Thursday, April 26, 2012

Lo Life!!!

Lukewarm!!!

Do you know what "lukewarm" means? It's having one foot in the world and one foot in the Lord. It's straddling the fence, walking down the center of the road. It's these who will be purged when true revival comes. They are double minded, and have lost there first Love. Let judgement begin at the house of faith. Let all judgement of your brothers cease. Those who live for the world, that love the world, are friends with the world, you will have no one to fight your battles for you when the day of reckoning comes. Will your friends be there to trod your adversaries under their feet. Will they save you. What can they do, when the prince of darkness comes, in the end? I have in me the One who created the devil, and I will overcome him by the blood of the Lamb, the word of my testimony and that I love Him more than life. Never judge those who have My Blood on the door posts of their hearts, even those with whom you may disagree with on doctrinal issues, says the Lord. Those that divide, those that cause division among the Brethren will not escape. Quit celebrating the date of My birth, says the Lord, and start celebrating the event. The world cares not that the Savior died. The love of God cannot be obtained but from God. My paraphrase of a prophecy of Gary Carpenter ~ Cochise

Monday, April 2, 2012

A VERY IMPORTANT TRUTH!!!!

"Do a personal check up from your neck up!!!!"

Mark 2:13-22 "THIS IS WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT!!!!! People STILL aren't getting IT!!!!" It appears to me that about all the churches that I watch and have been involved with are just shuffling the cards, but playing the same hand!!! Read Below:

How funny it would be for someone to take some unshrunk cotton and carefully to sew it just right on an old cloak. The first time it gets wet and shrinks -- rip.

Or and old, inflexible, leathery wine flask. Put some wine in there that is still alive, still active and fermenting. Eventually... splash. It will burst like slapstick.

The point is a powerful one. It's like Einstein's quote (if I remember correctly) -- you can't solve a problem with the same consciousness that created it.

Mark sets Jesus' teaching-routine within a context that might have been comedic. Jesus has been befriending sinners and tax collectors. These are the people who deliberately choose not to observe the Torah. Jesus eats and drinks with them. They are soaking him in, breathing and expanding like new wine flasks filled with living new wine.

But the old ways are bothered. The Pharisees have been trying to teach the Torah observances to the people, helping them extend their faithfulness to the scripture into every part of their ordinary lives. There is a system. It is clear and written down. There is a process for interpreting difficult decisions. They know what is right and what is required to be righteous.

These sinners and tax collectors don't follow the right way. They should be straightened out, not partied with.

Yet, the old wine didn't work for these sinners and tax-collectors. The well-worn cloth didn't fit. But something about Jesus' new wine sparkled in their mouths. Their hearts opened to what Jesus was saying. They felt joy and newly born hope. God could be with them. They could experience love and acceptance. And from that motivation of love, they could live in a new way.

Where the law had been unsuccessful, love awakened new life.

All would be well if only the Pharisees could have seen the grace in the sinners' response. "It's not our way," they might observe, "but look what good it is doing for them." But their thoughts and hearts were a bit dry and leathery. They were too comfortable in their old clothes. This unshrunk cloth pulled and tore at their fabric. Sometimes that's the way it is.

How many Church members does it take to change a light bulb?

Five. One to change the bulb and four to talk about how good that old bulb was.

CHANGE THAT LIGHT BULB??!! My grandmother gave the church that light bulb!

Posted by Lowell Grisham on July 13, 2011 6:45 AM