Poverty is Intimacy

 "Poverty is intimacy."

Simple statement from a podcast.

deep truth

Jason Upton sings, "There's a power in poverty that breaks principalities and brings the authorities down to their knees."

Blessed are the poor

Living in an amazingly prosperous society with a lot of creature comforts, is kind of dangerous to our Christian life.

We end up praying for things to maintain the level of comfort that we are used to.

Ours is an upside-down kingdom.

Blessed are the poor in spirit

Blessed are you when all men revile you, persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you.

(optional long 'copy and paste' from an old blog written after I wrote a short book)

In order to see God face to face and to recognize that He is the source and perfecter of our faith, we must “come to the end of our strength” and see that we are NOT the source or perfecter of our faith. It is “all to Jesus”, so the place of seeing God face to face is the place of death, death to self, death to thinking that in any way, “I got this.” is a a true statement. It is a false pride-filled statement and leads to death.

     There is a reality, greater and far longer lasting than the reality we currently live in. Paul lived in it and wrote about it and encouraged his readers to discover it. The author of Hebrews states that Jesus endured the unimaginable agony of the cross because of the reality of the “joy that was set before Him.” The reality of the perfect love that casts out the fear of eternal judgment, is the one thing that John sets before us as capable of defeating fear.

     Standing in opposition to this truth is humanistic presumption. It states we can gather our resources and educate ourselves to a place where we learn to work together in peace and harmony. Never mind that no one who believes this can point to a time or a community where this shining example of human love has ever actually taken place,  Still they cling to it as truth. Sadly, examples of this among the followers of Jesus are few and far between also. We have been given everything we need to be able to display a foretaste of heaven, and yet we fall painfully short and give others good reason to mock our self-serving, self-centered efforts. Jesus is the answer, but who will take the time to listen. Who will listen with ears that are willing to go down into the dust and allow the man-made structure to crash and burn. Someone said, we don’t break the commands of God, we are broken on them. If the words of truth that we have available to read do not break the power of our confidence in the flesh, our plans, our goals, then God must use crisis of both inward and outward circumstances, to bring us to the end or our strength. This is ultimate love. The Doctor has made the correct diagnosis and the patient must submit to the prescription and the changes that He states.

     Our statement of faith in the midst of a trial, is, “God I trust you.”

   The diagnosis has not changed, from Adam, to Israel, to the modern believer. Sin has consigned all of humanity to death, God has given a substitute in Jesus, who died in our place. Possibly the saddest thing in all the world is when a person stops at that place, smugly proclaims that his sin has been paid for, takes just a little tiny bit of credit for making the “decision” to trust in Jesus and never considers the call, the purpose that is inherent in the salvation. “We love because He first loved us.” (1 John 4:19)To the degree that we do not love, is the degree that we have not truly taken into our being the cost and the mercy that was necessary for Him to love us. His life in us will be constantly working a death to our pride. Pride is the thing that kills the witness of the individual believer and the corporate body (wrongly called the church).  There is a sad pattern that is repeated through the ages. A change initiated and accomplished by the choice of God brings about a blessing in this temporary existence. The person or people begin to enjoy the blessings and a call comes to share or let go of those blessings. The call comes from the One who provided the blessings in the first place. A subtle evil change has taken place in the heart of the receiver and the call to relinquish the blessing reveals it. The receiver, who did nothing to earn or create the blessing, has taken possession of it. They have decided that it is part of them and they have the right to decide what happens to it. God reacts to this by bringing His word, clearly and rightly penetrating through the pride with truth. If that is rejected, then His love demands that He bring a crisis inward and outward circumstances that are designed to break the pride that grip the blessing in an eternally destructive way.

     This is ultimate love.

   Pride and human power are the enemy, they open the door for separation, fear, abuse, hopelessness, despair, and malice. If I allow in one microscopic size thought that I did even one, microscopic sized thing to bring about this blessing, pride will take that teeny tiny area and turn it into 40 acres before you know it. Nothing that has its root in that 40 acres is from God, every bit of it actively works against the work that God is doing in the earth.  I cannot do anything to activate this statement as a truth in your life.  This is a work of the Holy Spirit from start to finish.  (This section was inspired by writings by Reggie Kelly available at the.mysteryofisrael.org)

     The title I was given, “The Cross of Jesus Christ in the Life of Kathy Steele” seemed to get lost as the book progressed, but now here at the end, I see that it too has gone through a process of death and resurrection.  Kathy Steele was a friend of God.  He shares secrets with His friends and at a point in time, on a level that no other human being could be shown, one on one, with her God, Kathy had a conversation with her Friend.  She was asked to give up the blessing that God had given her for the good of others and she did.  We live in a fallen world where death still appears to reign as king, but the faithfulness of God does not stop at death.  Kathy knew this.  In doing it this way, God is very aware that most people will blame Him and cover up their hurt by lashing out in anger at the One who loves them the most.  If each individual would take a moment and pause and consider Kathy and her attitude toward this time, they would be confronted with truth.  Cancer meant it for evil, but God meant it for good to preserve life, to call you to see beyond this temporary existence, to cause you to be willing to release the blessings you have been given to be a blessing to others and to give you the strength and courage to lay down in sacrificial love for the least of these My brothers.

Psalm 91 Isn't True

 And neither is most of the rest of the Bible if you look at it from a perspective limited to this evil age.

There is a very real spiritual world, there is a coming age after this evil age where the god of this world and his minions are thrown down, and Yeshua reigns from Mt. Zion in Jerusalem, but that time is not now, is it?

Maranatha is the heart cry of a follower of the Jewish Messiah because this evil age wears us down and crushes us as much as it possibly can.

There is a portion of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens where Tiny Tim's brother is reading Psalm 91 and it speaks of 

91:5  "You will not fear the terror of night,

    nor the arrow that flies by day,
6 nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,
    nor the plague that destroys at midday.
7 A thousand may fall at your side,
    ten thousand at your right hand,
    but it will not come near you."

and over in the corner sits Tiny Tim's chair, empty, meaning that this is a scene in the possible future after Tiny Tim has died and here they are reading a scripture that seems to promise the righteous will never have to endure such things as a young child dying of disease.

“The divine Scriptures do not make their teaching clear by syllables, but by the meaning conveyed in the whole.” 

Basil

It is no accident that satan is seen quoting scripture accurately one time in the Bible when he is tempting Yeshua, he uses a portion of Psalm 91.  

91:11"For He will give His angels charge over you,
to guard you in all your ways.
12 12Upon their hands they will lift you up,
lest you strike your foot against a stone."

Anyone who preaches the pre-trib lie could use this scripture too, if it was all by itself and not part of a book.

Yeshua responds to satan, Matthew 4:7 "Yeshua said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put Adonai your God to the test."

Satan was tempting Yeshua to throw Himself down from the temple and in the sight of all the people, His not being injured would prove, He was the son of God. Because satan was trying to get Him to bite on the "IF" part of "If You are the son of God..."

But we have a deeper problem with Psalm 91, not everyone is rescued and protected and satisfied with long life in this world.  Psalm 91 isn't true if you limit it to this world, this evil age.

The presence of God is promised to us, the Life of God which is eternal is promised to us, He takes upon Himself the name Redeemer, which means our situations will always eventually be rescued and protected.  NONE of these "promises" apply to this evil age, Tiny Tim may die, kids die of cancer every day, it sucks, this evil age sucks, we cannot, we must not get too comfortable here.  We cannot we must not expect to have every prayer answered here.

Our hearts cry Maranatha because this evil age is not our home!

Psalm 91 is 100% true when the Most High God is factored into the equation!

Isaiah 26:14 the Death of Eternal Conscious Torment

 "They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased, they shall not rise: therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them, and made all remembrance of them to perish."

In order for me to consider switching from annihilationism to the Augustinian lie of "eternal conscious torment" you would have to show me a verse anywhere in scripture that clearly and plainly backs up that view as clearly and plainly as this verse backs up annihilationism.

This Evil Age, and the Age to Come

 Do not rely on deceitful wealth,  for it will be no help on the day of wrath. Ben Sira 5:8

Lose your money for relative or friend;
    do not hide it under a stone to rot.
11 Dispose of your treasure according to the commandments of the Most High,
    and that will profit you more than the gold.  Ben Sira 29:10,11

44:9  For everything will pass away which is corruptible, and everything that dies will go away, and all present time will be forgotten, and there will be no remembrance of the present time which is polluted by evils.

44:10  For he who runs now runs in vain and he who is happy will fall quickly and be humiliated.

44:11  For that which will be in the future, that is what one will look for, and that which comes later, that is what we shall hope for. For there is a time that does not pass away.

44:12  And that period is coming which will remain forever; and there is the new world which does not carry back to corruption those who enter into its beginning, and which has no mercy on those who come into torment or those who are living in it, and it does not carry to perdition.

44:13  For those are the ones who will inherit this time of which it is spoken, and to these is the heritage of the promised time.

44:14  These are they who prepared for themselves treasures of wisdom. And stores of insight are found with them. And they have not withdrawn from mercy and they have preserved the Truth of the Torah.

44:15  For the coming world will be given to these, but the habitation of the many others will be in the fire.     2nd Baruch 44:9-15

Mammon is the a master we cannot serve.  Consumerism, coveting is the god over this nation (USA) and many have fallen and will fall pursuing this at the cost of their soul.

Isaiah 26

 This chapter is so perfect and God is so good, I am simply going to recommend that you read it.

Ask God to speak to you through it. There will be a verse or a section that speaks to your heart.

I know it is not easy to leave comments but maybe message me if you are touched by this chapter.

God Wants

 “ God wants exuberant, chaste, virtuous souls who testify of His reality, and live with remarkable freedom in the power of the new life, because they have acknowledged that in the old life there is no man good, no not one. ”   Art Katz  “David’s Cry For Mercy” 

Years ago a friend coined the term “wage mercy”.  As I read Art’s words about the beautiful Psalm 51, it seems to me we have only one job, to give away the mercy that has been given to us.

This will involve real spiritual warfare in the coming days when showing mercy to a Jew could cost you your life.

Let’s practice, look for opportunities to wage mercy.

The Privilege of Injustice by Art Katz

 "Happiness brought by the physical change in circumstances versus joy brought about by distress."

This little quote taken from Art's message has a deep truth.

If we use God as an "errand boy" who comes when we call and does our bidding, He is not God, we are.

If we accept and cry out for Him to help us grow through distressing times, we are in a position to know a deeper Joy.

We need to grow in our trust and begin to comprehend the amount of work yet to be done by the Spirit as He transforms us into the image of Yeshua.