Idol Traditions: Bow down or be Punished

"Experience supplies painful proof that traditions once called into being are first called useful, then they become necessary.  At last they are too often made into idols, and all must must bow down to them or be punished."

 -- J.C. Ryle,  Christian leader and congregational elder in Britain during the 19th-century

Ponder...   professional pastorships, theater seating when we gather on the Lordsday, 45-minute lectures (i.e. sermons), and thimble Communion cups accompanied by commercialized pee-wee pressed bread.

Primeval Communion: Dead Bread or the Bread of Life?

When considering what kind of bread to use for celebrating the Lord's Supper -- unleavened or leavened -- it really should be a "no brainer".

Those of us who are followers of Jesus are not Old Covenant Israelites, and we shouldn't be pining after the law rituals that God commanded His covenant people to practice until their fulfillment (i.e. sacrificial, dietary, clothing, and feast day laws); nor should we follow the traditions that Talmudist adherents, or "Jews", organized hundreds of years after God "spit out of the land" (Deut 8:19-20, 28:15-68; Lev 26.14-33) His Old Covenant people with the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem in 70 AD (e.g. Seder dinners being one of those).

All those OC ceremonial law practices always had "expiration dates" stamped on them, and were types and shadows pointing to the Messiah who would fulfill them and then place them in the trash can of history (Hebrews 8.13). Several examples concerning our topic are the observance during Passover to eat unleavened bread, the manna during the exodus, the weekly replacement of the bread of the Presence in the Temple, and the grain offerings (Leviticus 24.5-9; 6.14-17).

Those examples were intentionally DEAD bread (no leaven and no sustaining, lasting life John 6.49, 58b).  It was deliberately created by Yahweh as a type (or shadow) pointing to the antitype (or fulfilled reality) which was Jesus of Nazareth who gave real, everlasting life as THE Bread of LIFE (John 6.32-35, 48).

So, being on this side of the Resurrection, and with likely around 5 to 10 Bibles laying in all corners of our houses, I believe we all have enough sanctified knowledge to understand that as we celebrate during our times of Communion the the memorial of our living Messiah-king who died -- and rose to life -- on our behalf, we certainly should not be using the symbol of unleavened bread and acting as though the living Bread of LIFE is still dead and has not come!  Rather, we joyfully celebrate that the true Leaven has come, and fulfilled the shadows and types.  And one of those fulfilled is that there is no more "dead bread".  

That being true, next time the communion bread is passed to you I encourage you to cheerfully and willingly tear off a big, fat chunk of that leavened bread, and relax while you revel in the life giving sabbath rest that Yeshua, the Bread of Life, has accomplished and given to you and all His chosen Congregation!

(Repost from 12/14/14)

Eating Meals Together

"Jesus didn't run projects, establish ministries, create programs, or put on events.  He ate meals.  If you routinely share meals and you have a passion for Jesus, then you'll be doing mission."

         -- Tim Chester, from his book A Meal with Jesus

Ease & Mammon 16: Getting Out of the House

#13 --  Don't join the military:   With women "warriors", transgender everything, and none of the folks know what or why they're training and fighting, ah, well that's the ol' recipe for disaster. The military is policing the world and 99% of us don't know why.  A standing army is just plain tyrannical. T-Y-R-A-N-N-I-C-A-L.  Why should our young men dedicate precious time to such a wicked establishment? Why?!?!... for free college on the backs of taxpayers?  For early retirement?  

Obviously, there's more for a young, baptized man than that worldly nonsense.


(Please reference Ease & Mammon 3 to get the full background as to why I'm suggesting this measure.)

Ease & Mammon 15: Getting Out of the House

#12 --  Have a distinction between how you and your wife dress (and your girls and boys)  If you and your spouse look almost identical except one of you has earrings, well...you may want to meditate on some of the Bible's clear teachings on men and women's apparel.  And if you don't have any idea what those are or where to find them I'm guessing this topic is making you really angry right now (cause this topic makes most folks just lose their minds!).

Email me after you've calmed down, and I can point you to some Scripture to help.


(Please reference Ease & Mammon 3 to get the full background as to why I'm suggesting this measure.)

Ease & Mammon 14: Getting Out of the House

#11 --  Have lots of kids:  Go "old school" Protestant and get back into the swing of having a serious family.


(Please reference Ease & Mammon 3 to get the full background as to why I'm suggesting this measure.)

Ease & Mammon 13: Getting Out of the House

#10 --  Put a stop to supporting, funding or shopping at a business that is anti-Christ:  If a business or company is openly and publicly against the Savior we must stop financing it/them.  JUST STOP.  No matter how convenient or how "nice" they are, or how low their prices are, JUST STOP.

      Now, many stores and businesses we have no idea what or who they support, but many we know for certain what they are, or have been, up to, and that they are not with the King (i.e. Costco, Target, Starbucks).  If you continue to patronize that business with the knowledge of the truth you are guilty of aiding the Enemy.  You just are, period.  Should I go on?  Too straight forward?  Not "nice"?

(Please reference Ease & Mammon 3 to get the full background as to why I'm suggesting this measure.)

Ease & Mammon 12: Getting Out of the House

#9 -- Stop depending on organized Sports to somehow raise our sons into masculine men:  Our ancestors didn't. Let me state that again: Our ancestors did not.  The men of the Civil War era make 95% of the men today look like pussys, and yet they weren't raised to be men in organized sports.  Huh. Weird.

We who are fathers need to meditate and strive strenuously to learn what it means to be like Jesus, and then spend time teaching that in word in deed to our sons and not wasting your time scurrying around shuttling them from practice, to game, to practice, to game most of their frickin' childhood.

(Please reference Ease & Mammon 3 to get the full background as to why I'm suggesting this measure.)

Ease & Mammon 11: Getting Out of the House

#8 --  Rethink sending your Children to a State College:  It may be cheaper, but they are a bastion of demons.  Wake up.  And, by-the-way, make damn sure the "christian" college is what is says it is (i.e. christian), because 9 outta 10 aren't.   The debt alone is flat out insane.  Our generation of fathers and mothers may have to make the difficult choice of just not having our children go on to college at all. We may have to start apprenticeships and teaching rigorous ways of self-teaching.  Our times are dark, but this doesn't mean hand-wringing and whining, rather it calls for wise, bold, radical steps as we follow our King.


(Please reference Ease & Mammon 3 to get the full background as to why I'm suggesting this measure.)

Ease & Mammon 9: Getting Out of the House

#6 -- Learn Homemaking Skills:  Sewing, gardening, soapmaking, motor mechanics, weaving, woodworking, bicycle repair, plumbing, electrical, on and on.  Let's stop depending on the "specialist".  You and I CAN do it.


(Please reference Ease & Mammon 3 to get the full background as to why I'm suggesting this measure.)

Ease & Mammon 8: Getting Out of the House

#5 -- Opt out of Social Security and Medicare:  Send back the checks after you've received what they took from you, er...oops, you "saved" with the fascist government.  Don't factor in inflation, don't justify receiving a cent over what you "contributed" during your slave-wage years.  If you do you're merely stealing from your grandchildren and loading them up with debt in order that you can be comfortable.

     And Medicare, just opt out of A, B, D, all of it (and yes, you CAN, they endeavor to make it sound as if you cannot but you definitely can.), but be warned if you do, they'll cease SS payments. This, of course, proves right there that the SS money isn't actually your's, and is actually a marxist subsidy (there's the cheese! don't take it! step away from the mouse trap!), but good riddance.  In other words, don't plan on either.  This goes back to your kids (see Life Insurance above).

(Please reference Ease & Mammon 3 to get the full background as to why I'm suggesting this measure.)

Ease & Mammon 7: Getting Out of the House

#4 -- Heath insurance:  We have to start "owning" our health care by getting back to a personal, first-relationship contact in care and billing.  Multiple, disconnected bureaucratic billing is what is corrupting, and has corrupted, the medical field for everyone.  Get to know your local natural supplement provider/counselor.  Take charge of your health.  Fix what's simple and certain.  And, by-the-way, if ya got a life ending disease, that's what ya got.  Don't cause untold thousands of dollars to come from "somewhere", or go into massive debt just to keep alive for a few more years!  Take your direction from our Lord on the cross refusing to be drugged in His last moments and not our worldly medicated society telling you that old age and death can be avoided.  Believe in the sovereignty of your all-wise, loving King.  Don't you believe you'll be resurrected? If you really do then what's the problem???

(Please reference Ease & Mammon 3 to get the full background as to why I'm suggesting this measure.)

Ease & Mammon 6: Getting Out of the House

#3 -- Leave Government Schools:  Take your kids out, and don't look back.  It is sinful, unbiblical and godless in so many ways it makes my eyes bleed.  

Teach your kids yourself and change your family tree.  

The Creator gave them to YOU for a reason and it wasn't so you can farm them out to be inculcated in worldliness and humanism by someone you never met, and who cannot speak about the King of Creation because it's against the law to do so.

(Please reference Ease & Mammon 3 to get the full background as to why I'm suggesting this measure.)

Ease & Mammon 5: Getting Out of the House

#2 -- Learn the old skills concerning food:  Grow your own food, either plants or animals or both and disconnect from our dependency on the "store". Canning, fermenting, raising chickens (meat + eggs), raising rabbits, bread making, nutrition basics, livestock and pasture knowledge.  Get ahold of Mother Earth News, books by Joel Salatin, Gene Logsdon, Foxfire books, Wendell Berry and any book on agrarianism.

( P.S.  Please don't misunderstand.  My family and I are NOT doing all my suggestions at this time, and only some of them are we even starting on, so please keep in mind I'm "preaching to myself" as well.  This culture needs to be "cut" out of us, and I believe that by the Spirit working through the Sword (i.e. the Scriptures) it can be.  Our God normally works through creational means to accomplish this -- meaning it doesn't just "mystically" happen -- and hence why I offer up what I believe to be biblical, real-life suggestions that we can get to work on as the Word directs us to do.
          I do hope they are encouraging ideas though, and ones that we can perhaps pray and work on to spread the Kingdom even more than it already is.  In doing so, I hope it helps calm our hearts, cast out fear, and send a tremor of dread through Satan as he hears the sound of axes splitting the wood of his front gate.   
         Please reference Ease & Mammon 3 to get the full background as to why I'm suggesting this measure.)

Ease & Mammon 4: Getting Out of the House

So what exactly does it look like to "get out" of the Burning House that is our US culture? How do we as followers of the King "Come out from among them and be separate"?      (2 Cor.6:14-18)

In other words, what does this mean practically in my life and your life on an every day basis in real-time and not in "yer heart"?

#1- Forget Life insurance:  It's a racket and a purse-picker stealing money from you and driving up costs in innumerable areas in our local and national economy.  It's perpetuated by the feeding off of people's fear, and also the disintegration of the nuclear family.  Your life insurance is your children and/or family.  This has been the fact of history, and still is presently in almost all countries in the world who still honor parents.  Raise your children with this idea: that they should care for you as you cared for them (1 Timothy 5:3-5).


(Please reference Ease & Mammon 3 to get the full background as to why I'm suggesting this measure.)

Ease & Mammon 3: Getting Out of the House

I had mentioned quite awhile back in a previous post that our current United States culture, or society, is a house burning down around us. I say this as an sanguine optimillienalist and not as a apocalyptist.

In other words, I think we are in -- and heading straight for -- extremely dire times, BUT this period of US history right now is NOT a portend to the End! Of! The! World!  Rather it is a loving, merciful correction from our King exposing our disobedience; which, I believe, will lead to repentance and a turning away from our sin to embracing Him more faithfully and with more maturity (please understand that doesn't mean immediately, but in the years following).

We must face this oncoming problem squarely, and be Word-centered, which actually means being logical and clear.

So, briefly, I'd like to write about what is this culture, this "house", we're in that I'm referring to.  So, to start off I think we need to have a definition of "culture".

The culture of any group of people -- big, medium or tiny -- is always the externalized manifestation of that group's religion. In other words, religion isn't just one part or an aspect of culture. No. Religion creates culture, and by "culture" I mean the life and manifestations of either a tightly organized nation or a carefree Lion's Club.  All groupings of people have a culture and that outer "shell" is formed from the inner heart-adherence to what that group loosely, or deliberately worships (serves).

Currently, our culture has shown its religion by confidently turning it's back on the Messiah-king (that'd be Jesus) and embracing any passing idol it can grab ahold of just as long as it isn't serving the King. At present, the primary demon-idol being worshiped in the US is the STATE, or Civil Government. (It's kinda like Zeus with many other secondary idols being worshiped).

Now, also, I mentioned in the prior post that I believe Christian believers need to "get out" of and get free of this burning building, but I don't say that so we can hoof-it to caves of isolation in order to wait for the pre-, mid-, or post-tribulation rapture (which is a figment of protestant hermeneutical imagination anyway), but rather we "get out" so that we then are able to purge our lives and shake free from the corruptions of our culture, that, Yes, you and I have willing adsorbed into our lives and families.  After that though, we grab "buckets" to run back with life giving WATER to quench the flames in order that we can rebuild with that Living WATER.

I believe that the true, Spirit led People of the Way can, and will, do this in every way possible (i.e. example, action, words), and by all grades of influence (small, anonymous, grand), and concerning all of life too, either material or immaterial (i.e. economics, food, creation care, prayer, child discipleship, insurance, marriage, jobs, civil government, etc.).  In other words, it doesn't stop at your heart and the ever-vague and ambiguous "spiritual" realm.  To work with your hands in Faith IS spiritual.  To speak wisdom in Faith IS spiritual.  To raise your children in Faith IS spiritual.  The airy fairy, mystical "spirit" hubris really must go!

Another way of saying this would be that through Holy Spirit's unfailing grace, we tear and break ourselves away from the corrupt System (i.e. "the world" or "city of man") around us and begin ministering to that culture by leading and teaching with, and through, the Word of the King.  That one, liberty Law-word that is authoritative in all things, and which -- incidentally -- addresses all things. This is another way of stating what Scripture says when it admonishes us to "Come out from among them and be separate" (2 Cor.6:14-18).

Bringing Heaven to Earth is the thing we should have been doing as the Teacher -- or the Discipler -- of this nation but we began to take side-long glances at the students and, it appears, we thought (for the last few generations now) that the students were having all the fun so we decided to flick-in the Teaching gig and pal around with the youths.  

Well, okay, so there's the set-up.  Now, what exactly does it look like to "get out" of the Burning House?   In other words, what does this mean practically in my life and your life on an every day basis in real-time and not in "yer heart"?

I'm just gonna throw out some simple ideas to "prime the pump" over the next several weeks.  Some will be considered crazy, others, I imagine, many of you may already be doing or have done.  Several of my suggestions will be directly connected to cutting the umbilical cord of dependence on the State (civil government in Federal, State and local jurisdictions), or to say it another way: STOP TAKING THE CHEESE. This is likely where I will upset some of you in internet land. So, please approach them with charity and a cool mind.

Please don't misunderstand.  My family and I are NOT doing all my suggestions at this time, and only some of them are we even starting on, so please keep in mind I'm "preaching to myself" as well.  This culture needs to be "cut" out of us, and I believe that by the Spirit working through the Sword (i.e. the Scriptures) it can be.  Our God normally works through creational means to accomplish this -- meaning it doesn't just "mystically" happen -- and hence why I offer up what I believe to be biblical, real-life suggestions that we can get to work on as the Word directs us to do.

I do hope they are encouraging ideas though, and ones that we can perhaps pray and work on to spread the Kingdom even more than it already is.  In doing so, I hope it helps calm our hearts, cast out fear, and send a tremor of dread through Satan as he hears the sound of axes splitting the wood of his front gate.   

Christianity is Incendiary!

“In the splendid palace chapel a stately court preacher – the cultivated public’s elite – advances before an elite circle of fashionable and cultivated people and preaches emotionally on the text of the Apostle, ‘God chose the lowly and despised’ .... and nobody laughs!  

    This is the falsification of which official Christianity is guilty: it does not make known the Christian requirement – perhaps because it is afraid people would shudder to see at what a distance from it we are living.

     Strictly speaking, it is not I who am ringing the alarm bell; I am starting the fire in order to smoke out illusions and knavish tricks; it is a police raid, and a Christian police raid, for – according to the New Testament – Christianity is incendiarism.

      It is incendiarism. This is how Christ himself describes his commission, setting fire to individuals by introducing a passion that makes them at odds with what is naturally understood, an incendiarism that must necessarily cause discord between father and son, daughter and mother, an incendiarism that tears apart "the generations" in order to reach "the individual".

      It is not always water that is used to put out a fire. To keep the metaphor, sometimes one uses, for example, featherbeds, blankets, mattresses, and the like to smother a fire. In this sense, if you want Christianity again -- fire again -- then do all you can to get rid of the featherbeds, blankets, and mattresses, the grossly bulky stuff ... and there will be fire.”

       – Soren Kierkgaard

Friends,

I can't say it enough, and I'll continue to speak this truth in charity as long as Messiah calls me to, and it is this: We are -- as a People of the King -- weighed down by "grossly bulky stuff".  We are carrying around worldly traditions which were first called "useful, then they become necessary.  At last they are too often made into idols, and all must must bow down to them or be punished." (J.C. Ryle).

Let's ask ourselves:  What are these Fire suppressors?  What worldliness is weighing us down like anchors? 

I do think the identifying principle for idolatry is quite simple. The doing, of course, is the difficult project.  

Here's the principle: 

Anything that subverts the clear obedience to the full counsel of ALL the Scriptures, the Word of Messiah.  

Ye Olde Meaning of Priesthood of All Believers

"Luther's greatest contribution to Protestant ecclesiology was his doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. Yet no element in his teaching is more misunderstood. For some it means simply that there are no priests in the church, the secularization of the clergy. From this premise some groups, notably the Quakers, have argued the abolition of the ministry as a distinct order in the church. More commonly people believe that the priesthood of all believers implies that every Christian is his or her own priest and hence possesses the "right of private judgment" in matters of faith and doctrine. Both of these are modern perversions of Luther's original intention. The essence of the doctrine can be put in one sentence: Every Christian is someone else's priest, and we are all priests to one another." 

- Timothy George, from his book The Theology of the Reformers (pg.95-96)

RePost: The Age of Orthopraxy

"The truly cool are those who are on fire. They are the ones who truly don’t care what others think. You will find them warning the lost of the wrath of God. You will find them preaching on the streets. You will find them being called fools by the world, and that which is of the world in the church. May we all find grace to be such fools."

    I read this quote above from an email R.C. Sproul, Jr. sent out recently and was truly encouraged by it.  Primarily because this attitude and spirit is my hope and prayer for Christ's Bride as well, and specifically for the Christian tradition I subscribe to because, quite honestly, we stand in the most need of it.

    In orthodox, conservative, evangelical churches we have been for far too long -- through our leaders -- standing on the seashore bickering, and stabbing each other in the back over fine points of internal theology and/or how to "fish" out in this Sea-world we live in; or, if we're not doing that, we simply stand back and criticize those brothers and sisters who really are out there in boats "fishing" (i.e. pushing the Good News of the Son of Man into all the dark corners of this fallen world). This simply must stop! Instead of pedantic arguments over theological minutiae, or apathy, or panting after peer recognition and affluence, or forming study committees, we need to get our keesters in boats and get out there and start fishing with the rest of the brothers! 

      Why I can say that is because, as I understand it, we are all in God's grand meta-narrative... 

Idol (or idle) Traditions: Bow Down or be Punished

"Experience supplies painful proof that traditions once called into being are first called useful, then they become necessary.  At last they are too often made into idols, and all must must bow down to them or be punished."

- J.C. Ryle, Anglican pastor in Britian during the 19th-century