No Gate Keepers

October 13, 2011 By 1 Comment

I can’t even begin to tell you how annoying it is to hear Christians say, “If you don’t believe the bible is 100% accurate, then throw the whole thing out!”

Seriously? You want people to quit on Jesus that easily? You really want them to throw the whole bible out if they say they don’t believe it’s 100% accurate? The bible doesn’t have to be 100% accurate to have a positive effect on someone.

It’s perfectly acceptable if someone accepts Jesus, but sets some bible passages on a shelf to ponder at a later date. After all, the bible isn’t part of the Trinity.

But sadly, some people are under the assumption that Jesus and the Bible are one in the same. Let me be very clear here… the Bible is NOT God ‘incarnate’ on paper.

Jesus is the Word of God. {John 1:1}

The phrase, “The bible is the Word of God” is totally false. You will NOT find this phrase in the bible at all. But that’s not the main purpose for this article. What I do want to focus on is that far too many Christians are quick to shove people out of Christianity and away from Jesus when they don’t embrace all the same exact doctrines that they do. Why do they think they are the gate keepers?

These misguided people are behaving unkindly under the influence of a stupor that permeates their brain every week. And to be sure that spell doesn’t wear off, they’re asked to come in for more programming at the midweek service. Furthermore, they are told to listen to more spells on CD’s, read them in books, and watch the hypnotic videos on YouTube. And they preach against witchcraft?

umm okay.

I’m just not sure Jesus ever intended that people stand at the gates of the kingdom and require indoctrination to grant them entrance. Is there some magical check list that we’re all supposed to submit to in order to cross the threshold? Last I checked, Jesus and his Bride left the gate wide open and said ANYONE could come in. {Revelation 22:17}

But time and time again, I see people coming in… close to the kingdom gates, thirsty, wearied, and worn…looking for a ray of hope, wrestling with what some ‘pastors’ claim and the be told, “If you don’t believe x,y,z then just throw the whole bible out!” They get told, “If you don’t live according to x,y,z then don’t even bother being a Christian!” They further condemn the hungry with, “God will curse you if you don’t give 10% of your GROSS income to the church.”

They cast away the poor sinners into the streets to leave them to rot in the cold darkness of the world.

And Jesus goes after them! He will not rest until all 100 sheep are gathered into the kingdom.

You see, Jesus doesn’t wait around for you to come, he goes after you.

I’m so sorry that so many misguided people require so much from you to get into the kingdom. What they fail to realize is that Jesus already declared that His kingdom is within you. {Luke 17:21}

No human has any right to keep you out of the kingdom. They have no power to do so. Oh they may think they do, but they’re wrong.

Jesus already granted you citizenship with full freedom to not only enter in, but to live in his kingdom abundantly.

So when people who call themselves Christians get pushy, demanding, legalistic, rude, and indifferent… view that as the yellow caution tape…and stay away from them. They may claim that their way is the light, but it’s really just the outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Jesus’ Kingdom has no gate keepers. He left the gate wide open.

Italy by nonpoppop, on Pix-O-Sphere

{photo credit Mike Davis}


Filed Under: Grace Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Defending Grace May Not Always Appear as Gracious

October 12, 2011 By 1 Comment

The admonishment to be gracious can sometimes be overwhelming. We wrestle with giving the kindest response, because something within us triggers a knee jerk reaction to some things. Maybe we can stop trying to defend our own perceived righteousness and start really defending grace.

But does grace need to be defended?

Maybe it’s people who are resting under grace that need to be defended so they CAN rest. Wounded people ‘die’ inside due to the building pressure to be perfect in man’s eyes. They need a place to rest. But Law givers stalk them into the abode of peace and rip it right out from under them when they insist they get back on their feet and run in the race of ‘be perfect’.

Sometimes a sharp rebuttal against legalism can sound terrifying, but a legalistic teacher doesn’t usually respond to a meek silent plea for grace. Even Paul needed to have a blinding light strike him to get his attention. It was then that the Lord said, “Why do you kick against the pricks?”

I don’t often call out those that I believe are false teachers here on my blog. Those ‘popular pastors’ could care less what I think, but when a teaching leans into law and hate I just can’t sit idle and say nothing about it. To take a stand for wounded people who are being misled into a trap of bondage is risky business. Anytime one exposes a lie and introduces grace, the onslaught begins.

Proclaiming grace is risky business.

Standing in the gap to protect the wounded and shouting, “Back off!” may not appear to be very gracious. I’m not sure Jesus was exactly gracious in the temple either…when he over turned the tables and chased those ‘popular pastors’ right out of that building.

The plea for justice is twisted in today’s society, especially among Christianity. Many people think God’s justice is the same as theirs…the desire for never ending torture by fire. But many of them reject water boarding of terrorists and defend the right to live for babies who may or may not grow up to be Christians. Go figure.

When a wounded person lies ‘bleeding’ on the ground, stolen from, lied to, neglected, and their will to live is so stifled by their pain that they can’t even whisper a plea for grace, it’s us who needs to stand up and say something!

Back off!

fireworks by sisterlisa, on Pix-O-Sphere

God’s justice is that the spiritual consequences for sin has been COVERED! Jesus is the person of justice. He brought the balance. Justice is not a form of extremism to bring about torture for humans who can’t do a single thing about their sin. Justice is that Jesus already took care of it. People have been called Christians because they are supposed to be ‘little Christ’s’ to the world. We are to be ‘little justice lights’ who put their feet down and insist the penalty has already been paid. We are to uphold the banner of grace, that Jesus already declared, over these humans wounded by the first Adam.

We are free in this kingdom of God, the banner is held high, and His grace is ours to claim.

Don’t even think about trying to tear down this banner of love, or you’ll have quite a fight on your hands.

That fight may not look or sound very gracious, and I think Jesus understands that.

Filed Under: Grace, Legalism Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

1st Church of the Dolphins

September 17, 2011 By 3 Comments

While my family was on vacation to Southern California, we visited Huntington Beach with the children. We ran along the shore, splashing sea foam with our toes and jumping in the waves. We were having a blast! Just off the shore about a hundred yards or so we sighted wild dolphins frolicking together. They were playing with the pelicans and seemed to be having a grand time and I stood there..listening to the Spirit as the wind caressed my face with salty kisses from above and in that stillness of the moment it dawned on me that I would never want to force those dolphins into an aquarium. How could I possibly bring myself to force them into captivity when they were already enjoying the home they were born into?

Ironically, we also visited Sea World in San Diego while we were down in Southern California. We got to see many animals in captivity, although these were animals who had once been injured and were safest with professionals who could care for them at the park.

dolphins sea world by sisterlisa, on Pix-O-Sphere

I thought deeply about this and realized how ridiculous it would be of anyone to tell the wild dolphins that they must join the aquarium in order to be the safest. While the dolphins in captivity certainly are safe, that doesn’t mean the aquarium is the best place for a healthy, wild dolphin.

Some may think the wild dolphins are in danger since they do have some natural predators, add to that the fishing nets they get tangled in, but that doesn’t mean they should leave their natural habitat. With all this in mind I began thinking about us, as spiritual people. I was thinking about how many times people in churches are so fearful for those outside of church. Especially believers who do not belong to a specific church family. This doesn’t mean that those outside of church are at fault for not going to church. They are no more prone to dangers than those who do attend a church.

Folks who attend church have their routine set in stone, they have their activities, get together opportunities, support, and more..yet there are those who find the church system sorely lacking..for them. They desire something fresh, new, alive for their journey..and so what do they do? Where do they gather? How do they worship?

Although the book of Hebrews says not to forsake the gathering together, it does not specify how they gathered and what they did while they gathered. For anyone to dictate that we ought to gather in the hierarchy structure we see in churches today, would be quite a stretch of the imagination. There is nothing in the Bible to indicate they gather wrongly, just as there is nothing written that says gathering in another way would be wrong.

It has often been said by many theologians that we can learn about God through nature. While many clergy today might refute that in favor of their structured traditions, it is still true that we can hear teaching directly from God without a clergy telling us what God says to us.

Over the last couple of years a new movement has been growing called, the Organic Church. While at first the idea caught my attention, I’ve been keeping my eye on it and discovering that the very thing they claimed we had the freedom to depart from is forming within their own house gatherings. I’m not going to criticize them, as we all have the freedom to gather as we so desire, but for those who are interested in not getting back into such a routine, I will begin to share more about living an organic life of faith.

Perhaps the wild dolphins are their own church..the 1st Church of the Dolphins? Yes, it’s humorous, but think about it. Dolphins are in their own pods, usually the ones they are born into. They don’t all gather in the same pods, nor do they swim the same oceans. They aren’t out to try and make sharks into dolphins or put a suit and tie on the lead dolphin and worship him. They simply enjoy life together. You may also find them helping mankind or other animals from time to time. Dolphins have been known to circle swimmers to keep them safe as sharks approach. They simply respond as needed at the appointed times.

Isn’t that what living an organic life of faith all about? Responding as we can at just the right time, as the need arises?

But who teaches the dolphins how to be good dolphins?

How does a Christian learn to be a good Christian? Is there such a thing as a good Christian? What makes one a good Christian as opposed to a bad Christian?

Aren’t we all equally sinful yet equally redeemed?

In the wild, the lead dolphins are the ones who can protect the pods the best. It has nothing to do with teaching out of a book or who wears the most ‘goldy’ clothing. It also has nothing to do with who gets to tell all the other dolphins what to do. They live life as a team, a family…and in the wild. May we take a lesson or two, …or three… from the 1st Church of the Dolphins.

dolphins by sisterlisa, on Pix-O-Sphere

This article has been added to the Organic Faith Tour

Also from the Tour:
Coffee, Love, and Grace from Hillary McFarland
To Love Simply by Sisterlisa

Filed Under: Grace, Organic Church Tagged With: , , , ,

Marriage Blessings

September 14, 2011 By Leave a Comment

I had the honor of being my best friend’s Matron of Honor at her wedding this last week and was given the privledge of giving the toast..here is the toast I gave and with all my love I pray the same for all of yor marriages.

You’ve heard it said to live, laugh, and love but sometimes days seem dark and you don’t feel alive, or willing to laugh, and sometimes love is hard to find when the storms come, but there’s one thing that shines the light so we can find our way again.. it’s called grace.

Grace is that unconditional love that is passionately pursuing us to live radically above and beyond the impossible. When it seems impossible to forgive..grace is the pathway home. May your marriage be lavished in love and filled with radical grace so that together, you can achieve the impossible.

bride by sisterlisa, on Pix-O-Sphere

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The Church Denies the Power of the Cross

August 26, 2011 By Leave a Comment

You know how the media is…always a slant on something and it takes months before we get more of the picture, but I can’t help but to speak up on this story where a homosexual middle school student is killed for being (allegedly) flirtatious and I wonder if the murderer would have shot a girl for flirting with him?

Does anyone else see the hypcrosiy in this statement from the article?

“We hear a lot from teachers who feel handcuffed because they don’t know how to respect those rights and create a safe space for children who aren’t comfortable with it.”

So where is the safety for those who are comfortable with it? After all, it was the homosexual student who got killed, not the heterosexual boy.

If it was a girl flirting with him, I doubt it would have escalated to aiming a gun in the back of a middle school student’s head.

But nonetheless, both boys and girls need to know when to stop. They need to understand when no means no and how to respect each other’s boundaries. The boy who brought the gun to school should be taught how to establish his bubble space and homosexual boys ought to know to respect it. However, the continual onslaught of hate is leading the next generation into a social war.

But aside from the obvious need to learn what respect means, this homosexual conversation just isn’t going away.

So until the public schools figure out how to handle this, maybe the faith community can extend some grace and wisdom. I am sure that many Christian churches still claim to have the answers for today’s culture, but somewhere along the line treating gays like they are a disease waiting to pounce on them just isn’t healthy for our society. So much of today’s oppression comes from the Christian community and it’s time that we say enough is enough.

I fully understand the concern about sexually transmitted diseases, but heterosexuals aren’t immune to getting diseases and it isn’t the fault of the gay community that the heterosexuals are getting STDs. But are STDs the only dilemma we’re facing in America? According to AbortionNo.org

Women identifying themselves as Protestants obtain 37.4% of all abortions in the U.S.; Catholic women account for 31.3%, Jewish women account for 1.3%, and women with no religious affiliation obtain 23.7% of all abortions. 18% of all abortions are performed on women who identify themselves as “Born-again/Evangelical”.

and

1% of all abortions occur because of rape or incest; 6% of abortions occur because of potential health problems regarding either the mother or child, and 93% of all abortions occur for social reasons (i.e. the child is unwanted or inconvenient).

I just can’t help but to wonder if all these women getting abortions are heterosexual, because a lesbian can’t get pregnant from another woman and why would she get pregnant with a guy then abort? It seems to me (and I may be wrong) but there are more heterosexual women getting abortions than homosexual women.

But I don’t see middle school guys shooting girls who have gotten an abortion while they sit in front of them in class.

Whether it’s homosexuality or abortion, the church seems silent on this one thing…grace. We have seen an increasing number of homosexual suicides and as you saw from the stats above, many women who get abortions are Believers. Why do gays and pregnant women suffer so much in today’s society that has several churches in every town? It’s not about their ‘sin’, it’s about a tremendous deficiency of grace. It’s about the ‘sin’ of the church. It’s the non belief the churches have..that Jesus didn’t really pay for sin. Many Christians deny the power of the cross.

Pointing the finger with belittling and condemning messages is not going to bring healing to our country, only grace can do that. And isn’t the church supposed to be the deliverer of the message of reconciliation? Are we not to be the ones who brings grace in the name of our Lord?

You who are without sin cast the first stone.

I’m sorry, maybe I should make this more clear… you who has not committed murder in your heart by hating a brother, throw the first stone. That means if you hate gays, you can’t cast the stone! Because you have already murdered them in your own hearts.

You who has successfully forgiven everyone who has ever hurt you or other loved ones, hurl the first rock.

All those who have tamed the tongue in perfection, preach the first condemning sermon.

Those who feel as though they can accurately wield the Law as a weapon, cast aside Jesus who said he came to fulfill the Law and become your own god by sentencing others to death.

The letter of the Law kills, it brings death.

The Spirit comes and brings life through grace.

Maybe it’s the church who are the unbelievers…walking around with beams in their eyes, still veiled and lacking the clarity needed to understand that sin was defeated at the cross.

Filed Under: Grace Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

To Love Simply

August 19, 2011 By 10 Comments

cherries by sisterlisa, on Pix-O-Sphere

This blog used to be of another name, in which had a different kind of draw of a different kind of people. When our family began to live out our faith in Christ in an organic way, I got some very negative feedback. In fact, the comments I got were rather hostile. After about 3 months of not posting anything here at all…I changed the domain and name of the blog to Soul Liberty Faith. I felt this name better reflected my journey and I was inspired to use this name from the early Christians who fled the religious persecution from other Christians in England and abroad.

Christians persecuting Christians.

Has anything changed in the last several centuries?

Missionary work has taken on a whole other direction as many churches seek to indoctrinate people by manipulative measures, threatening the people to convert or be shunned, excommunicated, or not helped in their time of need. And although I’m not a Catholic, Mother Theresa is such a wonderful example of loving folks where they are and ministering to their needs. She was a ‘Jesus’ to her generation.

My husband and I have considered ourselves missionaries for over a decade now…right here in America as we have ministered to people that many churches would shudder to even think about helping. It’s ok, it’s just not their area of expertise. Drug addicts, drunks, and parolees aren’t the most glamorous people to minister to, but then again Jesus didn’t mind much about that either..he ministered to prostitutes, gluttons, and tax collectors. In fact, he still does.

When the self righteous and fearful people refuse to hold the hair of a drunk woman vomiting to the porcelain god, Jesus is there.

I know this from experience.

Jesus doesn’t care about getting dirty, he cares about loving people.

Some Christians may not like the idea of other Christians ministering to, loving, and helping folks who they deem as unworthy derelicts, filthy homeless people, or those of alternative religions. It makes them uncomfortable and if they can successfully stop the rest of us from doing so then they will feel better about themselves for not doing it. So they criticize us for not “ministering properly” yet what do they know? They won’t even think about reaching out and being gracious. They have no right to tell the rest of us how to love others.

Each denomination has a different manner in which they express their faith to the world around them. We have freedom in that area of our faith. Some knock on doors, some hand our tracts, and some serve in the food line at the soup kitchens.

Even Paul told Timothy that a woman can win her husband without her words by the way she lives out her faith in love. The unspoken love of gracious hands that serve others. This reminds me of the Good Samaritan that Jesus spoke of. This simple servant cared for a dying man without any dogma, rules, or restrictions. He loved simply.

Simple love. It’s so sensible and easy that anyone can live this way, but it comes from the abundance of the heart. It comes naturally and manifests organically as you live out your life.

Many of you know that I have friends of all kinds of diversity. I embrace diversity! This isn’t a popular thing among some Christians and after my post about attending a pagan ceremony in honor of their ancestors (which happen to be my ancestors too) I lost a lot of readers and followers on Twitter. I even got a lashing from a Christian women in Direct Message from Twitter dictating to me that I wasn’t ‘sharing the Gospel correctly’ and it lasted all.day.long. She wouldn’t stop harassing me. So I unfollowed her.

It is not my job to indoctrinate people. I will never force or coerce someone into a dogma relationship with religion.

That would be taking the name of the Lord in vain. How dare anyone use His name to get people bound up in religion.

Jesus is the One for me, he is my Savior and because of him I can love freely. It’s all by grace and my faith in the Divine has not stopped nor diminished, in fact, my faith has been strengthened and it has been my pagan friends who have shown me what it’s like to be gracious in the face of persecution. It’s rare to find Christians who know how to be as gracious.

I have no agenda in the lives of my friends. I have met with pagans, addicts, and sat in prison visiting rooms, and never had to preach dogma. I listen and I love. The Gospel is grace and that is what draws people to the message I live out. It’s love. And do you know…they ask tons of questions about my faith and I’ve never been rejected by any of them. I’ve only been rejected by other Christians.

But not all Christians…don’t misunderstand. Not all Christians are the same. Christianity is a huge melting pot of folks from all walks of life. After living in the Christian Religion for 15 years and not seeing the program actually work…I began to see that it’s not about the program or the dogma, this life is about faith and grace. It grows organically and sprouts fruit in times, seasons, and places you would least expect it to.

There is faith, hope, and love and the greatest among these is love. Do we forget what kind of fruit to look for?

Galatians 5:22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

You see, there is no law against these fruits. There is no law telling me I can’t simply love..to love simply… to be at peace, to be kind, show gentleness, be faithful, having self control..this is what happens naturally in the lives of those who understand grace. And I am full of joy!

So while some may not like that I extend grace and friendship to drunks, addicts, pagans, prostitutes, those of alternative religions and even to gays… well, you’ll just have to take that up with Jesus. He’s the one who invited me to the table with them.

In the meantime… my Twitter account is looking rather bleak..are you interested in connecting with me there? @SouLbrtyFaith

This post is participating in the Organic Faith tour. Stay tuned to find out more about it.


Filed Under: Grace Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Second Chances

August 18, 2011 By 2 Comments

It’s been almost 20 years since my husband and I got married. The first 6 or so years can be likened to a fairy tale gone wrong..very wrong. I don’t like to get into the dirty details, but we were headed to hell in a hand basket at Mach 10. When we met, we both partied..rather hard in fact. Without telling all of the sordid tales, there’s not much we haven’t done in “the world” ..with a few exceptions, because we both HATE needles.. even getting immunizations puts me in a mental freeze. The ONE tattoo I have was enough needles for me..but nonetheless..the things we DID DO almost destroyed our lives, our marriage and our entire family was suffering.

You know that verse from the bible about people who tear down their own homes with their hands? Yes, that was us.

Charity after charity had to help us and we had used up every resource in our town trying to stay afloat all while punching more holes in our ‘boat’ along the way. We were ‘drowning’.

One awful night.. I finally left and called the police. I broke. I had enough. Words cannot describe how broken I was..but apparently I wasn’t broke enough.

We were on the verge of splitting up when a man invited us to yet another church. (eye roll) Would this be the one where we could be on a road to recovery? I didn’t know if I had it in me to try again. I didn’t think my husband did either..but we thought we’d try.

After about a month there, it was obvious that he wasn’t ready, yet I couldn’t keep going down the same destructive path.

It wasn’t long before his downhill spiral was just too obvious to the church, our neighbors, and the few ‘friends’ we had. I had to get my 2 girls and myself out of there. He was barely coming home at all at that point anyway. His drug abuse and my endless ugly nagging was tearing us both apart and our girls witnessing all of the ugliness.

And I’m giving you the cleaned up version of our past filth.

Those years were an utter nightmare, but somewhere along the way my husband finally came back to town…after being off the radar for 3 months. Not knowing if he was dead or alive was something I would never want for anyone to go through. No one in town knew where he was. I called the hospital, the jails, I googled for him. He was..gone.

Those 3 months felt like a lifetime.

At bed time each night I would hear the sweet little voice of my oldest (who was 5 at the time) “Where’s daddy?”

Night after night.

Biting my tongue, trying to find my own composure, I calmly told her, “we’re going to trust God with daddy and he knows right where daddy is and I believe that God is ministering to daddy in ways we can’t.”

Kissing her forehead and tucking her in for the night…knowing she will ask the same question tomorrow… it got more difficult.

I refused to give her any doubt and had to fight my way through the dark valley myself, but I just had to figure this ‘faith thing’ out.

Without dragging you through all of my story in one blog post I will simply say that everything we went through was something I would not wish on my worst enemy. The ugliness of our past has no bling to it at all, nothing to sift through, the only gold you will find is who we are today and how we have reconciled, fought hard to save our marriage and now we’re approaching 20 years of marriage.

And yet we are still growing and making our way though life…with our blessed second chance. He should have never come back to me and I should have never taken him back…well some people believed that…but we didn’t. Most people we knew at the time wanted us to get a divorce. Our problems were too much for our friends and loved ones to handle. Our ugliness was breaking all of them too.

It got to where I hid it all. I stopped talking about our problems and for the sake of my own sanity and faith, I had to stop leaning on them for a listening ear.

We were the prodigals, my husband and I. We made our way ‘home’ in His tender embrace, he wiped away our tears and kept all of them in a bottle. Our pain and turmoil yielded many tears and those tears are sacred to Him.

Could it be that he has shelves and shelves of large bottles of all our tears and perhaps, could it be possible? That he may be using all those tears to water us now and bring forth fruit on our tree of life?

We have a ministry..it springs forth from our hearts..from the brokeness of our past.. to help others to get a second chance.

Because someone else’s ugliness is not too much for us to handle hearing about. We’ve been there.

We know how dark the valley is for them and how hard it is to find others who are willing to hold their hand and walk with them through the darkness.

Our prayer is that they will look within, as we did..and realize the light is within them and their brokenness is how the light shines through...Serena Woods says our brokenness makes us into lamps.

People don’t need to be enabled, they need to be lifted up so they can realize their potential and have confidence that they can make it through.

But it doesn’t help when they look over the horizon and see raging hostile people ready to stone them to death.

We got a second chance at life. Can you give people a second chance?

If not, can you at least remain silent so others can?

Grace, it’s so radical that some find it to be offensive while others find their way back to life through it.

There are three people on my heart today…

  • Casey Anthony
  • Kevin Schatz
  • Elizabeth Schatz

Casey pleaded not guilty and that infuriates people!

Kevin and Elizabeth pleaded guilty…and that infuriates people.

You see even a repentant heart that fully confesses doesn’t soothe the hostility and rage in the hearts of some people.

And yet Jesus said that if you hate in your heart YOU have already committed murder.

Guilty as charged…all of us.

I’m not asking anyone to allow these 3 people into their lives, to support them financially, or allow them to baby sit your children…but may I be so bold as to ask… be silent.

Hold your tongue. Bind your rage.

There are ministers of the Gospel of Grace who are reaching out to offer the same second chance we’ve been blessed to receive..because grace is what saves us.

When we forgive others, our Father forgives us.

And whoever is forgiven much, will love HIM much.

How will Casey, Kevin, and Elizabeth develop a deeper love for Father? Through grace, it’s the only way.

Jesus made the way possible..the door is wide open and we want to minister grace so they can discover this healing within.

Don’t block the way!

Where can you direct your energy..the energy that drives your anger over lives lost…? That energy can be shifted, reshaped, and formed into something positive.

If you have a heart to minister grace..the grace that gives us all a second chance, won’t you please join the many of us by raising this awareness of grace?

Joy did.

Sarah Markley did.

Can you raise awareness about books that deceive?

Elizabeth Esther did.

The community at No Longer Quivering does this on a regular basis.

Because while we can minister grace to bring healing to the lives that have been broken, we also need to put our feet down as a community..to educate people of the dangers of some forms of child ‘discipline’. It’s a preventative measure.

And don’t forget to pray…for the victims. They need healing.

The Schatz children will have a life long journey to find full healing..but it doesn’t help them to grow up to see the constant rage the community has over their sister’s death. No one hurts more than they do. And a couple of those children are old enough to read what you’re all saying about their parents. So please use your words wisely… use grace. Otherwise your hostile words heap more coals on their innocent, precious heads.

face boy child by sisterlisa, on Pix-O-Sphere

My precious son, Timmy. Who never had to see his mommy and daddy’s past.

Filed Under: Grace Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Seventh Century Faith

August 11, 2011 By Leave a Comment

I am an American who follows Christ organically by faith. Some call me a Christian, some call me a heretic. Some denominations just can’t seem to believe that a Christian might possibly get a different interpretation out of parables and thus they must ‘not really be saved’. I write this article as a Christ follower who has studied the ancient history of my lineage that goes back to the ancient days of Germany, called Germania. This is a fictional ‘what if’ story to prayerfully bring light to the false ‘missionary’ work that was forced upon my ancestors and hopefully help educate us as to the mysterious global work of our Creator.

***

What if I were born in the 7th century? The ancient lineage of my family comes from the Germanic tribes, of which were pagan. Country dwellers that lived off the land.  I imagine waking up to prepare for the upcoming solstice with my family. It’s been a yearly tradition for my ancestors for as long as I can remember…8 high days (sabbats) a year..we honor our ancestors and celebrate the changing of seasons, to give thanks for the blessings we have been given by the Divine. Our family had learned about the rituals that brought our minds into rest with these celebrations, the reflection of giving remembrance for those things we express gratitude for. We have our choice of who to give honor to, the nature spirits for keeping us shaded in the hot summer, the shining ones who look upon us and shine light as we need them to guide us, and we keep the memories of our ancestors alive in our minds and hearts as we pass on this beautiful culture to the next generation. Don’t forget gratitude. Don’t forget your family. Keep them written on the pages of your heart. Surely our ancestors live on forever, we have always been taught that they do. Eternal life is an age old belief.

These beautiful traditions were all we knew of, the only way we understood how to relate to the Divine within us. We knew there was something, some energy, a force of some kind, that kept us desiring to wake up each day. That stirring within our bosoms that kept us thirsting for more, that awakening that reverberated within our hearts. We couldn’t deny this inner voice that guided us along the paths of life, that led us to wellsprings of water for our weary souls. We were raised to make ready for more difficult days. We knew a time would come when our harmony would be disrupted, our traditions would be forbidden, and our land raped for it’s natural resources. We respected the land and only took what was necessary. We took in reverence, making each withdrawal from the land as a sacred moment, and giving back with new seeds planted. But we knew the land would be forsaken some day.

We embraced the land as the beauty that she was, feeling the connection we had with her as we felt the breeze through our hair and while she carried the fragrance of the incense into the heavens. We knew that life was a gift and to be embraced and lived abundantly. But we felt her groaning more each day. Something was coming. We knew it deep down and we prayed for the shining ones to guide us as those days grew darker.

The day came as we felt the earth rumbling beneath our bare feet. We were troubled within. I didn’t have the desire to make flower wreaths for the upcoming celebration, something wasn’t right. The rumbling grew louder and the small movements of the earth jolted harder and then we knew a herd of animals was on it’s way, but it wasn’t the sound of joyful prancing, it was the noise of war with death coming on the wind.

Large men on rugged beasts shrouded in silver armor came into our village with shouting and swords. I heard screams and crackling fire. The smell of death was thick and I didn’t understand this war that raged.

We didn’t understand their tongue and they didn’t understand ours.

Tears streaming.

Barely breathing.

Gulping for breath.

Knots in our throats.

What had we done wrong?

They held their symbol as high as they could and pointed in anger.

My mother, the medicine woman, who provided herbal remedies for the village, was forced to her knees.

She was made to be the example, I think. It was difficult to understand.

Why were they making her bow so low before this large red cross?

She shook her head in defiance, my sweet mother dear. She stood to her feet, against their command, and pointed to our altar. The altar in which we had paid homage to since the ancient of days. The place in which we gathered in remembrance of the Divine who looked after us for so many years. It was our family heritage. A heritage of gratitude, of love, in which we learned to be forgiving and to forgive. It was a ritual of remembrance and honor of what we had been awakened to within. Our spiritual practice that bound our community together in love.

The forest blazed red with flames, though not of the flames of our fire sacrifices of lavender and oil. This was the flames of death that seemed to rage from their nostrils.

My mother tried to run toward my sister to aid her with her bleeding wounds, but she was stopped by a burly man with the iron mask. His arms were wrapped in steel vines, tightly woven together as clothing. I had never seen anything like this before.

He pulled my mother by her hands and bound her wrists together, tightly he wound that cord around her. Then her feet.

His army lifted my mother to an altar.

And there they lit the altar on fire with their torches.

My mother screams in pain.

She looks me in the eye and says “Don’t forget gratitude. Don’t forget your spiritual journey. These dark days will end, but do not forget the ancestors and all they did for us.”

Her last breath was a deep silent sigh and then she left us that day.

I was next.

They forced me to my knees and pointed again to the red cross on their flag.

Deep breath.

Eyes wide open, trying to stay fully awake. Trying to understand their gestures as I look into their angry eyes.

They wanted us to pay homage to their altar, to their deity.

My head was forced to the ground.

In the fear of the moment, my father stepped forward and bowed his knee reverently. Calmly.

He motioned to our tribe to do the same.

They all bowed and we were spared… but over 4,000 had not been spared throughout our land.

I felt betrayal on my heart. We had forsaken the shining ones, the nature spirits, and the traditions of our ancestors…to save our lives.

We were made to cut down the trees and with each tree that fell, I pleaded for forgiveness. I am forced to take more than what was needed. In my heart, I gave thanks, I held each tree as sacred. I asked forgiveness.

Each pine and cypress that came down was a sacrifice for our lives.

My mother was sacrificed to this red cross god to make us join their customs.

We were forced into slavery and made to build their temples.

Where we once worshiped in nature, we were made to be encompassed by man made rocks built high above our heads.

Each seven days we were awakened at dawn to walk into the man made temple.

We listened to the words, but did not understand.

We then were made to kneel and bow our heads…. or suffer as mother did.

They called us witches and forbade us from collecting  leaves for ailments.

I wasn’t sure who this god was, the one in which they slaughtered innocent people..does such a god exist? Could they have been wrong? Perhaps they misunderstood the Divine.

For hundreds of years our people were made to pay homage to this other god. We had to learn their language so we could communicate. Those years were so dark. Each passing generation, the ancestors were becoming a distant memory. Our ancient writings were taken from us and any kind of writing we made was done in secret.

I could not deny this inner voice that spoke sweet grace to me. It was them who condemned my mother to death, not the Divine. It was burdensome to hear them shout that we were rejected by their god. We were hated and in turn they hated us too. But the tender grace that soothed my soul like honey kept me hoping for better days.

Was my mother’s life not enough for them? For their god?

They said their god gave his sacrifice too and that his blood appeased the anger, but the anger boiled hotter as each day passed.

I began to wonder who their god really was. Was his sacrifice enough or not? Their religion confused me, but their religious practices seemed all too familiar.

Their rituals seemed to mimic that of our own.

The circles, the chants, the burning incense.

They spoke words known as Latin, those words were spoken over flat bread and wine then shared among the people.

Could it be that they followed a different spirit, a chaotic being that didn’t value life?

In the ancient days we gave the outer regions to the chaos beings. I began to pray that chaos would be bound.

The ages passed on.

In my old age, shoulders hunched, my great granddaughter comes to me in a vision and proclaims good news.

The chaotic ones were misguiding the armies of the red cross.

The shining ones had given insight to the people… a tool of lights that sat upon their tables. The words of the ancestors were studied for many years and she called them translations. The translating words were seen through the lights upon their tables. Word after word. Ancient documents passed down, somehow..through the ages. The words had been preserved.

She learned that the words of the red cross army were misunderstood..by those steel men on beasts.

They had war and power on their minds and their fists raged for control.

But those days were coming to a close and the ancestors were being remembered again.

My mother was remembered. The sacrifice in fire to their red cross god had not gone unnoticed by the Divine.

My dear girl told me that the Divine indeed had a son..and this Divine being loved us so much that the son was placed on the final altar, the sacrifice was made to bring those angry people to peace. Some listened, some did not. But their land established laws to protect our offspring and their faith would be held as sacred by their new law. Even if the leaders did not agree on our faith, they had to protect us so we could worship in peace.

I may not agree with how those angry men stole our ancestry, our heritage, and raped the land, but good came of it. After all the horrific years, our stories had not been forgotten after all.

The deaths of over 4,000 of our people’s was not forgotten, not forsaken, but added into their books of memory..she called it history.

And now here I sit, in my present day, with the lights upon my table. It’s called a computer.

Perhaps many centuries of religion has had people confused about the grace of God…maybe our ancestors, both Christian and Pagan, may have had some things wrong, some things right. But here we are today, seeking the Divine in the only language and vocabulary we know. May our actions not resemble the misguided chaotic ones who killed innocent people on behalf of ‘God’.

Surely that’s not the way Christ intended for his Gospel to be proclaimed.

Just as Americans have had to come to grips with the fact that our American ancestors killed Natives to take their land, may Christians come to grips with the fact that past misguided armies killed our ancestors unnecessarily.

Maybe we all have come to understand the Divine Creator in the only way we know how. Only He knows our hearts…and we get the easy part..love one another.

Filed Under: Grace, Persecution Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Pagan Kinfolk

August 2, 2011 By 77 Comments

About a month ago, I was inspired to volunteer for a work day with some local Pagans. The thing that inspired me? Seeing Christian mom bloggers bashing Pagan mom bloggers and watching the Pagans have more grace than many Christians did. The kindness they expressed while suffering from the cyber ‘witch hunt’ stopped me dead in my tracks. I had the most wonderful opportunity to get to know these bloggers better and they have been quite gracious to me and all my questions about their faith. The more I read their blogs the more I realized we had something really incredible in common. So I spread my wings and ventured out to the local park work day with the local group of Pagans in my town. After spending a few hours having a fantastic discussion with my new friend, Stella, I became more intrigued with their spirituality. I decided to go to their Lughnasadh High Day Ritual.

altar by sisterlisa, on Pix-O-Sphere

I knew that much of the traditions of Christianity are pagan as it is, but discovering what I witnessed this last Sunday was more than I could have imagined. It was just a few years ago that I began discovering the paganism that was weaved into the fabric of Christianity and my horror (at the time) of such discoveries. It was part of the reason we left the church we were at. Many pastors have accused Frank Viola of breaking up congregations over his book Pagan Christianity and yet his book only touched the hem of the garment on just how much Christianity really is like Paganism.

Some may be in fear for me and my family as we have taken this incredible journey, but I can assure you that my friendship with Pagans has solidified my faith in Christ more than I could have imagined. Yes, their own spiritual journey has deepened my own. But not because they are ‘opposite of Christ’ or ‘of the devil’ like many Christians claim. In fact, I have seen more Christ (Anointing) in their spirituality than I see in many churches today.

We arrived at the Council Ring in our local park on Sunday, not really sure what to expect. Stella had shared with me a little bit about what the rituals are like and what etiquette to follow. I said hello and they welcomed me warmly. Stella introduced me to everyone as a “Liberal Christian” and while that term might sound accusatory coming from a Conservative Fundamentalist, coming from Stella it was a compliment I gladly accepted.

Within my heart and mind I wondered if the Pharisees thought Jesus was a Liberal Jew and if so then I must be following a good path.

They were kind in allowing me to take a few photos before they got started and their altar reminded me of other native tribes in American history. When our family visited Knott’s Berry Farm last summer, we got to watch a Native ritual in full costume that was gorgeous and truly inspiring. I was so excited to be able to witness this pagan spiritual ceremony.

I was fascinated with the metaphors being used in the Lughnasadh ritual such as the tree of life, the fire within, and the water to give us life. These are terms I am very well acquainted with in Christianity so my heart swelled large as I heard the Spirit of God speaking to my soul as these Pagans recited their words of worship. The service was very similar to a traditional Christian church in that they had opening prayers, songs, and traditions to express their faith. One surprising aspect was how they had a special prayer outside the circle to inform the adversary that it’s place was outside the circle and not to intrude. I have heard many Christian congregations include prayers that God will put angels of protection around the building so that enemies of the soul do not interfere with the worship.

As the ceremony continued, each individual had opportunity to give their offering to their deities. This is where I saw some differences that had me awe struck. Each person had the freedom to give whatever offering they felt inclined to give. There was no judging, no nudging and eyeing for their friend’s wallets, and all offerings were honored as sacred. Oats and corn meal was offered to the Nature Spirits and sprinkled upon the earth around the circle. I’m not offended or fearful of this, as I know many Christians believe that they too entertain angels unaware. In fact, in Christianity we are taught that when we serve the homeless we are serving the Lord Jesus. We are taught that when we are good to the earth we are honoring the gift that God has given us. Every act of kindness we extend to others is an act of worship of the Divine.

offering for the nature spirits by sisterlisa, on Pix-O-Sphere

As the fire smoldered, a gentleman came and gave an offering of oil and poured the offering over the fire. This reminded me of the Holy Spirit being the oil of gladness and how many Christians anoint their homes and the sick with oil when they pray for blessings, protection, and healing. A woman came forward and gave an offering of incense and another placed lavender in the fire for her offering. The aroma was sweet and it reminded me of the days when the people of the Old Testament would offer incense to the Creator as a sweet smelling savor.

sacred oil by sisterlisa, on Pix-O-Sphere

Then came the prayer requests..and my heart swooned as they shared their deepest longings and requests for guidance for big decisions in their lives. But hearing their prayer requests was so different than what I was used to. Their requests came with such a sacredness and trust for whatever would come their way. Tears flowed from my eyes and my heart enlarged. Within my heart I embraced these prayer requests as if they were my own and my inner being felt so full with community. They ended each prayer with “So be it” and I stood in agreement for their petitions.

praise flowers by sisterlisa, on Pix-O-Sphere

Then came the time for praise and each lovely soul gave praise in their own unique ways. The praise of song came in an Irish song in honor of Lughnasadh Day, sang a capella by one of the men.

And at last they had their final ritual of drinking apple juice, although I don’t know if they always use apple juice, but it reminded me of the Lord’s Supper…and I partook. I drank in honor of the Divine and gave thanks in my spirit for these lovely folks who allowed me to witness their worship ceremony.

When I left organized religion, I fasted from all rituals so I could figure out why I followed those church rituals and see if rituals were even needed in my spiritual journey. Although I did not practice all their rituals, taking of the juice was my own reminder that all of life is sacred and to give thanks for that which we have been given. I gave thanks for my new found friends. I felt at home.

We then had a few hours of fabulous fellowship and enjoyed all the goodies everyone brought to snack on. They are a teaching group and are very open to the questions I had and were incredibly patient with me as I tried to make sense of some things and sought to reconcile their traditions with that which I was taught for so many years in Christianity. All of a sudden the Pagan and Christian rituals made perfect sense to me. I’m not sure I will participate in rituals of any kind very often, because of all the years of coerced rituals, but I do have better clarity on them now. I can see the beauty in them.

Who would have thought that my own faith in Christ would be deepened by the beauty of the spiritual ceremony of Pagans? Perhaps it’s because Pagans and Christians have so much more in common than we realize.

Am I converting to Paganism? I don’t think the word pagan or paganism is accurately described by many Christians today, because so much of what is woven into the traditions of the churches really is pagan in origin anyway. In addition to that, according to the Bible, anyone who is not a Jew is considered a pagan (gentile) and I am not of Jewish lineage. If I lived in the days of the book of Acts, my family would be known as Pagan (Gentile) Believers (Acts 15:23, Acts 21:25).

During my fellowship with this spiritual community I stated that I don’t know what I am anymore. I believe in Jesus with all my heart and yet my faith in him is quite organic. I’m not a traditional Jesus Follower. I yield to him in the Spirit and follow as he guides me in loving the Divine and my neighbors as myself. I can see him and hear him in all sorts of ways including nature, the Bible, pagan rituals, and even in many movies that come out of Hollywood. I don’t align myself with organized Christianity, because I want my faith to grow organically, but I do gather with other people who have faith in Christ….and I gather and fellowship with folks who believe in other deities. The thing that I hold as sacred is life and the life that is within us all. The true life of love, that inward spark that is fanned by those we are in community with, that love that is a flame within us that keeps the light on when life seems to get dark.

Home is where the heart is and I found a lot of heart with my Pagan neighbors that day. I don’t profess to understand everything they believe nor am I any kind of authority on paganism, but I know that these new friends are dear people with hearts and lives that are touched by their faith and I am glad to call them neighbors. I embrace them as spiritual kin in my own journey to understanding the Divine. For those who thrive on the witch hunt, use caution in condemning them, you may be washing their feet in the afterlife some day.

1 Corinthians 13:13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Galatians 5:14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

**Edited to add..I received an honor from the Green Witch for this post. Of which I am thankful and honored. You have all lifted my soul and I thank you for all your kindnesses.

(photos taken with my Samsung Android’s Lightbox Camera App)

Filed Under: Grace Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

How the Gospel Divides

July 3, 2011 By 5 Comments

There are some perspectives in the teachings of Jesus and Paul about division that seems to pull a popular audience of those who think they need to be offensive with the Gospel in order to be like Jesus. They are under the impression that they are justified in being offensive and that their manner of presenting the Gospel is meant to divide.  But lets take a deeper look at just what is divisive about the Gospel. Some believe that this division is how God divides between who enters the Kingdom and who doesn’t. Of course, people from over 30,000 denominations have their prescription for how one enters the Kingdom, but we won’t get into that this time. In this article my reference to the Kingdom is about the here and now, not the after life.

In the book of Hebrews we see the unknown author explaining his/her perspective on entering the Kingdom. I like to look at passages like this in the ESV since it clarifies which statement is of the author and which is a quote from a previous book of the bible. In Hebrews chapter 4 the main point of entering the Kingdom is to enter into his rest. It was being explained that there are some who did not enter his rest (the Kingdom) and some who did. The author goes on to explain why some didn’t enter the Kingdom. It was through their disobedience to rest.

Hebrews 4: 6 “Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience,”

The author clearly says that it was those who DID receive the Gospel, but they didn’t enter into the rest of the Kingdom. It’s important to understand that this Kingdom is here and now. Jesus said in “The Kingdom is within you”. {Luke 17:21}

The Old Covenant gave a clear instruction that the 7th day was a day of rest. It was the foreshadow of the “rest” to come, which is in Christ. The 7th day was God’s day of resting from His works and thus he wanted the people of the old covenant to also rest and it was to reveal to them that the day would come when they could spiritually be at rest in the Kingdom. This Kingdom rest is while we are here on earth. Just as the 7th day was on this earth also.

Hebrews 4: 10 “for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.”

The Kingdom is not a place where we have to work, it’s a place of rest. We are not bound to perform religious rituals (works), we are free to rest. When we cease from rest and attempt to perform religious rituals thinking that those works make us something special or better people, then we have disobeyed what God has said, rest. Any time we begin to partake in religious rituals in our attempts to be ‘something’ in the Kingdom, it is then that we have shut ourselves out. In the Kingdom, it is all about resting from our religious works.

This is an offending Gospel to those who want to work towards their own righteousness.

In verse 12 it says, “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” It’s important to see that it’s the LIVING Word that is active and causing a division and the purpose is for God to discern the ‘thoughts and intentions of the heart”.

God is discerning the hearts and thoughts of the people. His LIVING Word is searching us and by His Spirit, we will hear him tell us to rest. He knows if our charitable works are done with a deceptive heart or not.

The entire chapter is devoted to pointing out that we have that rest today in Christ and that God wants us to rest from our works based religion so we can be at rest as He is. No where in this chapter is the author indicating that we need to divide people by condemning them with sin. The only ‘disobedience’ mentioned in this chapter was that of ‘not resting’.

In verses 14 and 15 the author says, “Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” I find great comfort in knowing that Jesus understands our weaknesses! No matter how weak we are in our faith, he understands. The author goes on to explain in verse 16, “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

The Gospel is an open door to come with confidence to the throne of grace to receive mercy in our time of need. This is a divisive teaching to the works based religious crowd, because it points out their error of not halting their works. It reveals that those who stop their religious works can not only be at rest, but they can still come to the throne of grace, without works, and still receive mercy. The religious crowds who do not halt their works and enter the rest, will not be pleased with this grace. This grace is what divides.

Now we also need to take into consideration that there certainly are times when the Spirit says to reach out to those in need. In the book of James we see him correcting the churches in the matter of their works. This book has been the center of much controversy over the years as people think they still need to “work”. But as we saw above in the book of Hebrews, that we are indeed at rest and to do ritual religious works towards our own righteousness is an act of disobedience.

In James chapter 1, he rebukes the people and tells them,  21“Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.”

When you read the entire letter of James, it is evident that he is speaking of how we live our lives in the Kingdom now. So put aside the thoughts you have of the after-life. No where in the book of James will you find him speaking of what happens after we die. In verse 21 he says that we need to have meekness. To receive the implanted word requires meekness. Then the question of what does it mean “to save your souls”?

A quick reminder to help with this study is that God already reconciled us to himself through His Son. {2 Corinthians 5:18} So I do not believe that James is speaking about us needing to “do” anything to “get saved”. There is another context in which we need to understand this word, “saved”. For surely we know that it’s “not by works lest any man should boast”. So just what is James talking about? I believe he is referencing the saving of our souls from religious works.

I believe that James’ letter was a letter of correction to the early churches. James rebukes them first of being angry people. James 1:20 “for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.” When I look in the Greek literal translation, this is what is revealed.. ‘the anger of man does not accomplish the justice of God’. This is a very important concept to understand as it seems that James is rebuking the people of attempting to use anger to bring people into Kingdom living. He says it does not work! He calls it filthiness and rampant wickedness.

He then goes into telling them about being doers of the word. Keeping in mind that we are at rest and need no more religious ritual work to enter the Kingdom, what is James talking about? In verse 25 he speaks of looking into the perfect law of liberty. Liberty is the freedom we have in Christ because of God’s grace. We are free from religious rituals for our righteousness, because we have the righteousness of Christ. Then James hits the nail on the head when we mentions the widows and the fatherless.

26If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. 27Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

Remember that the Gospel can discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart and God knows if our works are genuine or if they are empty religious rituals. Jesus saved us from religion, but James seems to be putting a stark truth and rebuke in the faces of the people. He mentions the widows and orphans. Such a serious rebuke and so applicable to the churches of today. Most widows are on SSI and orphans provided for by the state while the churches pour their finances into fancy buildings and $500 suits for their pastors.

What did James mean about remaining unstained by the world?

In James 2 he addresses the problem at hand, wealth. There’s nothing wrong with being wealthy, again the Gospel  discerns the intents of the heart. Is the wealth being shared? It was shared in the book of Acts, so equally that no one had lack. But now James reveals a different progression of the lives of the people.  Lets stay on topic though, the topic of the Gospel being divisive and living in the Kingdom.

James’ words in chapter 2 has been a hot topic for centuries. What is it about our faith and works, when we know our works has ended and we are at rest in the Kingdom? It takes faith to enter the Kingdom we have on this earth and we can only enter in as we rest. So what is James speaking of?

Those who live in the Kingdom can rest all they want, but where is the love for the widows and the orphans? Does the fact that we rest mean that we neglect the widows and orphans? God forbid! Our faith in God organically manifests from the outpouring of love and compassion we have for those in need. James’ letter was rebuking the wealthy for their ambitions to be rich while neglecting those in need. When we walk in the Kingdom we become people who make a difference in this world. He gives us the illustration of Abraham, whose faith manifested in his willingness to sacrifice his own son.

In James 2:22 we see in the ESV “You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works;” and a closer look at the Greek gives us a clearer picture of what was meant. The words in ESV ‘active along with’ is sunergeó, which means ‘to cooperate with’. The words ‘completed by’ is teleioó, can be said ‘accomplished’. So the popular AKJV says “See you how faith worked with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?” has been misunderstood by many as saying ‘your faith doesn’t save you unless you also perform works’. He goes on to explain in verses 18- 26 that our faith will manifest in our lives by works. But remember that the works he used as an example was caring for the needy. When we care for the needy out of a compassionate heart, an outpouring of God’s love, that is a manifestation of our faith. Do not perform religious ritual works in an attempt to ‘prove’ your faith. To do so would be arrogance and a lack of faith that God already performed the final work through His Son on the cross.

It’s important to understand the context in which James was writing about and take into consideration all of the letters from the apostles and the very words of Jesus as well. Remember that in James 1 he rebukes them of anger? Then in chapter 3 he brings it up again in how they used their tongues to cause chaos in their churches.

James 3:6 and the tongue is a fire, the world of the unrighteousness, so the tongue is set in our members, which is spotting our whole body, and is setting on fire the course of nature, and is set on fire by the Gehenna.

Ouch! James uses the scariest place in their earth at the time to describe their angry tongues, Gehenna. The garbage dump where the Sanhedrin would burn the bodies of those they judged as ‘sinners’.

He brings up the context of the letter again in 13Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. 14But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth.

Here it is again, the consequences of their actions 15 “This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. 16For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.”

We live in the Kingdom, at rest. Yet we have an outpouring of organic love and compassion when we reach out to help the needy. When we make our lives into selfish ambitions to become wealthy, and deny the outpouring of love to those in need, we forget the Kingdom in which we have been given entrance to. When we rest in the Kingdom and do not follow the outpouring of love, we remain idle in our faith. We become lazy and forgetful of what we have been forgiven of and we neglect others who need so desperately to enter the Kingdom and also be at rest.

Yes, we are at rest, and we also have a work to do. But our works do not gain us entrance to the Kingdom, our entrance is by grace. However, being a citizen of the Kingdom will have it’s organic manifestation of compassion that pours out to help those in need. We see the encouragement in verses

17“But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. 18And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.”

Our manifestation of faith is pure in heart (no secret agendas to become wealthy or gain popularity for our works), to be gentle (not aggressive with angry tongues), open to reason (understanding), full of mercy and good fruits (loving compassion that pours out), impartial (not showing preference to the wealthy or popular over the poor), and sincere. Then we will have a harvest of righteousness (justice) and it is sown in peace (not anger) by those who make peace.

The Gospel is good news to everyone, but is divisive to those who puff up their own self righteous works, that are motivated by selfish ambition, and tainted by the world of wealth and popularity. The Gospel brings peace and division. But the division is not done in haste, anger, unruly tongues, or condemnation. The Gospel simply divides the oppressors from the oppressed. The Gospel gives entrance to living in the Kingdom to the weak and weary. Our genuine faith will have an outpouring of love and compassion to others as we reach out by that faith and bring them into the fellowship of rest. They are included and as we welcome them into the Kingdom that is theirs, it divides the hearts of the self righteous, revealing to them that their ambitions are deceitful. It is then that they realize that they have left living in the Kingdom and have been put out into the darkness again, making them blind due to the beams in their own eyes. They will gnash their teeth as the weak and oppressed enter into this fellowship of Kingdom living.

So in my conclusion, I present my view that James is cautioning the people not to be idle in their faith, but to respond to the compassion of the Lord by caring for the weak and abused, the widows and the orphans. In our world today, that includes anyone that the self righteous have pushed away from this fellowship of the Royal Priesthood. You can read more about James’ rebuke to the churches in the final 2 chapters (4 and 5) of the book of James.

We are at rest and this Gospel of inclusion is surely offensive to the self righteous and divides them from living the Kingdom life and from partaking in the fellowship of the Royal Priesthood.

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