“And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine bursts the wineskins, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins.” (Mark 2:22). These words from the mouth of Jesus are most easily applied today to the traditional church (the wineskin) and the message it proclaims (the wine). In Jesus’ day, the obvious application was the new wine of Jesus’ teaching and the old wineskin of the pharisaic religion that…

Last week we saw that Proverbs 29:18 gives us the big-picture orientation of life—forest-and-not-just-tree orientation. Without seeing the forest, we will not see or understand God’s eternal purpose for our lives. Could it be that GOD REALLY MEANT IT when He said, in Genesis 1:26-28, that man was created to 1.) bear God’s image, 2.) rule over the earth, and 3.) reproduce others to fill that earth and make man’s rule permanent—and that is our eternal purpose, our “forest?” I believe that He absolutely…

In recent weeks we have been investigating the “big picture” of the Eternal Purpose of God, as revealed to us in the Scriptures. His Purpose begins with 1.) creation of the earth, 2.) creation of man to rule over it, 3.) man’s fall into sin, and then 4.) man’s redemption by the birth,, life, death, resurrection, and ascent into heaven of Jesus Christ. This Eternal Purpose continues with this mind-blowing revelation: God, “…even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ…

I am ranting constantly on this blog that God’s way of operation in our lives is always natural, spontaneous and unconscious (NSU), butwe don’t really believe it—not even I, the ranter!  Our addiction to the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, of which we all ate through Adam in the Garden of Eden, tells us that “Yes, you can be an outstanding Christian that people notice! You can be successful and productive, if you just try a little harder…

In last week’s blog posting, we saw that for the first time since the Fall in the Garden of Eden, God’s eternal purpose for man was fulfilled. In God’s Court of Divine Justice, a man, Jesus Christ, was crowned to RULE OVER THE EARTH, AS KING OF ALL KINGS AND LORD OF ALL LORDS!  When Jesus reported to God at the Ascension that His mission of saving mankind had been accomplished, Daniel and David had already prophetically told us what happened next: “THEN TO…

The decks are cleared. Satan has been defeated and disqualified in the Court of Divine Justice. He had deceived Adam into surrendering his authority to rule over the earth at the Tree in the Garden of Eden! This legal “god of this world,” now fell for the greatest sting operation of all time himself at the Cross. He was tricked into crucifying a perfectly innocent Man, Jesus Christ, and was therefore disqualified to rule!  Satan is NOT “alive and well on planet earth,” but…

We have been sharpening the grace-edge of the two-edged sword of the Word of God for the past few weeks as we have investigated Jesus’ words in Matthew 18:3, “ Unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” I believe that Jesus’ use of the word “converted” does not imply  “becoming a Christian,” or “deciding to believe in Jesus” in this verse. I believe He means converting to a whole new way to…

Last week we concluded with what I believe are two of the three indications that I am learning to walk by faith and not by the unconscious performance addiction that is always lurking in the shadows to grab me. Those first two indications that I am doing so are:  1. I am learning to live by hearing, and then doing, what my Heavenly Daddy is telling me to do in my heart, like a little child.2. 2. I am learning to “walk in the…

We were created to rule over the earth, and rule we will!  However, we have a problem. We were irreparably addicted to wanting to be like God, determining good and evil for ourselves, when we ate of the forbidden fruit IN ADAM in the Garden of Eden But God’s mysterious, inscrutable plan provided just the solution! He placed us all IN CHRIST when He died on the cross. All of us old, performance addicts who fell at the Tree in the Garden, died on…

In 1525, Martin Luther preached a sermon explaining how God preaches only two sermons in the whole Bible.  In his sermon, Luther said:  “Now the first sermon, and doctrine, is the law of God. The second is the gospel. These two sermons are not the same. Therefore, we must have a good grasp of the matter in order to know how to differentiate between them….The law commands and requires us to do certain things. ..The gospel does the very opposite, and says, ‘This is…