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