‘ism’ and chism, uses Matthew, Acts and Hebrews to get themselves all messed up and it’s because they’re transition books.
“In Matthew, you’re coming out of the Old Testament with just the law and prophets and from the entrance of John the Baptist the kingdom of God is preached and you make the transition with the ministry of John and the Lord there.
“In Acts, you begin with the presentation of the offer of the kingdom to the nation Israel and you move from the kingdom message and the kingdom program, going in full swing, into the dispensation of grace and the mystery and the Body of Christ.
“So you’re moving in Acts from the kingdom program to the body program; from prophecy to the mystery. Then when you go to the Book of Hebrews, you’re going back into the kingdom program again and Hebrews stands at the head of the nine Hebrews epistles at the end of your Bible that represent doctrine for the ages to come and those people in that time period.
“Hebrews focuses on moving from the old covenant to the new covenant, but moving to it in a way you couldn’t have done in Matthew and early Acts because now when you get to Hebrews you’ve got all of Paul’s epistles sitting there in front of you.
“You’ll notice people will get into those books and they got all kind of goofball . . . I mean, if you’re going to teach somebody they’re going to lose their salvation, where do they go? Matthew and Hebrews. And if you’re going to teach somebody they need to speak in tongues, where do they go? Acts. If you’re going to teach somebody they need to be water-baptized to get saved, where do they go? Acts 2:38.
“You want to teach somebody they got to get the second blessing—you know, you get saved and later on you get the baptism of the Holy Ghost and the purification and all that business, you go to the Book of Acts. And if you want to get somebody real confused, you take them and show about four different ways to get saved in the Book of Acts. Then you become a Campbellite because a Campbellite just adds them all together.
“So anytime you find somebody basing their doctrine on the Book of Acts, you’re finding somebody building their ministry on quicksand, and that’s true dispensationally and doctrinally. Soon or later, they’re going to go under.
“You never interpret Paul’s epistles in light of the Book of Acts; you interpret the Book of Acts in the light of Paul’s epistles.
“With Paul’s ministry is where the change starts. It doesn’t happen in Acts 2 or after Acts 28; the change from the old to the new begins with the raising up of the Apostle Paul in mid-Acts.
“The purpose of the Book of Acts is to present the fall of Israel and God’s reason for sending salvation to the Gentiles apart from the kingdom program and apart from His chosen people. Write that down in your mind. The purpose of the Book of Acts is NOT a history lesson. It’s not a pattern for Believers today. It’s not the design by which the church the Body of Christ should operate today. It is written for the purpose of setting forth the fall of Israel and God’s reason for sending salvation to the Gentiles APART from Israel through a NEW message.
“And if you’ll get that in your mind, and you’ll see that and consider it dispensationally like that, you’ll see the fruit of studying the Book of Acts can be very sweet.
“If you do it the other way, the traditional way where it’s a history lesson and there’s all these examples and principles to live by today, you’re going to have problems. You’re going to wreck your ministry trying to follow things that don’t work that God has rendered impossible for you to do today!”
Jordan says, “It’s amazing, it’s hard enough to get it right and then you’ll see somebody get it right and then later they will have lost it. The Book of Acts, the more you keep reading it, if you don’t get it started right and get something nailed down . . . it’s so fluid as you go through it that it just sort of jumps around on the page.
“There are three books in the New Testament that, if you’re going to kill yourself, you’re going to do it in these three books. Every heretic, every cult, ever ‘ism’ and chism, uses Matthew, Acts and Hebrews to get themselves all messed up and it’s because they’re transition books.
“In Matthew, you’re coming out of the Old Testament with just the law and prophets and from the entrance of John the Baptist the kingdom of God is preached and you make the transition with the ministry of John and the Lord there.
“In Acts, you begin with the presentation of the offer of the kingdom to the nation Israel and you move from the kingdom message and the kingdom program, going in full swing, into the dispensation of grace and the mystery and the Body of Christ.
“So you’re moving in Acts from the kingdom program to the body program; from prophecy to the mystery. Then when you go to the Book of Hebrews, you’re going back into the kingdom program again and Hebrews stands at the head of the nine Hebrews epistles at the end of your Bible that represent doctrine for the ages to come and those people in that time period.
“Hebrews focuses on moving from the old covenant to the new covenant, but moving to it in a way you couldn’t have done in Matthew and early Acts because now when you get to Hebrews you’ve got all of Paul’s epistles sitting there in front of you.
“You’ll notice people will get into those books and they got all kind of goofball . . . I mean, if you’re going to teach somebody they’re going to lose their salvation, where do they go? Matthew and Hebrews. And if you’re going to teach somebody they need to speak in tongues, where do they go? Acts. If you’re going to teach somebody they need to be water-baptized to get saved, where do they go? Acts 2:38.
“You want to teach somebody they got to get the second blessing—you know, you get saved and later on you get the baptism of the Holy Ghost and the purification and all that business, you go to the Book of Acts. And if you want to get somebody real confused, you take them and show about four different ways to get saved in the Book of Acts. Then you become a Campbellite because a Campbellite just adds them all together.
“So anytime you find somebody basing their doctrine on the Book of Acts, you’re finding somebody building their ministry on quicksand, and that’s true dispensationally and doctrinally. Soon or later, they’re going to go under.
“You never interpret Paul’s epistles in light of the Book of Acts; you interpret the Book of Acts in the light of Paul’s epistles.
“With Paul’s ministry is where the change starts. It doesn’t happen in Acts 2 or after Acts 28; the change from the old to the new begins with the raising up of the Apostle Paul in mid-Acts.
“The purpose of the Book of Acts is to present the fall of Israel and God’s reason for sending salvation to the Gentiles apart from the kingdom program and apart from His chosen people. Write that down in your mind. The purpose of the Book of Acts is NOT a history lesson. It’s not a pattern for Believers today. It’s not the design by which the church the Body of Christ should operate today. It is written for the purpose of setting forth the fall of Israel and God’s reason for sending salvation to the Gentiles APART from Israel through a NEW message.
“And if you’ll get that in your mind, and you’ll see that and consider it dispensationally like that, you’ll see the fruit of studying the Book of Acts can be very sweet.
“If you do it the other way, the traditional way where it’s a history lesson and there’s all these examples and principles to live by today, you’re going to have problems. You’re going to wreck your ministry trying to follow things that don’t work that God has rendered impossible for you to do today!”
Saturday, November 5, 2011
To me to live is Christ
I had definite plans to attend Shorewood’s annual Harvest Banquet this evening (with an expected crowd at the church building of 140!) but this day didn’t turn out well. First of all, I didn’t get any quality sleep last night (I’ve had debilitating insomnia for a solid year now and it’s only gotten worse with time, no matter how bad of a sleep deficit I’ve accumulate!).
Then I had to get up at the crack of dawn for a day of mandatory volunteering with my non-profit organization’s staff and board of directors on the south side of Chicago. Among other things, my group “weather-proofed” the old home of a low-income senior who lives alone at 87th and Hermitage. It was a lot of standing on a ladder in awkward positions and hammering up plastic “kits” over windows where the sun was beating in so blindingly I literally had to guess at times where to carefully line up the frame strips!
For our late lunch on the way home, we hit a popular soul food spot on 79th and Racine and I had the $5.99 special of deep-fried catfish and mac and cheese, both of which were so heavily oil-laden they gave me diarrhea and a bad stomach later on. Hence, I didn’t feel in any shape for the banquet at 5:30 p.m. I’m just glad I’m now feeling better for church tomorrow!
Health wise, this has been a very stressful week for me. I even made an appointment on Monday with my doc (earliest opening he had was for this Tuesday morning) because I’ve been so unnerved by the symptoms caused from my fragile nerves ( a genetic problem on my dad’s side that was always an issue for him, my sister and continues to be one for me—dating back to age 6!).
After telling a elderly deaf resident (a Christian who actually wears around some of my old Smoky Mountains Bible Conference tees with the chart on the back!) this past Wednesday of the decision to transfer her, there has been outcry from a local social services agency that has worked with her for 17 years and I have to now “prove” my case in a big meeting Monday where one social worker (also deaf), on behalf of her client, is refuting my testimony regarding recent behaviors of the resident that warrant her loss of housing. This is on top of the client expressing suicidal desires!
Fortunately, a top-level woman with CJE (Council for Jewish Elderly) will attend, and as she told me on the phone Friday afternoon, it appears to her I’ve “gone above and beyond” in handling the resident’s issues (something I know I have done with fairness and a very forgiving nature with sisterly love in Christ for her).
I know my blood pressure is often higher than it should be and I’ve been told to lose weight and exercise to get it down. Obviously, the soul food was no help, but there was NOTHING remotely health-conscious on their menu! I have been dieting overall and it makes my nerves and insomnia worse when I don’t eat much or eat very low fat.
For the record, I’ve severely limited my caffeine consumption and don’t consume ANY alcohol any longer. I’ve never been one to want to resort to drugs (especially having grown up witnessing my dad’s long-term habits with prescription pills). I do take over-the-counter stuff at times for my insomnia but it doesn’t even work very well!
Oh, well, I heard Andy Rooney did finally die today. That’s what I need to keep ever-present: the fact that this life will be over as a vapor and only what’s done for Christ will last.
Then I had to get up at the crack of dawn for a day of mandatory volunteering with my non-profit organization’s staff and board of directors on the south side of Chicago. Among other things, my group “weather-proofed” the old home of a low-income senior who lives alone at 87th and Hermitage. It was a lot of standing on a ladder in awkward positions and hammering up plastic “kits” over windows where the sun was beating in so blindingly I literally had to guess at times where to carefully line up the frame strips!
For our late lunch on the way home, we hit a popular soul food spot on 79th and Racine and I had the $5.99 special of deep-fried catfish and mac and cheese, both of which were so heavily oil-laden they gave me diarrhea and a bad stomach later on. Hence, I didn’t feel in any shape for the banquet at 5:30 p.m. I’m just glad I’m now feeling better for church tomorrow!
Health wise, this has been a very stressful week for me. I even made an appointment on Monday with my doc (earliest opening he had was for this Tuesday morning) because I’ve been so unnerved by the symptoms caused from my fragile nerves ( a genetic problem on my dad’s side that was always an issue for him, my sister and continues to be one for me—dating back to age 6!).
After telling a elderly deaf resident (a Christian who actually wears around some of my old Smoky Mountains Bible Conference tees with the chart on the back!) this past Wednesday of the decision to transfer her, there has been outcry from a local social services agency that has worked with her for 17 years and I have to now “prove” my case in a big meeting Monday where one social worker (also deaf), on behalf of her client, is refuting my testimony regarding recent behaviors of the resident that warrant her loss of housing. This is on top of the client expressing suicidal desires!
Fortunately, a top-level woman with CJE (Council for Jewish Elderly) will attend, and as she told me on the phone Friday afternoon, it appears to her I’ve “gone above and beyond” in handling the resident’s issues (something I know I have done with fairness and a very forgiving nature with sisterly love in Christ for her).
I know my blood pressure is often higher than it should be and I’ve been told to lose weight and exercise to get it down. Obviously, the soul food was no help, but there was NOTHING remotely health-conscious on their menu! I have been dieting overall and it makes my nerves and insomnia worse when I don’t eat much or eat very low fat.
For the record, I’ve severely limited my caffeine consumption and don’t consume ANY alcohol any longer. I’ve never been one to want to resort to drugs (especially having grown up witnessing my dad’s long-term habits with prescription pills). I do take over-the-counter stuff at times for my insomnia but it doesn’t even work very well!
Oh, well, I heard Andy Rooney did finally die today. That’s what I need to keep ever-present: the fact that this life will be over as a vapor and only what’s done for Christ will last.
Friday, November 4, 2011
A genius stroke of 'Aha!'
Here’s a good quote: “To engender confidence in Him and a healthy distrust of yourself is God’s ultimate reason for every experience He allows into your life.”
Jordan says, “That’s II Corinthians 1: 8-10. You say, ‘Why does God let these things happen?’ Steve Jobs said that as a teenager he gave up on God when he saw sick and hungry children. Richard Dawkins, the egghead atheist of the 21st Century, says he gave up on God as a teenager because ‘a God who could let suffering exist the way it exists couldn’t be worthy of respect.’ And you say, ‘What’s the answer to that?’
“Well, you see, underlying that is a false assumption that everyone knows isn’t true. And that is that it’s assumed that there could never be any purpose in suffering. But you know if you go to the gym there’s a sign that says, ‘No pain no gain.’
“You know that any growth that ever takes place costs something and what it costs is called suffering. The very fact of the existence of suffering is a part of the necessity of growing. For sure there can be purposes in suffering. There can be a redemptive purpose. But the God of all comfort comforts us in our suffering and He does that for two reasons. One is so that you’ll learn the only person you can really trust is Him.
“I learned a long time ago I couldn’t trust somebody like you. Why would I want to trust somebody who would lie to me? That’s me. Why would I want to trust somebody who would let me down? That’s me. And it’s you because you’re just like me. What I could trust is somebody who would never let me down and always tell me the truth, and that’s Jesus Christ. Didn’t take me a genius stroke of ‘Aha!’ to get that one right!
“The whole issue behind it all is so you learn to trust Him because, when you learn that He’s all you got, then He’s all you can trust. And when He’s all you’ve got to trust, you’ll find out He’s all you really need. And when you realize He’s all you really need, you learn a healthy distrust of yourself:‘It’s not I but Christ.’ And in it’s the excellency of the power of God’s Word that works in you and teaches you—and the truth of it.
“Otherwise you’re like a blind bat flying backward in a dark cave. You don’t know what the purpose of it is.”
*****
Paul writes in II Timothy 3:15, “And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.”
Jordan says, “Boy, now there’d be a reason to preach the Word! Wouldn’t you like to be wise?! The salvation there is not salvation from hell. Timothy’s already saved from hell. It’s salvation from the deception and the difficulties we been reading about in the first 14 verses. Where do you find salvation from the perilous times? Where do you find salvation from the persecution and in the afflictions? You find it in God’s Word. That’s what deliverance from those things are.
“ ‘All scripture is given by God and is profitable.’ By the way, notice verse 16 when he says ‘all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction in righteousness.’ Verse 15 says that ‘from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures.’
“Did Timothy have the original manuscripts? No! He had copies and translations. You see God’s Word is not simply located in the original manuscripts.
"A hundred years ago, when fundamentalism got into a big argument with the rationalists of the 1800s and didn’t want to look like a bunch of ‘Funnymentalists,’ they abandoned the historic faith the Christians had had up to that time and they began to come up with this goofball idea that the ‘Scripture quoted in their original writings were inspired of God and are without error.’
"And every doctrinal statement you’ve ever seen of any Christian organization you’ve ever been a member of, I bet you has that in its doctrinal statement!
“And before the late 1800s, NO doctrinal statement had any statement about the original writings! Did you know that?! Everybody loves the Westminster Confession. They didn’t say anything about the original writings being the only place God’s Word is!
“God’s plan has been when He wrote His word down He wrote it down so it could be preserved for every generation to come. And He preserved it through copies the saints would have and distribute out that they can take and translate into other languages so the Word of God is so ubiquitously available that it couldn’t be lost!”
Jordan says, “That’s II Corinthians 1: 8-10. You say, ‘Why does God let these things happen?’ Steve Jobs said that as a teenager he gave up on God when he saw sick and hungry children. Richard Dawkins, the egghead atheist of the 21st Century, says he gave up on God as a teenager because ‘a God who could let suffering exist the way it exists couldn’t be worthy of respect.’ And you say, ‘What’s the answer to that?’
“Well, you see, underlying that is a false assumption that everyone knows isn’t true. And that is that it’s assumed that there could never be any purpose in suffering. But you know if you go to the gym there’s a sign that says, ‘No pain no gain.’
“You know that any growth that ever takes place costs something and what it costs is called suffering. The very fact of the existence of suffering is a part of the necessity of growing. For sure there can be purposes in suffering. There can be a redemptive purpose. But the God of all comfort comforts us in our suffering and He does that for two reasons. One is so that you’ll learn the only person you can really trust is Him.
“I learned a long time ago I couldn’t trust somebody like you. Why would I want to trust somebody who would lie to me? That’s me. Why would I want to trust somebody who would let me down? That’s me. And it’s you because you’re just like me. What I could trust is somebody who would never let me down and always tell me the truth, and that’s Jesus Christ. Didn’t take me a genius stroke of ‘Aha!’ to get that one right!
“The whole issue behind it all is so you learn to trust Him because, when you learn that He’s all you got, then He’s all you can trust. And when He’s all you’ve got to trust, you’ll find out He’s all you really need. And when you realize He’s all you really need, you learn a healthy distrust of yourself:‘It’s not I but Christ.’ And in it’s the excellency of the power of God’s Word that works in you and teaches you—and the truth of it.
“Otherwise you’re like a blind bat flying backward in a dark cave. You don’t know what the purpose of it is.”
*****
Paul writes in II Timothy 3:15, “And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.”
Jordan says, “Boy, now there’d be a reason to preach the Word! Wouldn’t you like to be wise?! The salvation there is not salvation from hell. Timothy’s already saved from hell. It’s salvation from the deception and the difficulties we been reading about in the first 14 verses. Where do you find salvation from the perilous times? Where do you find salvation from the persecution and in the afflictions? You find it in God’s Word. That’s what deliverance from those things are.
“ ‘All scripture is given by God and is profitable.’ By the way, notice verse 16 when he says ‘all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction in righteousness.’ Verse 15 says that ‘from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures.’
“Did Timothy have the original manuscripts? No! He had copies and translations. You see God’s Word is not simply located in the original manuscripts.
"A hundred years ago, when fundamentalism got into a big argument with the rationalists of the 1800s and didn’t want to look like a bunch of ‘Funnymentalists,’ they abandoned the historic faith the Christians had had up to that time and they began to come up with this goofball idea that the ‘Scripture quoted in their original writings were inspired of God and are without error.’
"And every doctrinal statement you’ve ever seen of any Christian organization you’ve ever been a member of, I bet you has that in its doctrinal statement!
“And before the late 1800s, NO doctrinal statement had any statement about the original writings! Did you know that?! Everybody loves the Westminster Confession. They didn’t say anything about the original writings being the only place God’s Word is!
“God’s plan has been when He wrote His word down He wrote it down so it could be preserved for every generation to come. And He preserved it through copies the saints would have and distribute out that they can take and translate into other languages so the Word of God is so ubiquitously available that it couldn’t be lost!”
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Just a really bad day
They say writing is good therapy, so here is a little off the top:
In the space of an hour yesterday I had to tell two different long-term residents that they were losing their housing and would have to be transferred to a nursing home.
They both were caught completely off-guard and very upset, to say the least. The one resident, age 69, is deaf with low vision. The other resident in 75 and has left-side paralysis from a massive stroke.
With the sorrow involved in both these cases, not just for me but for everybody on my floor ( including fellow residents who are not aware yet of the decisions made by me)I was reminded of this quote I keep at my work desk:
"Love can be understood only 'from the inside,' as a language can be understood only by someone who speaks it, as a world can be understood only by someone who lives in it." Educator Robert C. Solomon
Write more this evening.
In the space of an hour yesterday I had to tell two different long-term residents that they were losing their housing and would have to be transferred to a nursing home.
They both were caught completely off-guard and very upset, to say the least. The one resident, age 69, is deaf with low vision. The other resident in 75 and has left-side paralysis from a massive stroke.
With the sorrow involved in both these cases, not just for me but for everybody on my floor ( including fellow residents who are not aware yet of the decisions made by me)I was reminded of this quote I keep at my work desk:
"Love can be understood only 'from the inside,' as a language can be understood only by someone who speaks it, as a world can be understood only by someone who lives in it." Educator Robert C. Solomon
Write more this evening.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)