Thursday, January 29, 2015
Thursday, November 28, 2013
Which view are you coming from?
I haven't been to a large art gallery to look at the most intriguing art pictures of the world, but I do watch tv and notice how people look at art on the wall and see how and where they stand to evaluate a picture. They will move around from one side of the room to the other to see the artist's view of his work, and then they say "oh yes, I see it now!"
I wonder if we could learn from this example of viewing artwork that we maybe, just maybe see what the author of the bible(God) expressing himself. This might just to our advantage to see the purpose of God, than to continue and stand right in front of the artwork and say to yourself I just don't see it? What our desire should be is not take for granted our view of the artwork or God from the position we are standing from, but to move around and view it(God) from a new or different perspective.
The stance that we have taken to just stand right in front of the art is to remember why we stand at the front of the art, for most of us it has been tradition or we know of no other way, or we assume that it is the only way.
If we don't know why we do something,we need to know why and to verify that we believe why we do it.
Our view of artwork and God does matter. are you standing in the right place?
I wonder if we could learn from this example of viewing artwork that we maybe, just maybe see what the author of the bible(God) expressing himself. This might just to our advantage to see the purpose of God, than to continue and stand right in front of the artwork and say to yourself I just don't see it? What our desire should be is not take for granted our view of the artwork or God from the position we are standing from, but to move around and view it(God) from a new or different perspective.
The stance that we have taken to just stand right in front of the art is to remember why we stand at the front of the art, for most of us it has been tradition or we know of no other way, or we assume that it is the only way.
If we don't know why we do something,we need to know why and to verify that we believe why we do it.
Our view of artwork and God does matter. are you standing in the right place?
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
My brain is full
I feel like I now must put pen to paper to release all that is my brain and spirit to share my thoughts and my beliefs. So I will try and to construct a semi sort of construction of my blogs in a structure way of 3 blogs per week, I am thinking of tuesday,thursday and saturdays. I am hoping to also pen a more thorough blog/ebook of various topics that I have in mind.
This year has been a busy and different year that has slowed my writing down but I have kept up with my reading plans of reading various authors and Theology based books that are outside the box, not in the mainstream of christian reading. This is what I see as double checking the facts in the christian's history and theology.
I would love to have discussions with anyone,about anything having to do with God. I feel this brings out our beliefs and our doubts to how we feel,know,and desire to know God.
all I know is God is real and has an amazing Eternal purpose for Him and for Us!!!!!!!!
This year has been a busy and different year that has slowed my writing down but I have kept up with my reading plans of reading various authors and Theology based books that are outside the box, not in the mainstream of christian reading. This is what I see as double checking the facts in the christian's history and theology.
I would love to have discussions with anyone,about anything having to do with God. I feel this brings out our beliefs and our doubts to how we feel,know,and desire to know God.
all I know is God is real and has an amazing Eternal purpose for Him and for Us!!!!!!!!
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Gentiles have taken the wrong road!!
My studies have been long,intense,revealing,new,awesome and to say the least inspiring! But the most intriguing thing that has come across my plate is that as a Gentile we have missed out on the story and the meaning of the story because we have not "known" the Jews,children of Israel, God's people to fully understand God's whole story.
I have questions concerning this failure to utilize the insight of God. We "the christians" have started our own crusade it seems in the last 500 years of our own, that has taken us down a different path and we seem to be the ones with the story to tell, with leaving out the "promised ones" in our dialogue.
Maybe we need to go back further in time to see where we took the wrong fork in the road.
This is where if you are a bible historian or an avid historical reader that you will come across some other interesting tidbits that will be revealing to this subject and to others,which we will not get into.
All thru the times of Jesus and before we see and hear all about the "gods" of the many religions of the land. The Jewish God was just one of the ones that was talked about. It was only carried on thru history with the called ones of God like joseph,david,moses,abraham. These men and others were the carriers of the word of God to further the telling of God's story.
The underlining story of these men and the old testament has been glossed over in our christian ministries of the church in times of the sunday school flannel board presentation,and from the simplistic messages from the pulpit.
It is hidden in the formation of God's people that God promised to create in how he was to do it. or maybe we just didn't read that part.
But it is there in Genesis 17:7 when he says that He will create His people thru abraham. Let this be the first thing we notice, with the sequence that we fail to see unless we study these few verses in chapter 17. When God's plan is implemented, He changes things to His ways. He goes away from human ways of perfecting us in is such way that you will see when God uses man, He changes his name(title,description). Abram,Abraham,Sarai,Sarah are the first examples, I will let you find more on your own, and ponder the significance of this thru the old testament.
Now the second thing that we take away from this verse is that all of Abraham offspring are God's people, this is our human perception that takes us in the wrong direction right off the bat. This is wrong. One has to re-read this verse to pick up on the previous change of paradigm that forces us to not think of it this way but of God's way. Abram was not changed,Abraham was,God called him. So as a "Called" "person" He was different than He was before.
Now the third thing and maybe the most unnoticed thing of this verse the when God changed the name of Abram to Abraham, He changed the context of the story that we miss. Go back and re-read verse 7. We see the name Abraham and assume it is just a person's name, but in realty it is now a "corporate" identity of His people. This theme runs thru the whole old testament with the "called ones" of God. It is not of the individual that God called but it is in reality of His people, but as we know they continue to fail him.It says God has a covenant with Abraham and all of his generations , not just abraham but also his descendants to come. Now this is ONE large person to deal with in the coming days, but let's make it easier to come to terms with and to see the big picture. Let's call it...God's People,or Children of Israel, or if we take it to the New testament We will call it ....... the Church, the Bride.
Wow, this now changes things if we take this difference from this point of time forward. This takes away the single mindedness that we have in the "Church" today.
Let us ponder and see God's People!
I have questions concerning this failure to utilize the insight of God. We "the christians" have started our own crusade it seems in the last 500 years of our own, that has taken us down a different path and we seem to be the ones with the story to tell, with leaving out the "promised ones" in our dialogue.
Maybe we need to go back further in time to see where we took the wrong fork in the road.
This is where if you are a bible historian or an avid historical reader that you will come across some other interesting tidbits that will be revealing to this subject and to others,which we will not get into.
All thru the times of Jesus and before we see and hear all about the "gods" of the many religions of the land. The Jewish God was just one of the ones that was talked about. It was only carried on thru history with the called ones of God like joseph,david,moses,abraham. These men and others were the carriers of the word of God to further the telling of God's story.
The underlining story of these men and the old testament has been glossed over in our christian ministries of the church in times of the sunday school flannel board presentation,and from the simplistic messages from the pulpit.
It is hidden in the formation of God's people that God promised to create in how he was to do it. or maybe we just didn't read that part.
But it is there in Genesis 17:7 when he says that He will create His people thru abraham. Let this be the first thing we notice, with the sequence that we fail to see unless we study these few verses in chapter 17. When God's plan is implemented, He changes things to His ways. He goes away from human ways of perfecting us in is such way that you will see when God uses man, He changes his name(title,description). Abram,Abraham,Sarai,Sarah are the first examples, I will let you find more on your own, and ponder the significance of this thru the old testament.
Now the second thing that we take away from this verse is that all of Abraham offspring are God's people, this is our human perception that takes us in the wrong direction right off the bat. This is wrong. One has to re-read this verse to pick up on the previous change of paradigm that forces us to not think of it this way but of God's way. Abram was not changed,Abraham was,God called him. So as a "Called" "person" He was different than He was before.
Now the third thing and maybe the most unnoticed thing of this verse the when God changed the name of Abram to Abraham, He changed the context of the story that we miss. Go back and re-read verse 7. We see the name Abraham and assume it is just a person's name, but in realty it is now a "corporate" identity of His people. This theme runs thru the whole old testament with the "called ones" of God. It is not of the individual that God called but it is in reality of His people, but as we know they continue to fail him.It says God has a covenant with Abraham and all of his generations , not just abraham but also his descendants to come. Now this is ONE large person to deal with in the coming days, but let's make it easier to come to terms with and to see the big picture. Let's call it...God's People,or Children of Israel, or if we take it to the New testament We will call it ....... the Church, the Bride.
Wow, this now changes things if we take this difference from this point of time forward. This takes away the single mindedness that we have in the "Church" today.
Let us ponder and see God's People!
Monday, June 24, 2013
I have left the building!!
I've joined the crowd!! yes, I have left facebook,too. It's just not for me, or really there is nothing substantial there in the way of content to bother with it anymore. My wife still cruises the pictures to see how everyone looks like, but that is it. I will now post my blog's thru "blogger" or "wordpress" or twitter to all those that care. I will start the blog back up by the weekend,stay tuned.
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
It's a different Paradigm!
I am a fervent believer in the things such as Star Wars,Fringe,and Avatar!
I am so because of these shows and movies that portray a different reality than the one that we are in now. I am a believer in another paradigm because I believe that the one that we are in now is not the one that matters or that God intends for us to end with. This bears out if we read Revelations 20,21.
God's World is not what we are seeing now, this is ours. His intention was far from this design of what we have today or the past.
Our belief in the one true God, has got to show something stronger and more mightier that our human minds can conger up. It has to be out of this world. In fact it has to be out of our control. period.
It has to be FAITH!
Faith is a word that I think is being thrown around by us christians to easy and in very non nondescript way. For a only a 5 letter word it is a very BIG word. And a very deep word.
By definition it is: belief and trust in and loyalty to God
I think that we have skewed this definition to our liking as christians to suit ourselves instead of God.
We have set the definition of Faith as the belief and trust in and loyalty to God..... to what ever I am doing or saying in my life.
When in fact, when we have complete and actual faith in God, we are not in this world but in His. We have gone to God's realm( or as I like to say "paradigm",my wife's fav word,lol)
This is a different world with different ways,God's ways. God thru Jesus even tells Herod(He is symbolism for the World) that He is not of this world, but from a different Kingdom. Our understanding of the world then and even now have not picked this up yet as understanding of the paradigm of God's Kingdom is not designed from our regulations and ways of this world but of His.
Until our(His People) "FAITH" is solely in Him, and totally in His Kingdom we will not be the "New Creature" that He designed us for.
I am so because of these shows and movies that portray a different reality than the one that we are in now. I am a believer in another paradigm because I believe that the one that we are in now is not the one that matters or that God intends for us to end with. This bears out if we read Revelations 20,21.
God's World is not what we are seeing now, this is ours. His intention was far from this design of what we have today or the past.
Our belief in the one true God, has got to show something stronger and more mightier that our human minds can conger up. It has to be out of this world. In fact it has to be out of our control. period.
It has to be FAITH!
Faith is a word that I think is being thrown around by us christians to easy and in very non nondescript way. For a only a 5 letter word it is a very BIG word. And a very deep word.
By definition it is: belief and trust in and loyalty to God
I think that we have skewed this definition to our liking as christians to suit ourselves instead of God.
We have set the definition of Faith as the belief and trust in and loyalty to God..... to what ever I am doing or saying in my life.
When in fact, when we have complete and actual faith in God, we are not in this world but in His. We have gone to God's realm( or as I like to say "paradigm",my wife's fav word,lol)
This is a different world with different ways,God's ways. God thru Jesus even tells Herod(He is symbolism for the World) that He is not of this world, but from a different Kingdom. Our understanding of the world then and even now have not picked this up yet as understanding of the paradigm of God's Kingdom is not designed from our regulations and ways of this world but of His.
Until our(His People) "FAITH" is solely in Him, and totally in His Kingdom we will not be the "New Creature" that He designed us for.
Friday, March 22, 2013
It's to shallow here,time to go to the deep end!
I have been deep in thought, reading for the last 2 months on a book of the history of Israel. I will have to admit I will never remember all the kings and dynasties that have come and gone over the 2,000 + years of the old testament but I think I have come away from it understanding the gist of the creation of Israel, or God's people.
One thing that has struck me as I read this book with intent on learning new history and new understanding of God's people is why wasn't I taught this at a young age? I don't fault my upbringing by any means. But I believe we have taken the road of the "obvious" of the scriptures and all it's little stories for our institutions to teach and expecting them all to mean something all on their own to stand up as an analogy for us to ponder over for the rest of our lives,when it was so much deeper than this.We have looked at the story of the children of Israel as a story to copy,but why?
We have to look at this as a shallow way of looking at the bible or God's intentions for His people. I emphatically believe that we have to use as our foundation of belief of Genesis 1 and 2 as our theme,will of God.
Just as a sidebar on this subject, How much emphasis have you heard that Genesis 1 and 2 is the base of God's eternal purpose from the pulpit?(Genesis 1,2 will be explored later for its relevance of the foundation to our purpose) If you are like me, none. We need to see that the beginning of a story sets up the whole story,or we don't know where the author is going? Where we have put the emphasis of the whole bible as our foundation of the scriptures is the big emphasis of Romans as our starting point and for some, the ending point.(This is too, very shallow thinking)
Back to the History of Israel, God's selected people having been chosen did not make them an instant perfect group by no means. God had to mold them into what his will desired. Israel's on and off again desire to be a committed people to Yahweh was a daunting task on Israel plate that they struggled for many years.
You wonder sometimes why they doubted the authorship of Yahweh as the God of all.(but don't we do the same thing?) There could be many things that could have taken them away from this belief. I think that God in his infinite wisdom was giving his people a subtle hint in the 10 commandments. It could really start and stop with the first one in the list.
Thou shalt have no other gods before me! If they would of just understood this one, their history would be so much different.
This leads us to a potential different paradigm if we research this more deeply. Israel,God's people being who they were, were led to believe as long as their understanding that Yahweh was God that everything else was circumstantial,their lives and their customs were separate from this. It was when they interacted with people of different understandings or beliefs that got them into trouble. Because the interaction of different and opposite beliefs mingled,then it would be usually they are the ones that conformed to the other's belief's. This is why God said you shall have no other gods before me,only me.
Could it be that their disbelief that God was the creator of everything? These other God's were many,but they all evolved around the earthly realm of nature, such as God of the Sun,moon,rivers,land,stars,seas and many more. But God was saying to them over and over to them that He was and is the God of all and has always been from the beginning.
The paradigm that I alluded to earlier is this, God's children over and over got into trouble every time they mingled with their neighbors of unbelief. They,God's children changed, and not for the good. They as we shall say went to the "darkside". lol If this is the case then as God's people,why are we still being influenced by this model. It will only change when we are not succumbed to other people's gods,thus the other people,too. Was God's instruction to Israel in the Old Testament to not mingle with other people of faith to be used as a belief for today?
This opens up a whole big can of worms if you think about it. We won't get into that now,but could later on.
The history of Israel is a treasure of year after year examples of Israel's succumbing to other people and their gods to take them away from their God. It isn't till the end of the old testament that we see that the children come back to the "land" of God's promise that they are together again, but it is still missing something that God wants.
We will see that in my next blog, stay tuned.
I have many other blogs from the past if you care to read at springsman.wordpress.com
One thing that has struck me as I read this book with intent on learning new history and new understanding of God's people is why wasn't I taught this at a young age? I don't fault my upbringing by any means. But I believe we have taken the road of the "obvious" of the scriptures and all it's little stories for our institutions to teach and expecting them all to mean something all on their own to stand up as an analogy for us to ponder over for the rest of our lives,when it was so much deeper than this.We have looked at the story of the children of Israel as a story to copy,but why?
We have to look at this as a shallow way of looking at the bible or God's intentions for His people. I emphatically believe that we have to use as our foundation of belief of Genesis 1 and 2 as our theme,will of God.
Just as a sidebar on this subject, How much emphasis have you heard that Genesis 1 and 2 is the base of God's eternal purpose from the pulpit?(Genesis 1,2 will be explored later for its relevance of the foundation to our purpose) If you are like me, none. We need to see that the beginning of a story sets up the whole story,or we don't know where the author is going? Where we have put the emphasis of the whole bible as our foundation of the scriptures is the big emphasis of Romans as our starting point and for some, the ending point.(This is too, very shallow thinking)
Back to the History of Israel, God's selected people having been chosen did not make them an instant perfect group by no means. God had to mold them into what his will desired. Israel's on and off again desire to be a committed people to Yahweh was a daunting task on Israel plate that they struggled for many years.
You wonder sometimes why they doubted the authorship of Yahweh as the God of all.(but don't we do the same thing?) There could be many things that could have taken them away from this belief. I think that God in his infinite wisdom was giving his people a subtle hint in the 10 commandments. It could really start and stop with the first one in the list.
Thou shalt have no other gods before me! If they would of just understood this one, their history would be so much different.
This leads us to a potential different paradigm if we research this more deeply. Israel,God's people being who they were, were led to believe as long as their understanding that Yahweh was God that everything else was circumstantial,their lives and their customs were separate from this. It was when they interacted with people of different understandings or beliefs that got them into trouble. Because the interaction of different and opposite beliefs mingled,then it would be usually they are the ones that conformed to the other's belief's. This is why God said you shall have no other gods before me,only me.
Could it be that their disbelief that God was the creator of everything? These other God's were many,but they all evolved around the earthly realm of nature, such as God of the Sun,moon,rivers,land,stars,seas and many more. But God was saying to them over and over to them that He was and is the God of all and has always been from the beginning.
The paradigm that I alluded to earlier is this, God's children over and over got into trouble every time they mingled with their neighbors of unbelief. They,God's children changed, and not for the good. They as we shall say went to the "darkside". lol If this is the case then as God's people,why are we still being influenced by this model. It will only change when we are not succumbed to other people's gods,thus the other people,too. Was God's instruction to Israel in the Old Testament to not mingle with other people of faith to be used as a belief for today?
This opens up a whole big can of worms if you think about it. We won't get into that now,but could later on.
The history of Israel is a treasure of year after year examples of Israel's succumbing to other people and their gods to take them away from their God. It isn't till the end of the old testament that we see that the children come back to the "land" of God's promise that they are together again, but it is still missing something that God wants.
We will see that in my next blog, stay tuned.
I have many other blogs from the past if you care to read at springsman.wordpress.com
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