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Wednesday, February 29, 2012

What Good is a Woman?

It is not my intention to cause any disrespect, but rather to show the value of woman. The headline is purely shock factor to catch your eye.

Before you go on, please read:
"A Warning - Straight From My Heart" if you haven't already.
Thinking outside the box

Looking at Genesis 1:27 I remember that one of the names for God is "El Shaddai" (the breasted one). God himself must have male and female parts and because of this was able to create Jesus. 


27So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.


 It seems in verse 27 that if man was created in the image of God perhaps man started out a "whole" being with both male and female parts and traits just like God. In that case, man would have been created self-sufficient. At the very end of the 6th day, the day when man was created, God declared everything VERY good. It was just "good" before, on all the other days. This implies that God created man and did a very good job at it.

In the beginning,  Adam was walking with and learning from God, growing and changing personally, but there came a time when things changed. Adam probably came to his full point, the place where he stopped growing and changing. He needed something else to bring out his full potential. Adam needed to get out of his comfort zone. What did God decide to do?

Genesis 2:18 "And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him." None of the animals would do. God planned to make Adam a help MEET for him, a helper that MET what he needed...not what Adam wanted. Needed? Maybe not from Adam's point of view. It seems that from God's point of view though, there could be something BETTER. The condition had turned from “very good” to “not good”.


Adam naming the animals

In Genesis 2:19,  right after God decided that it was not good for man to dwell alone, He brought before Adam every beast of the field and fowl of the air to see what Adam would call them. The word “call” has several synonyms; it means name, describe and identify when used as a verb; assessment and judgment when used as a noun.


It was important to God that Adam recognized these types of animal spirits and the nature of these beasts. Adam began to realize every living creature had a help “meet” for them except for himself. In naming the animals, God taught Adam that Adam could never use a beast as a helpmeet. A beast can only create another beast, not man. God made a very plain distinction between what man was and what a beast was. They have very different purposes. Man was supposed to have dominion over the beasts.


How were beasts different from man? What are some marks or identifying features of a beast?

1. One of the natures of a beast is to kill without remorse.

2. One of the natures of a beast to vie for dominion amongst others of its own kind.

3. A beast cannot change it's nature. It is who it is and likes it. It would rather die than even try to be anything different than what it is.

You can put a starving lamb into a room full of steaks and it will rather starve to death than eat meat. You can put a starving wolf into a room full of fresh grass and it will die rather than graze. (...so this must mean a wolf in sheep's clothing is not really a wolf or a sheep.)

4. It is not the nature of a beast to cast blame.



Why change?

Everything Adam had needed was provided in the garden and because he had no needs, there was nothing to motivate him into changing or growing. Adam was completely satisfied. It seems he would have existed in stasis forever. We don't even know how long he was in the garden before Eve came along. God needed to do something to make Adam grow and become more than Adam was. The Lord wanted more from Adam, an enhanced relationship. He wanted Adam to grow up to "Be All You Can Be". (An old Army phrase)

Think of it…if a man is just given handouts all his life, there is no motivation to study, create or change anything.

All progress in history was made by those who were not satisfied, got off their duff and did something. Those are the ones that were able to change the lives of others and enhance relationships. God wanted more out of Adam, so He changed it so that Adam NEEDED something. Like an oyster with a grain of sand, a little annoyance that would become something of great value; a pearl of great price.

On the same thought, I guess you can say God created a lack in the self-sufficient being of Adam, a longing and an uncomfortableness that needed to be filled. God did this by taking something away from Adam.

My thinking is that perhaps God took out Adam's female parts, mental and physical and made a separate entity, Eve. It was still the original Adam, but now flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone, equal to him as a help "meet" for him.

Creating woman introduced a dynamic in mankind that allows us to grow if we embrace God’s plan for us. It adds a lot of dynamics to our lives when our wives are around. Life is no longer simple once we get married. Becoming ONE is now the hard part. A being "at one" with itself is full of peace and God promised we will become one with our wives. Genesis 2:24 and Mark 10:8-9. But there needs to be relationship to fulfill potential. Perhaps that is why God himself created Jesus and why he wants a bride for his son.

There is only one God the Father. There is no other beside Him. He cannot deny Himself that He is. He is unique in that He is the only self-sufficient being, there is no other to be His equal. How could God the Father have a help meet for himself? 

Every other being, however is created...even Jesus his son. I think God recognized the necessity that for someone to reach their full potential, they need to become one with another. It is the process of relationship that makes us grow. John 17:21.


What about the dilemma about being single vs. being married?
God gave a command for all living things to be fruitful and multiply. He never rescinded this command.

In 1 Corinthians 7:6 Paul writes how he thinks it is better to be single, but qualifies that he does this by permission and not by commandment. This is NOT how God's plan of being fruitful and multiplying works. You cannot reproduce by yourself. Paul would have been teaching disobedience to God's command if he had not qualified his statement. Paul also states in verse 19 that keeping the commandments of God is most important. At the very least, I want to be one of those in Revelation 12:17 who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. 

Except for abnormalities, God has created all creatures to be able to fulfill his commandment to be fruitful and multiply. I also know how He feels about it by reading Genesis 38:7-10. Killing seed is against God's plan for mankind. Although I have dominion over my animals, it has caused me to re-think if spaying and neutering are against God's plan too.


For those of you out there who may think I'm talking about birth control, perhaps I am, but just as a sidelight. I guess you could say we inherited it from the eating of the forbidden Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  It would be more on the evil side in that our whole society's use of birth control and abortion comes from a harlot's way of thinking. It's easier to do what you want to do when you are able (like God) to create and destroy life so that it fits into your timetable.

See a woman's point of view on Julie's blog entitled "Womanhood" by clicking here.

God gives us free will, but there are those without a choice. For you, I have a scripture.

Psalm 68:5-6
5A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in his holy habitation.
6God setteth the solitary in families: he bringeth out those which are bound with chains: but the rebellious dwell in a dry land.

Adoption is a very pleasing thing in Gods sight.

If you are having a hard time with this topic, please remember my heart towards you.

Looking back at the "Who Do We Think We Are?" blog, how can we compare ourselves to God? We have free will, but we will never be able to change His ultimate plan for mankind. The fact that we can't change His plan can give people peace. We don't have to worry about man creating global warming, destroying the environment, nuclear destruction of the earth, or the scientists in Sweden creating a black hole. God who created the universe would not allow it because He has a plan for us. It shows we do not trust God when we worry about overpopulation; that He did not plan well when He created the earth to sustain us. We will never surpass him. These are the things that people who do not believe in God worry about.


Becoming One With Your Spouse
 First promise in Bible – "They shall be one", but it doesn’t mean this.

Married men and women should function as a unit, one flesh that is not in conflict with itself. One part is not given more importance than another, but different parts do have different functions, you cannot have two heads and fulfill God's purpose.

When we look at God’s creation in general there are certain physical requirements for a creature to live, be healthy and fulfill the purpose God gave to it. We can put a body through a lot and it will still live, but there is a delicate balance to keep it thriving. Abnormalities do exist, but they are rare, most commonly found in serpents. Three things to note in these abnormalities: 


  1. They are the exceptions and do not normally have a full lifespan that survives as a unit,
  2. They can be a product of a polluted environment and
  3. They almost never reproduce to  fulfill God's first command to be fruitful and multiply.
It is interesting in Genesis that when Adam and Eve allowed a beast have dominion over them and changed God's established leadership pattern, that it was a serpent used. Out of all of the animal kingdom, the animal that has the highest incidence of two-headedness is the snake.

 The most vulnerable part of any creature is its heart and this is usually protected well. In the case of humans, God gave us ribs. From a rib, God created one woman for one man. The promise was then given that the two shall become one flesh. It doesn’t say one spirit, because they are two separate entities.
  
One thing that makes a man vulnerable is his wife because he loves her. He shares his most vulnerable moments with her and can be hurt the deepest where his wife is concerned. In the best marriages, she is his heart. 

Proverbs 31 Her husbands heart rests safely in her and there is only need for one.

 If it was God’s intent for man to be the head of this union of two, then perhaps it was also His intent for the woman to be the heart of the relationship.

Part of the job of a man is to speak for the family. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh (the mouth is in the head). If you look at it in this way, a woman won’t feel second best.

Keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life. Proverbs 4:28. Adam could not produce a Godly seed for the Lord without his wife.


 See Julie's point of view here.

 

Dominion
 Genesis 1:28
Adam and Eve were ordered to have dominion over the beasts. They were not given dominion over one another. Beasts are allowed to vie for dominion amongst themselves. Not people…at least in the beginning. That was because of the curse of Eve and of Cain. I’ll talk about that later in "What Happens When You Decide To Follow God Instead of Men".






Life Is Confusing For Two-Headed Snakes
Hillary Maxwell
for National Geographic News


Updated March 22, 2002
The two-headed monsters of myth may have a basis in reality. Two-headed snakes are rare but not unheard of, and one recently found in Spain is giving scientists an opportunity to study how the anomaly affects their ability to hunt and mate.

"We hear of one every several years," said Gordon Burghardt, a herpetologist at the University of Tennessee who has studied several two-headed snakes.

The snake in Spain, discovered near the village of Pinoso, is a two-month-old non-venomous ladder snake Elaphe scalaris. It is about eight inches (20 centimeters) long.
It's probably lucky it was captured—its chances of surviving in the wild are nil, said Burghardt.

"Just watching them feed, often fighting over which head will swallow the prey, shows that feeding takes a good deal of time, during which they would be highly vulnerable to predators," said Burghardt.

"They also have a great deal of difficulty deciding which direction to go, and if they had to respond to an attack quickly they would just not be capable of it."And that's assuming that both heads are hungry at the same time, and both are interested in pursuing the same prey.

 "Having two heads would be a hindrance in the wild," agreed James Badman of Arizona State University. "It would be much harder to catch prey." Arizona State was home to a two-headed king snake that was found as a baby. It lived for nearly 17 years in captivity at the university.

Even in captivity, there are problems. Snakes operate a good deal by smell, and if one head catches the scent of prey on the other's head, it will attack and try to swallow the second head.

On the whole, though, they can do quite well in captivity, said Burghardt. Thelma and Louise, a two-headed corn snake at the San Diego Zoo that's now deceased, had 15 normal babies.

-Anomaly, Not Evolution

-Two-headed snakes typically occur in the same way that Siamese twins do. A developing embryo begins to split into identical twins but then stops part way, leaving the twins joined. Among humans, 75 percent of conjoined twins are stillborn or die within 24 hours.




Two-headed snakes can lead to a big payoffPosted May 28 2009 10:14pm 
Two-headed snakes (like the one pictured above) aren't uncommon in nature, but they are rarely seen because usually they do not survive. According to
MercuryNews.com:

It's like a car with two drivers, with each brain vying to do the thinking that one brain usually does. Snakes that are polycephalic — that's the word for creatures with more than one head — never survive in the wild, experts say.



 They are so hard to find, in fact, that when someone comes across a live two-headed snake, it can generate a lot of interest. This is exactly what Aron Dickey, owner of Hayward's Reptile Room, is dealing with right now.
 

 "It would probably be worth $10,000 after it eats, and $15,000 after it poops," Dickey said. "The more it eats, the better it thrives, the more the cost goes up. I could probably get $20,000 for it later."




Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Manna, Old Corn & The Fruit of the Land

I don't know about any other men out there, but I have to first say something about my wife.

Julie has been an inspiration and real help-meet to me since we were married. She IS bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. She compliments me in ways that I couldn't even begin to imagine before I got married.

Natural and spiritual compatibility; I truly feel blessed. She is my sounding board and is a great writer herself. We work together in the scriptures, something rare and beautiful.


Before you go on, please read:
"A Warning - Straight From My Heart" if you haven't already.



The following is something Julie wrote with a few tweaks from me:

A few days ago, I was skimming through Joshua – not reading – just skimming, looking for a specific fact on Jericho, when my eyes froze on one verse. That verse has been burned in my brain and won’t go away, so I thought I’d write down what I’m getting from it.

Joshua 5:11-12
11And they did eat of the old corn of the land on the morrow after the passover, unleavened cakes, and parched corn in the selfsame day.
12And the manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the old corn of the land; neither had the children of Israel manna any more; but they did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.

The manna ceased! Why? What does that mean to us? What was manna?

Manna was what God gave a starving, malnourished people who had just come out of 200 years bondage. It fed the entire group. It looked the same, smelled the same, tasted the same, and came from the same source… but was different for each person in that it became exactly what that person needed nutritionally. There was only one requirement on manna – you had to gather it EVERY day. It didn’t keep past its appointed time. It got wormy, and it was never intended to be a permanent food for God’s people.

So what does this all mean to us as the people of God  coming out of spiritual Egypt? God has given each group a source for manna or spiritual food (a pastor). The pastor gave one teaching every service. It looked the same and sounded the same, yet was able to meet each individual’s different nutritional need. There was one requirement – you had to be there EVERY service or you went hungry. The people needed the manna to live in the wilderness, and to eventually give them time to learn how to produce for themselves. It was a good thing. It met every need.

But there came a time when the manna ceased.

The Bible doesn’t say that God told them it would stop. It just stopped at a certain point. God did not give any instructions for how to survive when it ceased. It simply ceased.

God had already provided Israel a land flowing with milk and honey. He expected them to figure it out by themselves. He wanted them to use their own eyes to see and realize what was already there. Hunger would drive them to get off their duff.

The manna stopped after they crossed over Jordan, after they were re-circumcised, and after they kept the Passover; but before they took Jericho.

The people got up one morning and went to gather manna – and it wasn’t there. What did they do? They ate of the old corn of the land and of the fruit of the land of Canaan, not old manna they had saved!

We are seeing that:
  • Manna = new teachings that keep us alive in the wilderness
  • Parched corn of the old land = topics that were threshed out in Bro. Sowders’ day
  • Fruit of the land = things taught individuals by God in their day-to-day overcoming in their own land

Old corn was the durable food, stuff that had been threshed or put into seed form a long time ago. Our 4 Major Doctrines may be an example of this. The information was new and fresh a long time ago, it was durable and lasted. It will keep people alive while we learn to eat of the land, but it is dry with little water. It was an emergency ration that would keep them alive, but never intended to keep them from eating the new stuff, the fruit of the land with new life.

What does this mean to us? In religious systems and churches, I hear people crying “give us teaching!” Each time this has happened, God has pulled David and me back and not allowed us to partake of these teachings or Bible studies, if you will. I could not understand why. From what we are seeing, God seems to have stopped the manna. He does not want us to scrounge around for leftover manna and pick out the worms. He wants us to start sharing from the fruit He’s produced in our land. Old parched corn doesn’t taste as good when you are eating fresh food. Maybe we are just picky eaters. :o)

Does that mean we should destroy everything we’ve learned before? NO! The old corn was good and necessary to keep us alive, but it is an emergency ration. It’s a transitory product. We have not been in the land long enough to produce a full harvest, so we do still need some old corn. But corn is not like manna. It will keep you alive and won’t get wormy. If that is all you have, you will probably become malnourished.

So what is the fruit of the Promised Land? It is the fruit that is being produced in each of us – in our own personal lives. It does not all come from one field, and no one farmer produces every kind of fruit. To have a balanced diet now, each person needs to share of their harvest as it ripens.

But I NEED new manna! No, what you need is to pay attention to what each person is giving out, gather what you need, and go home, put together what you’ve gathered, add what you’ve grown, sit down to a fantastic meal and chew the cud. It takes a little longer than making manna cakes, but it tastes so much better!

Do you remember when the children of Israel started complaining because they were bored with the manna and wanted meat? There is not one recorded complaint in the Bible because people were bored with what the land produced and wanted manna.

We won’t need emergency rations much longer. God is giving us everything we could possibly need as we enter into the Promised Land and share God's bounty with each other. We just need to learn to cook using the mind God gave us to come up with a delicious meal rather than, like a slave, expecting our food to be given to us. We are no longer being fed as a group, but as individual families. The food of a slave is minimal and bland. The fruit of free men is abundant and as varied as we allow it to be when we share with each other.

We still need each other. The children of Israel didn’t scatter immediately… they had Ites to conquer. However, now that God had made them strong as a people, He was beginning to make them strong as individuals. “Work out your own salvation.” You are what you eat, so eat the fresh food that God has planted in us.

Freely partake of the fruit of the Spirit of God in others.
This is just the beginning.

Monday, February 27, 2012

A Warning - Straight From My Heart

You may think I’m crazy or way out in left field…that’s OK, you are still my brother and I love you.

You may read what I have to say and vehemently disagree… that’s OK, you are still my brother and I love you.

You may look at the things I post and think I have “fallen away”, I haven’t, but…that’s OK, you are still my brother and I love you.

 My terminology has changed because of things I have read in the Bible. I won’t try to shove it down your throat, just ask that you consider it. You may like it, but it won’t make you popular in some circles.

You may hear some things that you have never heard before and start to question your beliefs, God will be with you and…that’s OK, you are still my brother and I love you.

 Your life may change and you will feel you have lost all you have worked so hard for…that’s OK, you are still my brother and I love you.

 I am not trying to fit in with any established religion. Did Jesus? We are supposed to be followers of Christ.

 Jesus takes us from where we are…this instant. He deals with the basics; who we really are and not just how we act around others.

 How can we GO to church if we ARE His church? Gathering and fellowshipping is not church, but it is what we are supposed to do. The best and most memorable times in my life are when we are not in an organized or controlled format, but when we are relaxed and sharing our lives with our brothers and sisters in the Lord, like a family reunion.

 I fall and I get up. I give you that right.

 I make mistakes and carry on not dwelling on the sin; I want my eyes on Jesus. I give you that right as well.

 I will share the good things God gives me. They may sometimes be hard to hear, but I do not give them in judgment, I ask they only be considered. I may be wrong and have to change.

I expect that God will lead me differently than you. I will not say you are wrong when you follow the Lord and choose differently than I do…that’s OK, you are still my brother and I love you, the Lord has a different job for you.

 Seeing eye-to-eye is not a pre-requisite for fellowship, but I do believe it is absolutely necessary to share what God has given you from your own land. 


Revelation 12:11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the WORD OF THEIR TESTIMONY; and they loved not their lives unto the death.


 If you get offended from the testimony of my life and what I am learning…that’s OK, you are still my brother and I love you. I do NOT expect to be popular from the things I will say, neither will you if you take them to heart. Some of these things rocked me all the way down to my foundation, but I am closer to God than I have ever been. Sometimes a building needs foundation work so that it can stand strong.

 Remember, these are just my “Bible Thoughts”. I share them because I feel their worth and I know your worth. I pray they will open your mind to consider God’s path for you. You are my brother and I love you.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Perspective

Before you go on, please read:
"A Warning - Straight From My Heart" if you haven't already.


When I changed the last slide of "Who Do We Think We Are?", I was suffering from the fracturing of a church family I had been a part of all my life. For over 40 years I loved the people, we were very close, closer than most people in this world ever experience. Trust and faith were broken, the fellowship of leaders from different churches we counted on to help us did nothing; they felt from God that they should leave things alone. The church splintered into 3 groups, none of which I seemed to be a part of.

Being the son of a pastor, it was different than the other church splits I had ever seen. People did not stop serving the Lord and "fall away". The people still kept their faith, but it seemed they preferred to love those who were more like themselves and saw things the way they did. They began to distance themselves from the others and even started to blame others for what happened. Writing the last slide was my response to what I saw happening.

As a father of 6 children, one of the things that grieves me most is when my children fight amongst themselves. I love each of them equally. They each have very different qualities, but that doesn’t mean they all don’t get in trouble with me from time to time.

My children can fight and argue over anything, if they can’t find uncommon ground, they will invent it. Make-believe is an immature way of looking at the world, but necessary in a child’s development and exclusion can be just as devastating to a little one as fighting can be. 


 I remember an example of this when my children were smaller. We were visiting with a home group of believers; all of us were sitting around in a circle with the children in the middle when one of my boys noticed a toy with his initials on it. His 4 year old brother was playing with it and the six year old wanted it back. The older boy reached over in front of everybody ripped the toy out of his brother’s hand and in a loud voice yelled “THAT’S MINE!” Well, after dying a thousand deaths from embarrassment, and quickly praying for God’s guidance, I separated him to the bathroom for some conversation and a spanking. I felt impressed to tell him that he was “not loving his brother” when he did that.

I told him, “By doing what you did, you were essentially telling your brother, ‘You are not important enough to play with my toys’, ‘I don’t love you’”. I told him that Jesus wants us to love our brothers. I asked him to go to his younger brother in front of everyone, give him a hug, and tell him to apologize for “not loving him”; then to tell his brother that he would try to do better from now on. He was stubborn and didn’t do it till the next morning when all was forgiven. Later the next day, when we were reading Matthew 18 :6 “But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea”, he surprised me by spontaneously bursting into tears…he understood.

I came to realize a while back that my children have an immature concept of love. They think that seeing eye-to-eye is a prerequisite for fellowship. They really do desire to have fellowship and play with one another, but can only envision their relationship within the framework of how they understand the universe, their PERSPECTIVE. As they grow, their relationships with each other will change and become more mature; they will realize their siblings are different and embrace the differences as strengths instead of weaknesses.

Now that my natural brothers and I are adults, I am happy they have skills in different areas than I do. I can enjoy the benefits and can go to them for advice on flooring or when it comes to purchasing a quality lawn tractor. It doesn’t matter that one of us is older or younger than the other. Each man has his own specialty and having this relationship can benefit others.

Biblical relationship in a family comes through the father. If I know that a person has relationship with my Heavenly Father, I have no choice in the matter. They ARE my brother no matter how much I currently dislike them or hate the fact that we're related. Jesus said in John 13:34-35

A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

God's love is an active thing, a verb if you will. I can only imagine how our Heavenly Father must feel to see when we don’t love our brother by excluding him from what God gives us. It gladens my heart as a father to see my children sharing and playing together. Are my immature fears or ideas really more important than my brother? Does God that created the universe agree? 

How mature is my perspective in God's eyes?

Who Do We Think We Are?