The Finished Work That I AM - Part 2

In the Old testament we had shadows and types of the new covenant. The main purpose of the old testament is to give us insight to what Jesus Christ has done for us on the cross.

10:1 ”For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.”

• The same sacrifices which the priest offered year by year could never make those who approached perfect.
• Sacrifices were not given to deal with peoples sin, peoples activities, but rather they were given to make them perfect. Humanity doesn’t have an activity problem. It’s not that we do wrong things it is that we have a sinful condition. It is not that we produce bad fruit, it is that our tree is bad.
• To say that Christ only came to forgive our sins is to say that Christ only came to forgive us of the bad fruit that our bad tree produces but still keeps us a bad tree.

Jesus Help us see that its not about action but recognition of our condition

Luke 18:9-14

9 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’14 “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

The two different types of confessions

• The Pharisee came and tried to relate to God based on his activities, God my activities are pretty good. Compared to this tax collector and to most people my activities are very good. I come to church, I give tithes, I fast I do all the right things. So God because my activities are good I am sure you receive me.
• But the tax collector doesn't confess his activities. He doesn't say God please forgive me because I have cheated my customers or yelled at my wife. He says God I realize that my problem it is not my activities, my problem is that I am a bad tree, I have a sinful condition, God have mercy on me, I am a sinful man. It is not what I do that is the problem it is what I am. 
• The bible says the Tax Collector went home justified not the Pharisee why? Because he understood his problem. So he was able to receive his solution.

Matthew 5:20

“For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

What does that mean?

He is not saying unless you do better than the Pharisees you will not see heaven. They fasted twice a week, He is not saying you should fast 3 times a week because when it came to their activities the Pharisees were the best. 

In Matthew Chapter 5 through 7 we see the Sermon on the mount where Jesus tells us about the higher law. He says “you think the Old Law was hard, you think the old testament was hard? Watch what I require of you. In the Old Testament if you murder someone you are a murderer what I am telling you is if you are angry with someone you are a murderer. In the Old, if you sleep with someone else's wife you are an adulterer, in the commandment I give to you, if you have lustful thoughts you are an adulterer.” 

Jesus was not trying to tell us we need to take control of our thought life. He was not trying to tell us to stop being angry with other people. He actually gives us the answer in this sermon 

Matthew 7:17-18 

“17 Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.”

The whole point of the sermon on the mount was to help people realized and come to the conclusion that they are in deep trouble. I thought what I did yesterday was bad or that my activities were or even some were pretty good. Actually Jesus wanted to say the problem with you is not your activities it is you. You are a bad tree and a bad tree cannot produce good fruit. So in the sermon on the mount Jesus is saying stop trying to produce good fruit from a bad tree because it doesn’t work. Unless you righteousness far exceeds that of the pharisees you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 

Sinners cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. 

Only family enters the kingdom of heaven. Unless you are born again you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. you problem is a problem of birth, you have the wrong daddy. Unless you are born of a different daddy you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. Unless you have a change of nature you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven because your problem was not your activities in the first place. So if we just deal with your activities we have never dealt with the real problem. 

Hebrews 10:2 

“2 Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins.”

The modern churches don’t seem to believe in the doctrine of once purified. They believe once purified until you mess up again and then you come back to church and give sacrifices and rituals to purify yourself and sing nice songs to God  so that he will create in us a clean heart. But he already did create in us a clean heart!  And it is so clean and so powerful that it goes so deeply that you have no more need of consciousness of a sinful condition. Jesus came to move you from a sin consciousness to a righteous consciousness. Jesus came so you would never have to feel sinful, dirty and un-pure for the rest of you life. But you can actually feel righteousness, purity and holiness defining and filling you whole being. 

Jesus didn’t come to clean you dirty carpet. he came to rip it out and give you a carpet that can never get dirty again.

Hebrews 10:5

“Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said:

“Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
    but a body you prepared for me;”

In Christianity today we delight in sacrifices and offerings but He does away with the first covenant to establish the second. By his will we have been made holy through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all. You have been made holy once and for all. you cannot be unholy once he made you holy. 

Hebrews 10:11-14

“11 Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. 14 For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.”

Single Sacrifice. 

Perfected forever! 

But Priest and Preachers today are still offering and giving sacrifices that can never deal with the real problem. They still ask us to bring offering and sacrifices to deal with our problems, they tell us what we need to give up and put aside and what we need to do and the hours that we need to spend memorizing scripture and praying and fasting. We gotta bring some more offerings to hopefully be pleasing to God and get more holy. But that next sunday and next sunday they keep preaching the same message out of a different scripture they are telling us that it is not working. We always have to bring more sacrifices and more offerings. 

He has sat down. 

This means the work is over. It is finished. Not only is there no more need for any more sacrifices but there is no more need for us to bring our offerings and sacrifices to complete something that has already taken place. He has sat down, He will never come to give another offering or sacrifice and because he has sat down it is time for us to sit down. Because those who enter his rest, rest from their works the way He has rested from His.

There is one sacrifice that he says you can bring. That is the sacrifice of praise. Which is giving thanks. The only thing left for you is to give thanks. It is the sacrifice of praise because I praise Him for His sacrifice. There are no more sacrifices to be giving to increase us in our Christian walk. Romans 12 says present yourself as a living sacrifice. So now everything that we do is not an offering and sacrifice but an expression of who we are. He says He has perfected forever, for eternity those who are sanctified. Even in heaven we will never be more perfect that we already are.

Every Religion is based on bringing offerings and sacrifices and every religion never stops bringing offerings and sacrifices because no offering or sacrifice can deal with the real problem. Christianity is not a religion its a family that celebrates the one time sacrifice that has already been given.

I am not asking you if you feel what I am saying is true, or if your performance from last week agrees with what I am telling you is true. I am just telling you that what Christ has done inside of you is more powerful then your feelings and more powerful and true than your performance. If you want to believe your shaky performance or your funky feelings go ahead but I am telling you, you don’t have to and you can embrace that fact that you are perfected forever.

It is our job to declare that He sat down. His work in us is completed and He is waiting for us to come into agreement with that reality.

Hebrews 10:19-22

“19 Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.”

It is not by the blood of Jesus and our good activities but on the death of Jesus period. End of sentence. He opened up a new way to come to Him that is not through a curtain which was only the shadow but we come through his body. We can come boldly with hearts that have been purified of all consciousness of sin. We have been sprinkled and it is a finished work putting us in a state of being that is free of a guilty conscience.

In Colossians 1 it says because of what Christ has done for you He has made you holy, blameless and unaccuseable. Because when we come to Christ and see that He paid the full penalty of our sins past present and future it forever keeps us in the state of not guilty because He took our judgment. 

So why do we feel guilty when we do something bad? When Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of knowledge of good and evil the conscience was triggered to function based on a legal system. In that moment how did they feel? What did they do?

They hid, they felt guilty, shameful and tried to run away from God.  Because the tree of the knowledge of good and evil says when we do something wrong we must pay for it, and tells us we are guilty. When Christ came He not only came to actually take care of the punishment but to actually disconnect our conscience from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. 

Before the fall the only thing Adam and Eve knew about themselves was what God told them. They never were evaluated or tested to see how well they did. They had no sense of self-consciousness. I know that because when they sinned and God came to them He said “who told you that you are naked.” The  implication of this is that they were naked before but didn’t know it. Because before the fall the only thing they knew was what the Father told them and He hadn't told them that they were naked. 

But after the fall the new way to evaluate oneself was the law, was the sense of right and wrong that dictates to you how you should feel. In Christianity many times we ask forgiveness to appease our conscience. Our conscience gets cleansed by what we do. Thats the whole system of religion out there. It’s based on appeasing the conscience. It is not wrong to ask for forgiveness to someone we have wronged but if we do it to gain a clear conscience we are actually putting aside the sacrifice of Jesus because only Jesus has reserved the right to clean our conscience. 

So yes He might want you to go and ask forgiveness but we must go from a clean conscience. When we have a clean conscience and ask for forgiveness we do it out of honor and  love for the relationship. When we go without a clean conscience whether we realize it we are asking forgiveness to appease our conscience. 

The tree of knowledge of good and evil is concerned with making wrongs right and the tree of life is concerned with Love and Relationship. 

So now I can go boldly before the throne of God even when I make a mistake. I can crawl on His bed and play then after a while I say Father forgive me I love you.

We honor the relationship, we love our relationship and we don’t want to do anything that is displeasing to Him not because it is right or wrong but because of love and honor for the relationship. Christ came to deliver us from the consciousness of the tree of knowledge of good and evil and place us in a place where our consciousness is connected to the tree of life. In the tree of life there is no guilt there is no condemnation, there is only love and honor in the relationship. How can we run boldly to God with a guilty conscience? Christ came to deliver us from a right and wrong paradigm and place us in a love and honor paradigm.  Because Christ took care of the right and wrong on the cross. He paid the legal punishment for our sins. Do we really think we can add to His payment? 

Doesn’t it feel liberating to even dream of a guilt free life? Isn’t it something that you would do for your kids if you could? 

Hebrews 9 actually says that you can have your conscience cleansed from dead works. Have your conscience cleansed from any need to make up for your sins. Have it totally disconnected.  The Holy Spirit didn’t come to convict you of your actions but to reveal to you your true identity.

Satan’s name is the accuser. 

What I once thought was the conviction of the Holy Spirit was probably actually the accuser of the brethren. I once thought that the more guilt I felt about something the more true my repentance was and if I didn’t feel guilty for my sin then something was wrong with me.  I only believed that because I believed that there was something I could do to fix myself of my problem. But if I knew there is nothing I can do to fix my problem then why even know my problem? I don’t need to know whats wrong with me to fix it. I only need to know what He says about me and what He has done for me and that will produce in me a life of true righteousness and holiness. 

Every other religion and system of the world is based on discovering our weaknesses and working on them. But that is not what Christ came to do. So I submit a toast and I want us to drink the blood. Jesus said I want you to eat my body and drink my blood. There will be no intimacy until we get our consciences cleansed of guilty feelings. The power is in the blood and we partake of it and we accept His once for all sacrifice and we step into His body and His righteousness is imputed to us. It is finished once and for all. Amen

  

The Finished Work That I AM - Part 1

What is Truth? How do we know it? what is Evidence? What can we Trust in?

The Bible is Truth and Jesus is Truth. John 5:17-47 

17 But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh even until now, and I work. 18 For this cause therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only brake the sabbath, but also called God his own Father, making himself equal with God. 19 Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father doing: for what things soever he doeth, these the Son also doeth in like manner. 20 For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all things that himself doeth: and greater works than these will he show him, that ye may marvel. 21 For as the Father raiseth the dead and giveth them life, even so the Son also giveth life to whom he will. 22 For neither doth the Father judge any man, but he hath given all judgment unto the Son; 23 that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth not the Son honoreth not the Father that sent him. 24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth him that sent me, hath eternal life, and cometh not into judgment, but hath passed out of death into life. 25 Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour cometh, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live. 26 For as the Father hath life in himself, even so gave he to the Son also to have life in himself: 27 and he gave him authority to execute judgment, because he is a son of man. 28 Marvel not at this: for the hour cometh, in which all that are in the tombs shall hear his voice, 29 and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment. 30 I can of myself do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is righteous; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. 31 If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true.

32 It is another that beareth witness of me; and I know that the witness which he witnesseth of me is true. 33 Ye have sent unto John, and he hath borne witness unto the truth. 34 But the witness which I receive is not from man: howbeit I say these things, that ye may be saved. 35 He was the lamp that burneth and shineth; and ye were willing to rejoice for a season in his light.

36 But the witness which I have is greater than that of John; for the works which the Father hath given me to accomplish, the very works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me. 37 And the Father that sent me, he hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his form. 38 And ye have not his word abiding in you: for whom he sent, him ye believe not.

39 Ye search the scriptures, because ye think that in them ye have eternal life; and these are they which bear witness of me; 40 and ye will not come to me, that ye may have life. 41 I receive not glory from men. 42 But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in yourselves. 43 I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive. 44 How can ye believe, who receive glory one of another, and the glory that cometh from the only God ye seek not? 45 Think not that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, on whom ye have set your hope. 46 For if ye believed Moses, ye would believe me; for he wrote of me. 47 But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?

This is a passage where Jesus comes up to the most diligent bible students of His time and says that they are as dead wrong as people who don’t believe in the bible at all, and that they are as deaf to what God is saying as people who are absolutely skeptical of the bible. He comes after people with a high classic orthodox view of the scripture and smacks them down. The scripture is about how God speaks to us. 

Leading up to this part of the story Jesus had worked a miracle, healing a paralyzed man, but he does it on the sabbath. So the religious leaders come to Him, the scribes and the teachers of the law, and they say ‘why have you done this on the sabbath?’ His answers to them include claims that were so shocking to them about being equal to God that they wanted all the more to kill Him. 

Jesus in verse 31 is then saying yea! I am equal with God but I don’t need you to believe me on the basis of the words coming out of my mouth. He wanted to give testimony to this claim, testimony being evidence, and He knew that in their system of jurist prudence one testimony is not enough to establish a case. E.G. If you make the claim and there are no other eye witnesses, your testimony is not valid, you need at least two. So Jesus submits to the law of evidence and He goes on to say that as crazy as this claim may be God has spoken to you and has given you lots of evidence and God has not left you without a witness. He goes on to name three kinds of evidence. And these are the same kinds of evidence that any of us have.

1. Human evidence - John the Baptist “a burning an shining light”
1. personal evidence from people whose lives are radiant
2. Empirical evidence - The Father has given me the Work (Jesus’ life being the work).
1. Evidence that they can see.
3. Scriptural evidence - The Bible, in this case the Old Testament is the witness.

Scripture is a divine not human book. When Jesus uses human testimony He points to John, when He points to God as testifying on His behalf he talks about scripture and scripture being what Moses said about Him. If scripture was not from God Jesus wouldn’t cite in when trying to build credibility. Moses wrote it so yes it is written by a person but what Moses said was the Fathers testimony.

Jesus as quotes God in Matthew 19:4, Jesus says 

“Haven’t you read?,” He replied, “That He who created them in the beginning made them male and female, and He also said For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two will become one flesh.” 

If you go back to that quote from Genesis 2:24 you notice that God didn’t say that but it was the writer who made the comment. So Jesus is quoting the Old Testament as if God said it. Just like He did with Moses’ words saying Moses wrote this but it is the Father’s testimony.

2 Peter 1:20-21, “First of all you should know this: no prophecy of Scripture come from one’s own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by the will of man; instead but the Holy Spirit, men spoke from God.”  

John 6:37 “The Father who sent Me has Himself testified about Me. You have not heard His voice at any time, and you haven’t seen His form.” Jesus says this yet He tells us we have Gods testimony. That is because the words of scripture are His words.

Earlier in 1 Peter 1:16-19 “We did not follow a cleverly contrived myth when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; instead, we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, a voice came to Him from the Majestic Glory: This is My beloved Son. I take delight in Him! An we heard this voice when it came from heaven while we were with Him on the holy mountain. And we have the word of prophecy made more sure.You will do well to pay attention to it, as to a lamp shining in the dismal place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts.”

This is amazing because Peter is saying we heard a voice! and we saw a vision! but we have something more sure then that. That which is more sure is the words of the Prophets that are in the scripture. They have this incredible truth of the scripture because as he said ‘they are not mens words of God but Gods words written by men.’ and His word is more trustworthy then any vision or voice that they will ever hear.

Paul in Galatians 1:6-9 “I am amazed that you are so quickly turning away from Him who called you by the Grace of Christ, and are turning to a different gospel-- not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are troubling you and want to change the gospel of Christ. But even if we or a angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel other than what we have preached to you, a curse be on him! As we said before, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.”

This is amazing because when I was young I would think okay I have the bible which is nice but if only I had a voice or a vision then I would surly know this is true. I have since come to see that we have Peter, Paul, and Jesus all saying you don’t need a voice or a vision because you have got something better!  YOU HAVE SCRIPTURE!!!

If I have a voice or a vision there are three possible sources for seeing or hearing them. 

1. Human source- Making it up, or hallucinating on drugs, or whatever..
2. Supernatural Evil Source - From the Enemy
3. Divine Source - Truly From God

So one in three chances is that it is actually God. But when I open a scripture there is only one source that I know it is coming from and there no risk involved trying to know whether this is of God or not. 

For example: If we were together and thousands of people are with us in a room and then a great angel of light comes down and we all look around and realize everyone is seeing it and it is not just us, then this angel begins to speak and says “this is the truth!” If anybody is thinking in themselves ‘finally!’ Then they are not listening to what Jesus Christ said. Paul says if something of that nature were to happen then somebody should stand up and say “Umm... Excuse me! Do you believe the scripture that says ‘you can only be justified in Gods sight not through the works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ?” 

If the Angel says “NO!” Then so what, throw the angel out because we have something better then some voice or this angel who doesn’t preach the same gospel!

If we think we can have a personal relationship with God, or Jesus Christ and not believe in the complete authority of the scripture, then we are wrong. If we think that any part of the scripture is not the Word of God we then make ourselves free to accept or reject whatever we don’t agree with or find hard to swallow. We make His Word subjective to our understanding or our desires. Thus the conversation with God is turned off and we don’t listen to what he says but what we want. How do we know what he said? The Scripture. It is the place where Jesus Himself quotes God. 

We cannot say I want to know Jesus Christ’ but not accept his view of scripture. The scripture was the lynchpin on which Jesus’ entire life was based. He is constantly saying “It is written...” “It is written...” How does He deal with temptation in the desert? He keeps saying “It is written....” When people were about to come and get Him in the garden and peter starts to take out his sword Jesus says ‘Peter stop, I could call for legions of angels if I wanted to but how would the scripture be fulfilled?’ He is always mindful of scripture. Again when he was carrying the cross and sees the women mourning in the book of Luke He turns to them and quotes Hs 10:8.Then even while dying on the cross dying He says ‘My God My God why have you forsaken Me’ which is a quote from Psalm 22. 

If we say we want Jesus but we don’t think the scripture is perfect; what we are really saying is I want a Jesus that I can make up. We cannot have Jesus Christ and then deny the very basis of His greatness and the very basis of His life. Jesus is saying that scripture is testimony and testimony is personal. Jesus is saying this is the truth, the whole truth, so help me God. 

Jesus is also telling us here (John chapter 6) that even though these men have the scripture, the very Word of God, they are as deaf to what God is saying as if they didn’t know God at all. The people He is telling this to are the people who have the “right view”  and He is not criticizing their view of scripture but rather their use of scripture. Honestly if you have the right scripture but you don’t have the right use of scripture then in reality you don’t have the scripture. So He tells them they are totally missing it.

‘You so diligently study the scripture because you think that by them you posses eternal life.’ Note He is not saying you study them to find in them how to posses eternal life but rather He is saying that they think it is their study of scripture and their knowledge of scripture that is how they are going to get favor of God.

Jesus says the Scripture testifies of Me. John kept saying that I am not the one but that he was bearing witness to the One. If we don’t read every passage, every story, every law as pointing to bear witness to Jesus then we are lost. For example the story of Joseph: 

Joseph is sold into slavery by his brothers. He was betrayed sold into a life of misery and suffering but he triumphs through. Why..? Because he trust in God. Then he ends up ascending to the right hand of the throne and is essentially the prime minister of Egypt. As a result when his brothers are dying of a famine he is able to use his power his authority and his money to save them. 

How do we read that history? What is that about? Do we draw from that a ‘principle’ that if we believe in God we can do anything? and if I try hard enough I can learn to forgive..? 

If we read the story as pointing to itself in that way, then the passage is an end and not a means to something else. This story is to be used to say of itself as John the Baptist says about himself ‘I am not the one! I am pointing to someone else.’ 

There was an even greater Joseph. Who was sold and betrayed by the people who should have loved Him. And he brought about their redemption not just in spite of His suffering but through His suffering. And now He is seated at the right Hand of the Father. 

Until we see ourselves as the recipient of what Jesus Christ has done as the true Joseph then we will never have the melted heart needed to forgive other people. If the story of Joseph is an end in itself then it will crush us, but if it points to Jesus we are liberated by it and every part of the bible is the same. Every part of the bible is saying if you think you can obey me you are crazy! Every part of the bible is John the Baptist saying I am not the one! there is someone greater. As Paul puts it ‘the law is a school master to bring us to Jesus.’ If we think we can obey the law if we try hard enough then we are not even listening to the law because the law is screaming at us saying I AM NOT THE ONE, I AM POINTING TO SOMETHING BEYOND MYSELF! If we look to the law as an end and not as the means as leading us to the need of the savior then we are lost, no matter how much we know that the scripture is the infallible word of God, we are  still lost.

So how can we read scripture right? How can we hear it? 

If we don’t see every story, every character, every passage, every law as pointing to Jesus...

- Isaac but the true son of laughter of grace is Jesus

- Joshua but the true general of the host of the army of the Lord is Jesus

- Jonah but the true prophet who died for his people and was in the belly of the earth for three days is Jesus


- Moses striking the rock so that it opens up and the people drink of its water so that they do not die but Jesus is the rock      who was beaten and because of it living waters pour out of Him!

Until we see every passage of scripture about Him and not about us. Until we read the scripture not for information but for formation. Until we read the scripture to meet Him and learn about Him. We have missed it. 

Some people might say they like to take the scripture symbolically and not literally, but Jesus said I came from the fathers hand to do my work. He did not to give good advice, He came to save us. 

The Gospel is not that we do good things and offer them to God, but that God has sent Jesus Christ to live the perfect life for us and then it is offered to us. 

The Gospel is not to “Rise up and live a divine life” no, not at all. The gospel is Jesus Christ a divine being came down and lived a human life, and because He did that for us when we unite with Him we are accepted. 

If we don’t believe the story is true, then in that case what we really believe in is a lot of nice principles that we have to live up to. We can read the bible as either all about us, Isaac is about us, Joshua is about us, Moses is about us, or we can read it as all being about Him. Is it about Us or Him? If we read it and think it is all about us we will be mechanical, ridged, we will miss the point and there wont be any real internal character change. If it is all about Him, then the love of God will dwell on us. 

If we don’t share Jesus’ view of the scripture then we need to learn how to give it authority over us. Even in the areas we don’t want to hear because if we don’t how will He ever heal you? We can say I don’t like that the scripture says this or that about this or that but what is going to happen?

When our hearts are broken and we feel like a failure and the bible says when our hearts condemn us God is greater then our hearts but how can God come in and give us hope and give use love unless we give the bible authority over us to tell us the good things? If we don’t let God have the authority over us to tell us the bad things then how will he ever heal us? We need to come to Him and we need to say this is the Truth. 

The Word of the Lord shows Us the Lord of the Word. 

Promises

It is not a promise that God is seeking. God doesn't want our promises to Him but rather He would just like us to except the promises that He has already granted us to live in. When we make vows to god we are not proving anything to Him but rather we are trying to prove something to ourselves. Just living in His freedom and love is His requirement. When we make promises to do or not do something we only set ourselves up to fail Him in our own eyes because anything that comes from us (even if it is rooted in good intentions) will only work for evil because the only true and real things in this world come from Him and have already been completed in Jesus' death and resurrection. This means the only thing we have left to do is accept what he has done and live in that reality. We can't make sacrifices as inperfect humans for a perfect God because He cannot except that which is not clean. So, He sent His son who was perfect to give His life and to except the punishment we deserved so that we could accept what He deserved and so that we may be holy like He who dwells in us.

Without Jesus we have nothing to offer and because of Jesus we have nothing to offer but we have only the choice to except the work that has been done by him so that we may truly live. Praise Jesus!

-Highwayman

Peace Peace

You start walking down the street and you notice your two brothers fighting maliciously. One bother is small and weak, the other big and strong. You decide to step in and tell the big brother to stop before the other gets killed but he does not listen and starts to go after your brother again. So what do you decided to? Let him get beat up and killed or do you use your God given ability to defend your peaceful younger brother by beating back the bigger one until he relents?

This may be a tricky scenario but I feel like many Christians and “peace” activist try to say all violence is bad and this is an issue I would like to address. As I am sitting here in South Korea writing this I cannot help but to think about the fact that if America hand not stepped into the fight between North and South Korea (the fight being the Korean war in 1950) that South Korea would have undoubtedly lost as we could barely help them win after over 150,000 soldiers lost their lives to win this country back. Had we not had so many soldiers committed to defending their younger helpless brothers in South Korea and around the world then there would be no North and South Korea, but rather just one Korean ruled by a communist dictator. If we didn’t step in every person I know here today would have been a slave or dead due to the terrible situation we see going on in North Korea we see today.

Should we go picking fights with all our brothers around the world who are big, angry and evil? No, of course not. But what we cannot do is act like there are not fights that it is not our duty to take part in. We didn’t go fight in Vietnam, the Korean War, or either of the World Wars to gain land or power. We took part in these fights so that we could defend people who believe everyone person is deserving of freedom and justice. If we see one of our brothers standing up for what is just and right but has not the power to defend himself from stronger appoints who would like to take those freedoms and we choose not to step in and defend that which is good from the evil, then I am afraid we are far worse then that evil if we say “Peace Peace” when there is no peace.

I do not believe violence is the answer nor will I ever be the one to throw the first pinch. Though what I will not allow is anyone nation that stands for freedom and justice to be beat back into submission by the name of fear and injustice when I have the abili

ty t do something about it. I am not going to beat an evil person to death for I think that murder is wrong but I will certainly beat him until he backs off and knows not to come back. Likewise I say we protect out fellow nations who stand for the intrinsic human rights of freedom and justice when the bullies of the world like North Korea and other nations try to hurt them. There cannot be peace on earth until Jesus comes back so let us stop pretending that evil does not exist, lets stop pretending every person had good intentions and most importantly let us stop pretending that submission to the worlds evil which some call “being peaceful” will bring amity when it will only bring about hostility and oppression from unrelenting power hungry hearts.

Some might think that the gun may have been a bad invention but I am here to tell you nothing in and of itself is bad. When I hold a ballpoint pen in my hand I can use it to write stories of love or the gospels. You take that same pen and give it to another any they could use it to stab somebody to death. While this my seem a bit extreme it is very realist.

Give me a gun and I will hunt and gather food for the winter or defend my family from wild beasts. Again, give the gun to the same evil man and you will see another high school shooting, or a hold up at a convenience store. Let us not pretend the gun was never invented and that we do not know how to use it. There is up and down, black and white, good and evil. Opposites exist by nature and peace is no exception. You cannot close your eyes and hope when you open them that the lager brother will stop hurting your little brother. So let us use the gun in order to defend justice because the reality is evil wont stop.

Tuesday there could be another War starting in Korea. Please make sure you think about the people who live in South Korea who just want the chance to live with their God given rights before you say America should not get involved. Do not be one to get caught saying “Peace Peace” when there is no peace.

-Highwayman

A Starship With No Fuel

Dear Highway Man,

You have been having a lot of trouble falling asleep lately and I think I know why. Somebody once told me there are two reasons why a person cannot fall asleep. They said it is either because you are getting too much undeserved credit or because you are less productive then you know you should be.

“So much attention is paid to the aggressive sins, such as violence and cruelty and greed with all their tragic effects, that too little attention is paid to the passive sins, such as apathy and laziness, which in the long run can have a more devastating effect.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

As you can tell it has been nearly a month since your last blog post. This is a giant red flag telling me that I have been way to unproductive and far to lazy. I am living in Korea teaching English and in the 17 hours a day when I am not at school it is my hope that I am taking part in activities that when I look back on my life will have been the steps I took in pursuing my dreams as a writer, filmmaker, photographer and lover. So I stand now realizing the options that life has set before me to either to take my future by the reigns or to go with the flow.

You have two options when facing this new crossroad. One road will lead you to continue living the way you have lived for the greater portion of your life, which for the majority is a semi productive lifestyle with no real fruit and not real purpose. On the other side there is a small dusty path with no road signs and no promises. This road starts when you are willing to say “enough is enough,” and instead of going through the same motions you and everyone else around your seems to be caught up in and you see where you could be going if you were living with life with a purpose.

At this point I have to ask you, are you the person you want to be? Are you fully dedicated to the things in your life that will cause you to end up where you want to see yourself in the future?

No your not, but your not alone either most people if they are being honest will answer not much differently. You need to I find yourself reading more, writing more, and getting more active and creative while pursuing the only faithful lover in your life. Unfortunately I do not find you doing these things that I wish you were doing because you have become too distracted entertaining the common lifestyle of the day, which leads you nowhere close to where I want to go. But to recognize this is nothing special, you can find that most people are able to see that they too are far from the person they dreamt they would be as a child. So what is stopping so many people from living how they wish they were living if it is indeed who they want to be? Partially I blame you and I for this.

The way I see it, we find ourselves living below our desires because deep inside we are acting out of fear. Fear of losing the acceptance that acting the same as everyone else offers, the acceptance that is freely given in living the same way, having the same passions, and being involved in the same fruitless lifestyles that leads to a mediocre life of suburbia. I know that if you are willing to take the initial steps toward the true callings that you are drawn to, whether

it is traveling the world, starting a production company, publishing a book, or if it just means reading more, praying more, learning a new language, anything even as simple as blogging that if you can do it with passion then you surly will see everyone around you feel the freedom to pursue their own goals as well.

You need to go back and remember the words of Travis Garland a classmate and friend of yours from the 7^th grade who told you he was, “either going to be extremely rich or homeless one day, but I am not going to settle for middle class.” Now those words could either speak of wisdom or foolishness but for they describe a mentality of life I desire for you. As a kid Travis recognized that he wanted to live his life passionately and to it’s fullest without stopping or settling to be or live like anyone else. He wasn’t willing to sit in his house when he was older and regret not going for it, not following his desires until he ended up at the very top or the very bottom. He knew as a child that the only way to be satisfied with his life would be to give it everything he had, leaving no questions of what if on the table. It is there, at that mindset that one can truly say, “even if I end up at the lowest end of society I will be happy knowing I did my best at everything I faced.”

Some might say consider that to be a failed life, but Travis’s attitude has inspired me, and who knows how many other people he has or will encounter who might also have the chance to be infected with his same desire to give life everything they have. If just one of those people go on to do great things because of his tenacious life style then I know he could fall asleep under any bridge with a smile on his face knowing it was his lifestyle that inspired the next Martin Luther King Jr., or Abraham Lincoln, and quite possibly the next You. Mahatma Gandhi said that you should, "be the change you want to see in the world."You can be the future; you are catalyst everyone around you needs to be inspired to stop walking around dull and unproductive, but instead vigorous with their deepest desires relentlessly knocking at their heart unwilling to be silent any longer.

Like anything else in life it is easier said then done which is why most people don’t live in such a way. Walt Disney said, “if you can dream it you can do it.” Be the exception; wake your spirit up from the slumber and ease of laziness. You can and will fulfill your dreams; you just have to start living like you believe it.

Sincerely,

The Highway Man

Welcome to Korea, now drop your pants

Drive – Good

Flights – Good

Arrival – Good

Korean Bathhouse – Lets not talk about it

After more then 24 hours of traveling from Seattle – Portland – LAX – Seoul – Jinju my new employer thought he would be gracious enough to invite me to a Korean bathhouse for recuperation. I had been told that this was a very admired custom where business people and friends meet to relax. So as I am imagining an up scale sauna my co-worker informs me that “in the bathhouse men wear nothing but their birthday suites.”

Um....… Okay, so my boss wants to see me naked and he doesn't even know me? Did he hear I was tall and cant help but to fill his curiosity about a big American? No matter what his thoughts were this cant be good, but I would feel like a rude traveler if I were to decline his offer so I settled it within myself to try it out.

So lets see what your batting with

After arriving in what looked like a dirty mens locker room we paid a man in a booth for locker keys and got into our wardrobes of nothing. At this point I am offered some grape juice so we stand in a circle and drink… (FYI nobody has called no-homo yet). After our delicious beverages we walk into a room with three giant bathtubs filled with water ranging from ice cold to hot. Not to fast, before we climb in this A-Trap infested dirty tub we must shower together and get nice and clean. After our shower shesh, it was time to get in and get comfortable.

Apparently alternating your body in the different temperature tubs helps circulation and relaxation yadda, yadda, yadda, nothing is going to make me think this is not gay. Though this did help me understand why there are so many naked Asian men in locker rooms in the US.

In an attempt to make up for the extremely homosexual encounter I was finding myself in I had to come up with a way to seem as masculine as possible so I tried to talk about boxing, UFC, football and chewing tabacco while hunting baby seals, but no matter the topic I still found myself coming to the conclusion that the only way I was going to feel right again was when I felt the Hanes comfort soft waistband back around my stomach and my Jordan’s under my feet.

After an painful 30min I was able to persuade everyone that they had enough and we exited the premises. I wanted to tell them that we really shouldn’t talk about what happened in there but before I could I was informed that this would be a weekly and often daily event….

Praise Jesus I have not been back since and am using all my best efforts to keep it that way. I hope to bring tidings of good events in my future blogs but wanted to confess all my sins before letting you in on my new life in Korea. God please don't make me go back there!

-Highway Man