DISMANTLING THE BARRIERS

Dismantling the Barriers

about the language we use,  especially in praying. The barriers of speaking in 3rd person or the hypothetical or . . . Give examples
"Let us pray"
"We pray, Dear Lord, that"
"Bless the Lord"
"God is good"

Those are all good things to say, but they can and do put a distance between us and our dear Creator.

Jesus brought us closer to our Creator with "Our Father (Who is in heaven), Your name is holy. (We are agreeing with You in this prayer for) Your (beautiful, perfect) will (plan) to come (to be) on this Earth as it is (already) in (Your) heaven."

I'm going to put here the above portion of the "Lord's prayer" without the parentheses words added, and WITH the "traditional" words so those who don't already know the "Lord's prayer" can read what it is that us Christian are always saying:

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven. . .

Jesus spoke directly and intimately to God as His Father. AND, He was instructing His disciples on the scene and all those who will follow Him -instructing us to pray to God in the same way.

When you are praying, if you feel your words ARE creating a distance between you and God -keeping God at a distance- then keep changing the words to bring you closer to the One who made you and loves you ever so much as His precious child and creation made like Him in so many ways ("in His image").

Jesus even said that a good prayer can be "Abba!" Abba is the Hebrew word for "Daddy" or "Dada", the first name that babies say for their fathers.

Blessings to you in this 2019.
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I PROTEST!

I listened to Phillip deCourse recently. In his sermon he became emotional and quickly listed at least five beliefs that are at the core of the Catholic Church that are not Biblical. Perhaps: praying to Mary, celibate priesthood, purgitory were three. deCourse quickly and clearly explained what was unbiblical about each of these things and how they might keep people from drawing close to God, our Creator God.
I was heart hurt and guilty because I had let myself forget these wrong things in the Catholic theology. I was letting myself believe that "it's ok. They're Christians. They believe right." That is much easier than trying to talk to someone about a difficult thing, criticizing their fervent beliefs.
(. . . I have more to write on this, but I have several unfinished blog posts on various topics and have decided I want to just post some in their unfinished state to "get them out there". This post is one of them. Unfinished. But read anyway.)
So, as Martin Luther said,
I PROTEST!

WHAT JOB MIGHT MEAN

What JOB might mean
JOB is a book in the Bible about a man named Job. (the name is pronounced in English with a long "o", and means "tears" or "crying")

Job's story does not refer to any other Bible people (other that God and satan) so we don't know when his story was; but I believe that whatever else Job's story is, it also is God telling us about our story of mankind, answering our questions.

Job's job was to be God's loyal creation, to prove to satan and all  that Job would stay true to God, loving and honoring God even when horrible things "happened" to Job.
Satan had gone to God, in the story, to say that Job's loyalty was untested because his life had no troubles. God allowed satan to cause Job  some horrible troubles so that God and satan and Job and all would all know that Job could and would continue to always love and honor his Creator in spite of all.
I believe that that is God telling us why we have troubles in this world. (Or why the world is the way is it is. In Christianity, we use the phrase "free will" to think about why God made us humans such that we can choose His good or choose our own way, which can be selfish, or even viciously evil. Job's story is about this "free will" test.)

That's the first part of the meaning of JOB.
The second part of the meaning of JOB is that in the story, Job at the beginning is bemoaning and grieving his losses of his children. and health (and property?) Then his three friends come and wordlessly grieve with him. Then the three friends take turns trying to explain to Job and themselves why Job is having all of this horrible stuff happen to him.
At the end of the story, our Creator comes and talks to Job directly. God mends Job's life; AND, God tells Job to pray (with a sacrifice for their sins?) for Job's three friends.
This means to me that God considered that the the friends were NOT a help to Job, but rather a hindrance to Job, or became a hindrance to him.
To me , that could symbolize God's desires for us, that we have a personal relationship with Him, and that "religion" as symbolized by the the friends can come between us and our Creator , not helping us to be with our God.

I will finish here with a quote from the Bible:
MICAH 6:8
What does the Lord require of you? To act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with your God.

NEVER YET UPON A TIME

Listening to preacher on the radio, Phillip DeCourse, ktt.org (know the truth) teaching about
that we must evangelize, give out the good news! That's what we're supposed to do. He noted that Jesus specifically "sent them out two by two". Reasons for two by two were 1)give courage to each other, 2)stoke the fire of their faith and 3)to be TWO witnesses of the TRUTH, because our faith IS truth- based, not just a fairy tale.

So why am I writing this post called " never yet upon a time "?
Because it has been 2000 +or - years since our Lord Jesus, whom we believe to be "God with us" (Emanuel means "God with us") and Our Creator God coming down to this Earth acting to save us (Yeshua means Yahweh, the God of the Jews, saves), the one prophesied by many Jewish prophets for hundreds of years before being born to Mary in Bethlehem . . . 2000 +or- years since Jesus walked the Earth and showed love to all and gave evidence of His specialness by miracles and who chose to die for the all who sinned but asked Jesus to be their way back to our Creator God.

I write because 2000 years is a long time to maintain that Jesus will return to Earth and that God's kingdom, as prophesied, will finally come on this Earth. Christians must acknowledge to non Christians that 2000 years IS a long time to be waiting. AND much bad has been done in the name of Christ.

RAVI ZACHARIAS , the Christian apologist, writer, evangelist wants Christians to know well and be able to answer seekers about that question and others. Recently, Brother Zach. Spoke on the question: WHY SHOULD WE BELIEVE THE BIBLE?
I recommend that you read or listen to him at least enough to give him a chance to convince you.

INTRODUCTION TO YESHUA

Introduction to Yeshua
I grew up and learned about our Creator God and our Lord, the Son on our Creator in the mainstream Christian Church in US, by the name of JESUS. I am very comfortable calling our Savior Jesus.
However, "Jesus" is the English way of saying His name. In Hebrew His name is Yeshua and is much more recognizable as meaning "Yahweh saves".
Calling Jesus Yeshua is still awkward and uncomfortable to me; but I AM comforted by the knowledge that YE SHUA means YAH (short for Yahweh) saves.
This thought goes with my happy envisioning of that happy day that Jesus (Yeshua) entered Jerusalem; a  glorious crowd of joyful people cheered Jesus and praised Him by waving palm branches and saying "Hosanna" and "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord."
Hosanna means "save" or "save us". I can imagine the people also cheering, saying
YE SHUA, YE SHUA,
YE SHUA, YE SHUA.
And I join them saying
YE SHUA, YE SHUA
Our Creator God came down to us as Jesus to save us!
Hallelujah!
And, if you don't already know that that day when they had that beautiful parade for Jesus was just days before He was arrested and beaten and tried and killed on the orders of (corrupt) religious leaders, I'm telling you now.
So Palm Sunday is a bittersweet day of remembrance.
However, I have always loved Palm Sunday because it IS the time of joyful praising the Lord; AND Jesus our Lord accepted that show of love from "us" (I imagine myself in fellowship with those people then praising our Jesus) even though He knew that the people would not be able to be constant and solid in their (and my, and our) loyalty and honoring of Him.
Jesus knew what was coming later. But He loved them and me and us anyway; and He accepts us and the praise we can give.
AND there WILL BE A DAY WHEN EVERY KNEE WILL BOW AND EVERY TONGUE WILL CONFESS THAT JESUS CHRIST IS LORD.
So I think of Palm Sunday as a foreshadowing of that glorious day to come.
Now let me speak once more about YESHUA (and what that Hebrew name means to me): Our Creator (Yahweh) made a way to save (shua) us. Jesus paid the price for our sins- He was punished by that horrible torture death that He did not at all deserve, so that that could count for just punishment for our sins and wrongs- so that our Creator can receive us with joyful love and open arms and also with all righteousness.

INTRODUCTION TO YESHUA

Introduction to Yeshua
I grew up and learned about our Creator God and our Lord, the Son on our Creator in the mainstream Christian Church in US, by the name of JESUS. I am very comfortable calling our Savior Jesus.
However, "Jesus" is the English way of saying His name. In Hebrew His name is Yeshua and is much more recognizable as meaning "Yahweh saves".
Calling Jesus Yeshua is still awkward and uncomfortable to me; but I AM comforted by the knowledge that YE SHUA means YAH (short for Yahweh) saves.
This thought goes with my happy envisioning of that happy day that Jesus (Yeshua) entered Jerusalem; a  glorious crowd of joyful people cheered Jesus and praised Him by waving palm branches and saying "Hosanna" and "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord."
Hosanna means "save" or "save us". I can imagine the people also cheering, saying
YE SHUA, YE SHUA,
YE SHUA, YE SHUA.
And I join them saying
YE SHUA, YE SHUA
Our Creator God came down to us as Jesus to save us!
Hallelujah!
And, if you don't already know that that day when they had that beautiful parade for Jesus was just days before He was arrested and beaten and tried and killed on the orders of (corrupt) religious leaders, I'm telling you now.
So Palm Sunday is a bittersweet day of remembrance.
However, I have always loved Palm Sunday because it IS the time of joyful praising the Lord; AND Jesus our Lord accepted that show of love from "us" (I imagine myself in fellowship with those people then praising our Jesus) even though He knew that the people would not be able to be constant and solid in their (and my, and our) loyalty and honoring of Him.
Jesus knew what was coming later. But He loved them and me and us anyway; and He accepts us and the praise we can give.
AND there WILL BE A DAY WHEN EVERY KNEE WILL BOW AND EVERY TONGUE WILL CONFESS THAT JESUS CHRIST IS LORD.
So I think of Palm Sunday as a foreshadowing of that glorious day to come.
Now let me speak once more about YESHUA (and what that Hebrew name means to me): Our Creator (Yahweh) made a way to save (shua) us. Jesus paid the price for our sins- He was punished by that horrible torture death that He did not at all deserve, so that that could count for just punishment for our sins and wrongs- so that our Creator can receive us with joyful love and open arms and also with all righteousness.

HE CALLS YOU BY YOUR NAME

This is Tuesday of Hurricane Harvey, August 29, 2017. I'm washing dishes at the sink listening to the radio people  (88.7). They told about the band COLDPLAY, who had to cancel Houston show cuz of hurricane flood. COLDPLAY was in another town yesterday and sang a song they wrote for Houston, to let us Houston people know they are thinking of us. It is a really sweet song, expressing that sentiment. I shed a tear thinking about when they will play in Houston next and will sing that song here; and their audience will roar in joy that the COLDPLAY people thought of them in their night of flood nightmare.
So now I want to tell you about Our Lord and Creator.
He knows us by name. He knows us intimately, our secret us; and He loves us.
I remember a few years ago walking down the hall at church and overhearing the youth leader teaching his Sunday school students and asking them when they feel closest to God, feel most loved by God. I wanted to pop into the class and give MY answer: I feel closest to God when He calls me by name; when I know He is talking to ME specifically, individually, and knows the innermost me me.
Recently, I've been thinking about that very idea. I have the privilege of attending a Bible study taught by Poksoon Kim and she is teaching on stories in Bible book of LUKE, LUKE 8:42-48.(Poksoon Kim's recorded teaching is available online. Maybe Google her name.) she was telling about the woman who had bleeding that would not stop and secretly touched Jesus' clothes to be healed because she believed that she could be healed that way.
Well, she WAS healed; but Jesus did not want it to be a secret. Sister Kim was explaining and wanting us to enter in to all that was involved that Jesus wanted to heal by insisting that her healing be public instead of private.
Sister Kim explained that the woman, because of her illness had come to feel very isolated and pushed away from her community. Also, since she had 'taken' the healing instead of actually asking Jesus to heal her, she may have felt that she didn't deserve that healing and that another might have lost out because she 'took' it. So Jesus wanted to clear all that up so she could feel really happy and at peace (Shalom) about her healing. Wow!!!
Thank you, Jesus!