When we know Jesus through the struggles around us and within us, the things we go through either as individuals or as a society , we know that through those struggles we can be brought to a place where we realize we do need His love and promises and they are rendered through our losses and blessing more comes to the poor in spirit for so many will fail to see that Jesus exposed the artificial things, the castles built on sand , the cleaned up cups and washed tombstones , where the damage has already been done , we physically die because of sin , the part of the cup that holds the liquid is what needs clean not the outside of the cup. And whats dead does not need a clean tombstone really anymore , does it? We need a foundation built on a rock, stable in the worst case scenario , and that worst case is upon us. So what do we do with that storm approaching ? How do we prepare? And once we have prepared how do we let others know who He is that will carry them ?
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Now I know we have tough situations , we find ourselves in them a lot. The bully that takes the PB&J sandwich ya know , sometimes we tell our kids stand up for yourself , the bully may not come after you anymore and I defiantly feel there is a place for that , theologians and philosophers have long debated the issues of passivism versus standing up against a worse enemy . How do we kill beasts of carnage and armies who slaughter innocent peoples or invade other nations? How do we stand up without killing someone ourselves ? Or do we watch on the sidelines and make pretend its not about us, so let them hash it out , as we bury our heads in the sand? Staying out of others business is tricky business , eventually the unjust and the blatant murderers will come for us . But then there is the concern about who is truly evil. Some argue that the USA has done the same empire -like killings on innocents , Hiroshima for example . So how can we sit around and police a world and pick out the evil ones when we ourselves are sifting through our own evils, seeking to think again in a new way . .So we have this dilemma at times , and this incomplete song will not have all the answers , but I do feel it is a deep concern for me as I listen to the voice of God , its a message of calling and yet also of pain , what are doing? The killers are me it seems too , like why are we shooting each other? What is getting so awful in our lives that we want to end it all and end others lives? How hurt are we ? Its not them to me , as I read the stories and hear about the cases of violence i take responsibility to a certain extent that we are one race of people , humans and if one kills another we all did in some way . What are we doing ? So then Im crying out Father forgive them!! Father forgive me !!! At times i think of it too at smaller scales someone wrongs me or steals from me, cuts me off in traffic. But yet I have done the same or thought the same whether acted on every evil heart thought or not . I still would have hope for Jesus you forgave me and showed up in the darkest hours of my life , that when I really began to know You oh Lord , you gave me the grace and power i needed , the forgiveness to somehow move on and have hope despite the broken things that often fall apart around me. I try to keep positive, so many great things occur in life as well, but there is still this sense that any day loss and storms are upon us and Lord only You can overcome my fears and boring peace that surpasses understanding , I don't wan tot live with my head buried and my eyes closed but a times God your love is enough that with some naivety I can still keep the faith that mostly things will be made right and that mostly things are going well, that even in the darkness of night the stars shine . That all things will work for the good , that You will use everything even the tragic to draw people toward your plan and greater being where all things will be made new. But it also must start now , to where those of us that know You oh Lord will live it out now, bring as aspect of heaven to this earth now. We all sin and fall short of the true glory of God, His pure holiness and His pure perfection eludes us it seems , but He has shown us that power is made perfect in our weakness and through the torn things of earth co existent with good and evil, He is still alive and there is purpose there , and God is so good that the best most magnificent plan is coming out of what appears like bad today. I mean bad is bad its not like it appears bad it is bad, bad things happen bad is bad , however , we do need to realize what is really going to unfold beyond our eyes , where death has been conquered , where death is not the ending , where life never perishes .
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I cannot say I have this down by any means, but I hear a lot of fear and I feel a lot of fear too in these times, and it is there I often turn to the greater kingdom seeing this earth as fallen , under a curse , a wrath and a form of destruction and it is passing, but I also cannot shake the voice of the Lord saying that He came to love us and show us more a new way of compassion and forgiveness and that in the times of our lives we should worship Him in those ordinary moments as much as anywhere else. Outside the temple walls, bringing His seal of love and acceptance and redemption to the inward heart and soul and not the outward appearances of religion and church attendance . Though all that has its place and importance a transformed renewed heart is the real worship , to bring love and care to where we find ourselves , the spheres of influences we have been placed into, that is the church , us, we are the church. This is powerful beyond measure because this is how God changes things and moves not by a system and an order which is too easily corruptible by men, but rather His control over humanity is based on our free will , whether we surrender that free will to Him and in doing His work , listening to His voice and Word living His Word in our lives or we do our own thing and get moved by the popular tides of media and public opinions or the opinions of Hollywood and the rest of the entertainment industries taking over our current events with a spin. Surrendering to our Maker and living in His ways , thats where He brings His love and HIs temple and care to anywhere . God lifts burdens a lot by using other people , people who listen to Him and live for Him . I feel He can use anyone in fact , but the fact remains we are called to take part in spreading HIs love and comfort and truth around by living to help others and show care to others, we are called to be the change and stop the cycles of barbarism, its not an easy calling , but if you look in history our ideology today of stopping slavery and setting captives free, forgiving and even helping criminals in some way , has been shaped by pioneers who laid foundations for this thinking , by worshipping God in a way where we actually practice forgiveness and resisting murder . I read somewhere "Why do we kill people who are killing people to show that killing people is wrong ?" . When we walk as a nation or as scared people or as mad people , broken and hurt people , through the valley of shadow of death. We should let the light shine brighter in the darkness . A good friend of mine always says , "take the high road" when conflict arises , does following Jesus really mean go kill some people ? Does following Jesus really mean settle the score go eye for eye , pay them back for what they did to you? I know its not what Jesus says, He took the way man saw God and flipped it upside down .
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So often news being "Sold" to us as entertainment rather than facts is only coming up with answers embedded in a security that does not exist without Jesus and His life , death and Resurrection and His ministry . Our refuge and our responses should be embedded in these temporal solutions but rather in the permanence of Gods promises . And we should be loving and kind as much as we can, offering a helping hand regardless of how people live , whether they are living a sinful life or a noble life here on earth, we are called to just love the hurting and to see our own shortcomings and poverty as a blessed thing for the least shall see the kingdom of God in its various forms . What are we doing ? If one claims Jesus is their God and they have had an encounter and they are following Him , what did He say for us to do ? What did He call out to the Father ? He said forgive them ( his persecutors ) for they know not what they do , and we as followers well we always realize more than our righteous works that we are forgiven , and we cry out for forgiveness and know we are forgiven, yet too often we point the fingers at the immoral , and some of those cultural desires and carnal passions are in fact immoral , forgive should change us slowly no doubt , but how did our Father and Maker and His Son treat us when we were lost and empty and depleted in our sins and living immoral? He forgave us and calls us to do likewise. So what are we doing ? Are we making the differences in the time we have now ? Or are we going through the motions and simply waiting to die and waiting for the next tragedy? Waiting for Jesus to return? Waiting for God to make His move rather than see that HE calls "us" to loving arms , not vengeful arms, to be HIs hands and feet . Sure I feel God is in full control ,but to think we have no role in His plan is not good theology. Judeo Christians have influenced the world beyond barbarism, since Jesus rose form the dead , since his time and ministry on earth he left a clear message that we are to love others, love our enemies and attempt to forgive those that wrong us , to treat the sick as first for the kingdom of heaven belongs to them more than the healthy, the healthy don't need a doctor. This Christ we all seek and claim we know , the Jewish nation He derives form has long sought and has achieved a reversal view of a vicious form of barbarism our humanity struggles with in every generation since the dawn of time and since the first human on human murder. My first response and reaction to any wrong doing to me is to get them back, and at times it seems very justifiable to make others pay for the wrongs they do to us .
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Sending this out in light of Orlando shootings . I wrote this sadly a few shootings ago , so many ago I'm not sure if it was because of reading of a random shooting or perhaps it was after or around Newtown . I mean now when they keep happening this unfinished song and it's melody and words pop in my mind time and time again , it has been buried in a pile of journals about 5 journals ago . I had still played on a variety of occasions, in rare sessions, when I get a chance to sit down . With mass shootings are a regular thing these days it lingers in my head and soul a lot and keeps getting revived .
The song is unpolished I know ( they all are actually) , I keep waiting to refine these songs and develop them and hope collaborate more but time keep getting the best of me and so have not been able to keep up with music as much as i would like , but writing to The Lord and asking the Father to help me and be my strength and guide, my questions to Him and with him they continue strong - i feel some of those things should be kept private and sacred ya know but yet others still need shared , I been hesitant about sharing things like this , people tend to want there music presented in its completion , I also feel going out on occasion to open mic offers a more genuine intimacy, people are busy and social media time is very personal now, songs are time consuming , thought provoking and if they don't touch people with sound and finished quality at times messages like people can fall through the cracks . I have a few people we jam together periodically at family gatherings and they really come alive nicely there and often I feel thats most important about music and having genuine relationships and having personal fellowship and all. I have played with Nicole a few times and she adds such a vibrant life to the songs concepts , angelic vocals and some precessional dimension - I would someday like choirs I hear voices in it and strings maybe . I just wanted to give an overview of maybe why Im sending this out and sharing it , maybe its modernity and tech and how many of us will still hold social relations , you are all people who God has weaved our paths in some way. But maybe its that I don't want to wait any longer for another shooting , maybe the Lord is speaking and using my time I surrender to Him and He wants me to share in all its imperfection . These shootings keep coming up and people ask all these questions and there are all these theories and reactions and outpourings and I wonder if we change at all as a society . Are we putting it all in the hands of political leaders and authorities and military ? When are we going to take back our lives and communities in simple ways and in simple acts of love ? When did we end up at the mercy of technology and the media , political parties that divide us to where so much else dictates our daily sociological existence ? Despite our proclamations as a Christian nation or being a free and ethical nation/peoples , we seem to consistently fail to listen to God so often. We should more be at the mercy of Jesus the Savior humans Creator who walked among us , who is the Father . We should not be constantly guided by a worldview just as lost as us at times, and trying to make sense of the carnage and tragedies that engulf our civilizations .
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So where does grace extend? way beyond the Holy Land, way beyond the borders of your church building, ay beyond any institution or religious structure or system, and though it is not license it is understanding toward our insurmountable circumstances but offers growth in unfertile soil of earth where spiritual fertility can only truly be found in Gods mercy, Jesus is that mercy and is all grace and truth wrapped in an invitation to all lost children of Adan and Eve. Jesus is the only heavenly soil possible the only supernatural way to grow in a world broken and co existent with weeds in all the crop of goodness that is taking place around us. A harvest will one day be complete, and this wheat farm is everywhere in all of Gods goodness we see it a lot but much of it is invisible so to speak, not exactly a wheat field, but the truly good things of Gods creations and invisible qualities we know around us. Good and evil co exist, so being that evil is abound and yet life is extraordinarily wonderful. Who are you? who am I? Without grace I feel Im pretty naturally wicked and evil, the pagan people and the heathen. Im even a mask of goodness and professionalism when I want to be, and this is in know way going to be a comfortable thing for my heart and the core of me when the Holy Spirit eyes peer deep inside of my thoughts, and it should not be for you. Yet grace is a river too which can smooth over all the hurt and damage and bad decisions but I feel it reveal the decisions as well exposing the evil deeds for what they are , forgiving them which destroys them and yet at the same time bringing the truly good thing the evil perverts into its truest form that even leaders of our religion may call bad. This is what grace can do, grace can help us sift through the good and evil and much of the good may not be a sinfully decadent as you thought and access to our heavenly daddys irreversible love can never hurt. Complete understanding but hopefully a good shove out of comfort too, a constant focus that will seek to lead us away and deliver us form the evil one, Satan and ourselves. Now we may see the kingdom of heaven , no one can unless they are born again of spirit, only Jesus can give birth to real spirit - and the Laws all been broken but grace can bring out the exact guide where the Law is no longer abolished but is fulfilled by the Spirit and like a parent may lead children away from a cliff or stop them form running into traffic or request the child do not ingest things that are poison, things we know by experience as it is evident in the earth around us, so as God can lead us with grace through the deserts and wreckage's of a fallen world and carry us straight up to eternity. Not our will but His will be done , on earth as it is in heaven. Grace is what brings this harmony to light - let heaven and nature sing!!!
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now my point being here mostly how far the reach of grace? Very far, beyond the temple , beyond the religious structure, beyond good spiritual duty. At the same time it is right here with us which makes it not as easy. It is almost indefinable if you are willing to take it in and love the Lord God with all your heart and soul and mind . I have heard a lot of people talk about books written on it and the scandal it is, some songs about grace. But I would take it even a step further but many many not like what they hear- I mean it wont tickle your ears, in fact it is almost frighteningly beautiful , but beautiful only if you allow the full completion of God and the plan beyond this visible earthly life to the faith and Jesus the gate. It is scary to me at times, because Im in almost crippling tremble when I stop to realize how much God loves me, and as a dad who is completely disappointed with his children's weakness and shortcomings Im also in a total place of reliance on the obligation and natural passion to be a father who stands by and loves his children by nature. Now I know "natural" has a lot of definitions to many, but my natural I mean it just seems the design apparent in anyone regardless of what you believe. The Word even suggests even pagans love there children, heathen and evil people do. Now is that talking about me before I received Christ? Or the other people outside the faith and recognition of inherent sin? I think it is both perhaps. That may be an area worth touching on some other time, there is clear context of some passages but that is not where Im getting at here. The fact of the matter is I must admit that I must follow Jesus before I love family, but family is an essential mission and the first mission. But love can lead us wrongly with feelings and defense over human wickedness where we may not stand on what is right but what our own family pride believes in, morality is elusive to humans bu nature now, and by only following Christ can I get the power , supernatural power to love like God loves us and begin to even recognize the magnitude of what grace really does to human being who inherited sin but now allows God through Christ to make him or her a new creation.
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So i get this nugget today from the Father. And its nothing new but all things are made new and so I forget the former things and sometimes the repetition and the reiterating of things I have known but forgotten , they come into reality again and just become part of your heart over time - suddenly this grace issue re surfaced and somehow I felt the tug to unpack it more . I also felt the need to share this and transcribe it down because it is something of a frustration for me when I see the debate over God and religion and tolerance and all the perspectives on Jesus in public and in the mainstream media.
SO what awakened in me was the fact that grace extends beyond the institution of the church and is in fact an extremely obvious yet unexpected new covenant. New meaning never really the same always , always new , truly . And truly thats an extension supernatural- God is real and reaching for you. This is where our Creator full of grace and truth , the One with God in the beginning , the Word become flesh, this Holy righteous birth and entry into sinful mankind, this living temple of sorts wants to give humans His children all of Himself , and all that heaven has to offer and all the renewal possible. And God chose the vehicle of grace to give it to us, anyone willing to receive the gift of our Father. And there is this sense of commitment to God and all Christians it seems, (well "many" often), kind of fall into congregational worship and gathering and begin to acknowledge sin and confess sin and feel convicted of sin. We nestle into systems and those systems may in fact be important and good things , healthy patterns, but there is also this sense of how dangerous they become and comfortable or error can become common practice. Mundane static traditional duty as opposed to real solid dynamic discipline. And thats where real grace takes hold and can be totally alive and fully light of heaven the closest we could get to heaven on earth.
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PART7 Metamorphic things are so apparent and so all around us. So why not take this life thing, this God thing, pretty serious. You might just find a pearl in the mundane repetitious oyster of analysis.Admit it, we all think about it, we all conceive of it , we all grow in something, even if it has wicked intentions, it happens, we are seeking the more, the tool of progress and the quickening. Too often we prefer the less for the growth might bring pain of thought and serious consideration of detail. IF its worth it in the daily little matters of life, why not take serious the greater plan - you know its true.
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PART6But not if we take lightly that it is such a mystery that you will not bother. I m guilty at times, I focus and analyze a detail of materialism and of getting a job done and I can break it down and do it the best I know how or the best Im capable of and yet i pass up the opportunity to get so deep with the Creator and the Master, the One who made and loves me most and He designed me. HE ultimately knows what i need and He walked among me , became the curse of me to bridge me to Himself. My Father who is one with the Son , the Christ, He enables me or anyone to speak to the Father we left , and walk away from to go our own way. HE is the power, He is the better tool, The Lord of All is the gate to growing and will only matter at the time of obvious disaster and decay and the passing of our fleshly lives on earth. The Holy Spirit is real, we need to take seriously that this is no accident, there is genuine searching, but so often we keep it on the surface afraid to scrape and gauge in the deeps , but if nothing else, can you agree that you already go deep in many areas , in many issues, and if you remotely believe in God are you really giving the depth it deserves or are you settling for a tradition and a club of some kind? With all the temporal things we analyze deeply, are we really seeking the One ? And if you decided on some "one" are they really answering your desire for a better job, a better cure? Who really is there at death and at loss? To what God are you serving that rescues beyond philosophy and beyond sociology and beyond the scientific understandings? Are we taking serious consideration that there are a variety spirituality's that exist and that only stand on layers of feelings, and yet still there stands on firm foundation for all the much more "real" and actual "spirituality" that is solid even when the human sight and even when the feelings are gone. It is not made of sand nor is it a mirage or artificial as the way feelings can be perceived as permanence. That beyond eyes and sight there is a real awakening because of "The One and Only" Lord God of All, Jesus Christ, The Word who became flesh, the Word that was God and was with God in the beginning is life and love and the One who solely endures for this is the reality - the One and the why that we all seek and are searching. The Maker of you has come to bridge that conversation directly to our One and Only Father and we need show care and detail and commitment to this salvation. For such as tools evolve and there are always better tools and more advanced inventions, so is this amazing life you are in the midst of. And the Maker of you can put the best in your hands, all of it in your possession, for His glory is ultimately our benefit and outcome. It may in fact be contrary to what our selfish toiling's are battling. Think of life forms, all the creations, all of humanity distinct from all creatures, how much more are we? How much more are we? How much more are you? And you know it, so many consider it all daily in one way shape or form. Heaven to me is sort of revealed through those that seek spirituality, and many find wisdom's, but if Christ is the sole door, and God will show us, well then the Bible has become a magnificent direction to what we evolve into actually. A new life, and why shouldn't we be? Christ and the mercy is heavens door, the glimpses the now and the yet to be. This is why I can not tell you my revelation but I can say there is "The Revelation" and always Jesus , the real Jesus is hope at any point - He remains strong and real in the wreckage and the storm and the seemingly lost moments. Only can Christ and the Word details and unveils where we are heading and it will be unique to you and everyone, for that is the character of God, evident always.
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Anthony Cupo / Blog
what are we doing? ( page 5 - last page)
When we know Jesus through the struggles around us and within us, the things we go through either as individuals or as a society , we know that through those struggles we can be brought to a place where we realize we do need His love and promises and they are rendered through our losses and blessing more comes to the poor in spirit for so many will fail to see that Jesus exposed the artificial things, the castles built on sand , the cleaned up cups and washed tombstones , where the damage has already been done , we physically die because of sin , the part of the cup that holds the liquid is what needs clean not the outside of the cup. And whats dead does not need a clean tombstone really anymore , does it? We need a foundation built on a rock, stable in the worst case scenario , and that worst case is upon us. So what do we do with that storm approaching ? How do we prepare? And once we have prepared how do we let others know who He is that will carry them ?
Reply
what are we doing ? ( page 4)
Now I know we have tough situations , we find ourselves in them a lot. The bully that takes the PB&J sandwich ya know , sometimes we tell our kids stand up for yourself , the bully may not come after you anymore and I defiantly feel there is a place for that , theologians and philosophers have long debated the issues of passivism versus standing up against a worse enemy . How do we kill beasts of carnage and armies who slaughter innocent peoples or invade other nations? How do we stand up without killing someone ourselves ? Or do we watch on the sidelines and make pretend its not about us, so let them hash it out , as we bury our heads in the sand? Staying out of others business is tricky business , eventually the unjust and the blatant murderers will come for us . But then there is the concern about who is truly evil. Some argue that the USA has done the same empire -like killings on innocents , Hiroshima for example . So how can we sit around and police a world and pick out the evil ones when we ourselves are sifting through our own evils, seeking to think again in a new way . .So we have this dilemma at times , and this incomplete song will not have all the answers , but I do feel it is a deep concern for me as I listen to the voice of God , its a message of calling and yet also of pain , what are doing? The killers are me it seems too , like why are we shooting each other? What is getting so awful in our lives that we want to end it all and end others lives? How hurt are we ? Its not them to me , as I read the stories and hear about the cases of violence i take responsibility to a certain extent that we are one race of people , humans and if one kills another we all did in some way . What are we doing ? So then Im crying out Father forgive them!! Father forgive me !!! At times i think of it too at smaller scales someone wrongs me or steals from me, cuts me off in traffic. But yet I have done the same or thought the same whether acted on every evil heart thought or not . I still would have hope for Jesus you forgave me and showed up in the darkest hours of my life , that when I really began to know You oh Lord , you gave me the grace and power i needed , the forgiveness to somehow move on and have hope despite the broken things that often fall apart around me. I try to keep positive, so many great things occur in life as well, but there is still this sense that any day loss and storms are upon us and Lord only You can overcome my fears and boring peace that surpasses understanding , I don't wan tot live with my head buried and my eyes closed but a times God your love is enough that with some naivety I can still keep the faith that mostly things will be made right and that mostly things are going well, that even in the darkness of night the stars shine . That all things will work for the good , that You will use everything even the tragic to draw people toward your plan and greater being where all things will be made new. But it also must start now , to where those of us that know You oh Lord will live it out now, bring as aspect of heaven to this earth now. We all sin and fall short of the true glory of God, His pure holiness and His pure perfection eludes us it seems , but He has shown us that power is made perfect in our weakness and through the torn things of earth co existent with good and evil, He is still alive and there is purpose there , and God is so good that the best most magnificent plan is coming out of what appears like bad today. I mean bad is bad its not like it appears bad it is bad, bad things happen bad is bad , however , we do need to realize what is really going to unfold beyond our eyes , where death has been conquered , where death is not the ending , where life never perishes .
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what are we doing? ( page 3)
I cannot say I have this down by any means, but I hear a lot of fear and I feel a lot of fear too in these times, and it is there I often turn to the greater kingdom seeing this earth as fallen , under a curse , a wrath and a form of destruction and it is passing, but I also cannot shake the voice of the Lord saying that He came to love us and show us more a new way of compassion and forgiveness and that in the times of our lives we should worship Him in those ordinary moments as much as anywhere else. Outside the temple walls, bringing His seal of love and acceptance and redemption to the inward heart and soul and not the outward appearances of religion and church attendance . Though all that has its place and importance a transformed renewed heart is the real worship , to bring love and care to where we find ourselves , the spheres of influences we have been placed into, that is the church , us, we are the church. This is powerful beyond measure because this is how God changes things and moves not by a system and an order which is too easily corruptible by men, but rather His control over humanity is based on our free will , whether we surrender that free will to Him and in doing His work , listening to His voice and Word living His Word in our lives or we do our own thing and get moved by the popular tides of media and public opinions or the opinions of Hollywood and the rest of the entertainment industries taking over our current events with a spin. Surrendering to our Maker and living in His ways , thats where He brings His love and HIs temple and care to anywhere . God lifts burdens a lot by using other people , people who listen to Him and live for Him . I feel He can use anyone in fact , but the fact remains we are called to take part in spreading HIs love and comfort and truth around by living to help others and show care to others, we are called to be the change and stop the cycles of barbarism, its not an easy calling , but if you look in history our ideology today of stopping slavery and setting captives free, forgiving and even helping criminals in some way , has been shaped by pioneers who laid foundations for this thinking , by worshipping God in a way where we actually practice forgiveness and resisting murder . I read somewhere "Why do we kill people who are killing people to show that killing people is wrong ?" . When we walk as a nation or as scared people or as mad people , broken and hurt people , through the valley of shadow of death. We should let the light shine brighter in the darkness . A good friend of mine always says , "take the high road" when conflict arises , does following Jesus really mean go kill some people ? Does following Jesus really mean settle the score go eye for eye , pay them back for what they did to you? I know its not what Jesus says, He took the way man saw God and flipped it upside down .
Reply
What are we doing ? (page 2)
So often news being "Sold" to us as entertainment rather than facts is only coming up with answers embedded in a security that does not exist without Jesus and His life , death and Resurrection and His ministry . Our refuge and our responses should be embedded in these temporal solutions but rather in the permanence of Gods promises . And we should be loving and kind as much as we can, offering a helping hand regardless of how people live , whether they are living a sinful life or a noble life here on earth, we are called to just love the hurting and to see our own shortcomings and poverty as a blessed thing for the least shall see the kingdom of God in its various forms . What are we doing ? If one claims Jesus is their God and they have had an encounter and they are following Him , what did He say for us to do ? What did He call out to the Father ? He said forgive them ( his persecutors ) for they know not what they do , and we as followers well we always realize more than our righteous works that we are forgiven , and we cry out for forgiveness and know we are forgiven, yet too often we point the fingers at the immoral , and some of those cultural desires and carnal passions are in fact immoral , forgive should change us slowly no doubt , but how did our Father and Maker and His Son treat us when we were lost and empty and depleted in our sins and living immoral? He forgave us and calls us to do likewise. So what are we doing ? Are we making the differences in the time we have now ? Or are we going through the motions and simply waiting to die and waiting for the next tragedy? Waiting for Jesus to return? Waiting for God to make His move rather than see that HE calls "us" to loving arms , not vengeful arms, to be HIs hands and feet . Sure I feel God is in full control ,but to think we have no role in His plan is not good theology. Judeo Christians have influenced the world beyond barbarism, since Jesus rose form the dead , since his time and ministry on earth he left a clear message that we are to love others, love our enemies and attempt to forgive those that wrong us , to treat the sick as first for the kingdom of heaven belongs to them more than the healthy, the healthy don't need a doctor. This Christ we all seek and claim we know , the Jewish nation He derives form has long sought and has achieved a reversal view of a vicious form of barbarism our humanity struggles with in every generation since the dawn of time and since the first human on human murder. My first response and reaction to any wrong doing to me is to get them back, and at times it seems very justifiable to make others pay for the wrongs they do to us .
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What are we doing ? ( page 1)
Sending this out in light of Orlando shootings . I wrote this sadly a few shootings ago , so many ago I'm not sure if it was because of reading of a random shooting or perhaps it was after or around Newtown . I mean now when they keep happening this unfinished song and it's melody and words pop in my mind time and time again , it has been buried in a pile of journals about 5 journals ago . I had still played on a variety of occasions, in rare sessions, when I get a chance to sit down . With mass shootings are a regular thing these days it lingers in my head and soul a lot and keeps getting revived . The song is unpolished I know ( they all are actually) , I keep waiting to refine these songs and develop them and hope collaborate more but time keep getting the best of me and so have not been able to keep up with music as much as i would like , but writing to The Lord and asking the Father to help me and be my strength and guide, my questions to Him and with him they continue strong - i feel some of those things should be kept private and sacred ya know but yet others still need shared , I been hesitant about sharing things like this , people tend to want there music presented in its completion , I also feel going out on occasion to open mic offers a more genuine intimacy, people are busy and social media time is very personal now, songs are time consuming , thought provoking and if they don't touch people with sound and finished quality at times messages like people can fall through the cracks . I have a few people we jam together periodically at family gatherings and they really come alive nicely there and often I feel thats most important about music and having genuine relationships and having personal fellowship and all. I have played with Nicole a few times and she adds such a vibrant life to the songs concepts , angelic vocals and some precessional dimension - I would someday like choirs I hear voices in it and strings maybe . I just wanted to give an overview of maybe why Im sending this out and sharing it , maybe its modernity and tech and how many of us will still hold social relations , you are all people who God has weaved our paths in some way. But maybe its that I don't want to wait any longer for another shooting , maybe the Lord is speaking and using my time I surrender to Him and He wants me to share in all its imperfection . These shootings keep coming up and people ask all these questions and there are all these theories and reactions and outpourings and I wonder if we change at all as a society . Are we putting it all in the hands of political leaders and authorities and military ? When are we going to take back our lives and communities in simple ways and in simple acts of love ? When did we end up at the mercy of technology and the media , political parties that divide us to where so much else dictates our daily sociological existence ? Despite our proclamations as a Christian nation or being a free and ethical nation/peoples , we seem to consistently fail to listen to God so often. We should more be at the mercy of Jesus the Savior humans Creator who walked among us , who is the Father . We should not be constantly guided by a worldview just as lost as us at times, and trying to make sense of the carnage and tragedies that engulf our civilizations .
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where grace extends (page 3)
So where does grace extend? way beyond the Holy Land, way beyond the borders of your church building, ay beyond any institution or religious structure or system, and though it is not license it is understanding toward our insurmountable circumstances but offers growth in unfertile soil of earth where spiritual fertility can only truly be found in Gods mercy, Jesus is that mercy and is all grace and truth wrapped in an invitation to all lost children of Adan and Eve. Jesus is the only heavenly soil possible the only supernatural way to grow in a world broken and co existent with weeds in all the crop of goodness that is taking place around us. A harvest will one day be complete, and this wheat farm is everywhere in all of Gods goodness we see it a lot but much of it is invisible so to speak, not exactly a wheat field, but the truly good things of Gods creations and invisible qualities we know around us. Good and evil co exist, so being that evil is abound and yet life is extraordinarily wonderful. Who are you? who am I? Without grace I feel Im pretty naturally wicked and evil, the pagan people and the heathen. Im even a mask of goodness and professionalism when I want to be, and this is in know way going to be a comfortable thing for my heart and the core of me when the Holy Spirit eyes peer deep inside of my thoughts, and it should not be for you. Yet grace is a river too which can smooth over all the hurt and damage and bad decisions but I feel it reveal the decisions as well exposing the evil deeds for what they are , forgiving them which destroys them and yet at the same time bringing the truly good thing the evil perverts into its truest form that even leaders of our religion may call bad. This is what grace can do, grace can help us sift through the good and evil and much of the good may not be a sinfully decadent as you thought and access to our heavenly daddys irreversible love can never hurt. Complete understanding but hopefully a good shove out of comfort too, a constant focus that will seek to lead us away and deliver us form the evil one, Satan and ourselves. Now we may see the kingdom of heaven , no one can unless they are born again of spirit, only Jesus can give birth to real spirit - and the Laws all been broken but grace can bring out the exact guide where the Law is no longer abolished but is fulfilled by the Spirit and like a parent may lead children away from a cliff or stop them form running into traffic or request the child do not ingest things that are poison, things we know by experience as it is evident in the earth around us, so as God can lead us with grace through the deserts and wreckage's of a fallen world and carry us straight up to eternity. Not our will but His will be done , on earth as it is in heaven. Grace is what brings this harmony to light - let heaven and nature sing!!!
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where grace entends ( page 2)
now my point being here mostly how far the reach of grace? Very far, beyond the temple , beyond the religious structure, beyond good spiritual duty. At the same time it is right here with us which makes it not as easy. It is almost indefinable if you are willing to take it in and love the Lord God with all your heart and soul and mind . I have heard a lot of people talk about books written on it and the scandal it is, some songs about grace. But I would take it even a step further but many many not like what they hear- I mean it wont tickle your ears, in fact it is almost frighteningly beautiful , but beautiful only if you allow the full completion of God and the plan beyond this visible earthly life to the faith and Jesus the gate. It is scary to me at times, because Im in almost crippling tremble when I stop to realize how much God loves me, and as a dad who is completely disappointed with his children's weakness and shortcomings Im also in a total place of reliance on the obligation and natural passion to be a father who stands by and loves his children by nature. Now I know "natural" has a lot of definitions to many, but my natural I mean it just seems the design apparent in anyone regardless of what you believe. The Word even suggests even pagans love there children, heathen and evil people do. Now is that talking about me before I received Christ? Or the other people outside the faith and recognition of inherent sin? I think it is both perhaps. That may be an area worth touching on some other time, there is clear context of some passages but that is not where Im getting at here. The fact of the matter is I must admit that I must follow Jesus before I love family, but family is an essential mission and the first mission. But love can lead us wrongly with feelings and defense over human wickedness where we may not stand on what is right but what our own family pride believes in, morality is elusive to humans bu nature now, and by only following Christ can I get the power , supernatural power to love like God loves us and begin to even recognize the magnitude of what grace really does to human being who inherited sin but now allows God through Christ to make him or her a new creation.
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where grace extends (page 1)
So i get this nugget today from the Father. And its nothing new but all things are made new and so I forget the former things and sometimes the repetition and the reiterating of things I have known but forgotten , they come into reality again and just become part of your heart over time - suddenly this grace issue re surfaced and somehow I felt the tug to unpack it more . I also felt the need to share this and transcribe it down because it is something of a frustration for me when I see the debate over God and religion and tolerance and all the perspectives on Jesus in public and in the mainstream media. SO what awakened in me was the fact that grace extends beyond the institution of the church and is in fact an extremely obvious yet unexpected new covenant. New meaning never really the same always , always new , truly . And truly thats an extension supernatural- God is real and reaching for you. This is where our Creator full of grace and truth , the One with God in the beginning , the Word become flesh, this Holy righteous birth and entry into sinful mankind, this living temple of sorts wants to give humans His children all of Himself , and all that heaven has to offer and all the renewal possible. And God chose the vehicle of grace to give it to us, anyone willing to receive the gift of our Father. And there is this sense of commitment to God and all Christians it seems, (well "many" often), kind of fall into congregational worship and gathering and begin to acknowledge sin and confess sin and feel convicted of sin. We nestle into systems and those systems may in fact be important and good things , healthy patterns, but there is also this sense of how dangerous they become and comfortable or error can become common practice. Mundane static traditional duty as opposed to real solid dynamic discipline. And thats where real grace takes hold and can be totally alive and fully light of heaven the closest we could get to heaven on earth.
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evolution tool
PART7 Metamorphic things are so apparent and so all around us. So why not take this life thing, this God thing, pretty serious. You might just find a pearl in the mundane repetitious oyster of analysis.Admit it, we all think about it, we all conceive of it , we all grow in something, even if it has wicked intentions, it happens, we are seeking the more, the tool of progress and the quickening. Too often we prefer the less for the growth might bring pain of thought and serious consideration of detail. IF its worth it in the daily little matters of life, why not take serious the greater plan - you know its true.
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evolution tool
PART6But not if we take lightly that it is such a mystery that you will not bother. I m guilty at times, I focus and analyze a detail of materialism and of getting a job done and I can break it down and do it the best I know how or the best Im capable of and yet i pass up the opportunity to get so deep with the Creator and the Master, the One who made and loves me most and He designed me. HE ultimately knows what i need and He walked among me , became the curse of me to bridge me to Himself. My Father who is one with the Son , the Christ, He enables me or anyone to speak to the Father we left , and walk away from to go our own way. HE is the power, He is the better tool, The Lord of All is the gate to growing and will only matter at the time of obvious disaster and decay and the passing of our fleshly lives on earth. The Holy Spirit is real, we need to take seriously that this is no accident, there is genuine searching, but so often we keep it on the surface afraid to scrape and gauge in the deeps , but if nothing else, can you agree that you already go deep in many areas , in many issues, and if you remotely believe in God are you really giving the depth it deserves or are you settling for a tradition and a club of some kind? With all the temporal things we analyze deeply, are we really seeking the One ? And if you decided on some "one" are they really answering your desire for a better job, a better cure? Who really is there at death and at loss? To what God are you serving that rescues beyond philosophy and beyond sociology and beyond the scientific understandings? Are we taking serious consideration that there are a variety spirituality's that exist and that only stand on layers of feelings, and yet still there stands on firm foundation for all the much more "real" and actual "spirituality" that is solid even when the human sight and even when the feelings are gone. It is not made of sand nor is it a mirage or artificial as the way feelings can be perceived as permanence. That beyond eyes and sight there is a real awakening because of "The One and Only" Lord God of All, Jesus Christ, The Word who became flesh, the Word that was God and was with God in the beginning is life and love and the One who solely endures for this is the reality - the One and the why that we all seek and are searching. The Maker of you has come to bridge that conversation directly to our One and Only Father and we need show care and detail and commitment to this salvation. For such as tools evolve and there are always better tools and more advanced inventions, so is this amazing life you are in the midst of. And the Maker of you can put the best in your hands, all of it in your possession, for His glory is ultimately our benefit and outcome. It may in fact be contrary to what our selfish toiling's are battling. Think of life forms, all the creations, all of humanity distinct from all creatures, how much more are we? How much more are we? How much more are you? And you know it, so many consider it all daily in one way shape or form. Heaven to me is sort of revealed through those that seek spirituality, and many find wisdom's, but if Christ is the sole door, and God will show us, well then the Bible has become a magnificent direction to what we evolve into actually. A new life, and why shouldn't we be? Christ and the mercy is heavens door, the glimpses the now and the yet to be. This is why I can not tell you my revelation but I can say there is "The Revelation" and always Jesus , the real Jesus is hope at any point - He remains strong and real in the wreckage and the storm and the seemingly lost moments. Only can Christ and the Word details and unveils where we are heading and it will be unique to you and everyone, for that is the character of God, evident always.
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