The Great Deception

The lie, the great deception is still being told to Adam and Eve's descendants again and again, and believing it leaves devastation and tragic heartbreak.

The lie that the validation and worth given to us from Christ isn't enough, that His grace and His death on the cross and His resurrection for us isn't enough when it comes to speaking to our worth, and that we need this still from others. The lie that says we can get this on our own, apart from God because we are lacking. The serpent saw us through a false paradigm, out of that he spoke and we believed. The paradigm the serpent had of us when tempting Eve was that we were lacking, that God was withholding, and that we could get what we lacked and what God was withholding on our own, and that by us getting that on our own by disobeying God, by mistrusting God, by sinning..we would not surely die, what a lie. The lie was presented so well, it's the paradigm of looking through the eyes of the serpent that paints us as lacking and able to get what God withholds, and by not truly dying in our sin of unbelief and disobedience.

It's the lie that God isn't really enough, what Christ has done for us isn't enough. This is the great deception still propelling us straight into the enemy's headquarters of sin.

Christ's words on the cross hold so much truth and power:

"It is finished." John 19:30. Nothing else is necessary, believe it, it's the truth and be set free.

Reflections From a Feminist

Well, I've ordered a book I've been putting on the back burner to read for a long time. "Wild at Heart" by John Eldredge. I've read the book "Captivating" by Stasi & John and absolutely loved it. And I've always wanted my husband to read it, figured he has 2 daughters and a wife, and after all..women are the more complicated ones, and men are the Simpletons, right? Plus, he is the man and he should read that first, THEN I would read "Wild at Heart".

If you're not familiar with these books, they are books that a couple wrote that, at least "Captivating" in my opinion, did a great job capturing and revealing the heart and soul of what makes a woman unique in her femininity and "Wild at Heart" reveals the inner secrets or places of the soul of a man. We are each created in the image of our Maker, but as women and men, we reflect different aspects of our Maker. We have both been created in our Maker, and at the same time, live in a broken war-zone world and therefore experience wounds in somewhat very unique ways.

In only understanding your own gender and not going into the world of the opposite sex, I am starting to realize, you miss a significant part of the heart of God. For again, we each reflect our Maker and have been created in His image and likeness.

I think I am a bit more of a feminist than what I have realized. For one, I've never had brothers, no uncles or male cousins that I had any kind of significant relationship with, and didn't experience a very close knit relationship with my own father growing up. I had many close guy friends, and in retrospect can see that these guy friends I had gave me a good glimpse into what the male world is like apart from God.. And this, I believe may have been the start of my becoming a feminist who started to see there was not much worth respecting regarding men, SPECIFICALLY in how they related to women.

I was often referred to by my guy friends in high school as their sister, or as one of the guys...but a girl. They didn't edit stuff out because I was there, they talked about stuff with me and around me to each other as if I was one of the guys. At the time I felt lucky, like I was given special privileges to be this "insider" of the world of guys. But am now starting to see that it greatly jaded my view of men and gave me a disdain for many of their views on women and relationships.

Well, now I am walking with God and desire to reflect Him. I desire to know Him deeply and to abide in Him. But I have also struggled within my marriage. I am finding that I do not understand my own man and how different he is from me. Almost all of the areas that he's different than me in, and that I used to really like, I find so irritating. If I was completely honest, I would say that I wish he was just more like me. More like me in how he thought, in how he related and in how he functioned in our marriage. But he is not, (thank God) and so there is this conundrum.

If I had a son, I figured I would definitely read this book and get to know the world of the male heart and the male psyche. But I have no sons, so I've been quite reluctant to read this...until now. Now I'm asking myself, what if these struggles I experience within my own marriage are related to my ignorance of how men are created differently that woman, and in my stubbornness to understand and RESPECT the unique differences. My husband was also created in the image of His Maker, but yet he is so different than me and I cannot figure him out and I do not have a sincere respect for these differences. This, I feel a burden in my heart to grow out of and to get to know the world of being a male in a broken world, and to RESPECT those struggles, those wounds and those longings of a man. Right now, I don't get it, I don't understand them and I am frustrated with them.

We'll see what things will come of this journey...a journey into the world of the heart of a man, after all, I am married to one and live in a world with them. Feminism is wonderful in many ways, I absolutely love being a woman. But in my pride of being a woman, I want to also have respect for those who are not.

Freedom's Roots

"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery." Galatians 5:1

Yoke of slavery comes from placing confidence in the flesh. It's placing your trust/confidence in something that cannot deliver, that cannot provide. It's eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, instead of eating from the Tree of Life and all the other trees that were growing and were pleasing to the eye and good for food and that were placed in the garden and freely given for food.

The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was not placed in the garden for the purpose of feeding Adam and Eve. Then why was it placed there? I think perhaps it was placed there as a visual marker to manifest that there is indeed a presence of good and evil around humanity and that we are freely given the capacity to choose whom we will believe in regards to what is good and what is evil, or whom we are leaving it up to in judging what is good and evil...God or ourselves. The serpent saw that the only opportunity for us to replace God from that place of authority is by causing us to mistrust God. If we completely trusted God with every single ounce of our being and in His heart towards us, why would WE need that knowledge between good and evil? If we were in absolute pure intimate fellowship and constant union with God, the way it was before sin entered into humanity, then I ask again, why would WE need to have the knowledge of good and evil? Would the only necessary reason to have that knowledge be because of the RESULTS and EFFECTS of sin entering into creation? We wouldn't need that knowledge with the absence of sin! Creation was completely and utterly subverted in the mind of Eve before it was subverted by her sin in eating from that tree. She was under the delusion that she NEEDED and therefore desired to have that knowledge. The only way she was under that delusion was by falling prey to the crafty serpent that went about accomplishing this by lying to us about God, about ourselves, and about that tree; the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Scripture says that after the serpent lied to Eve, THEN did she see that this tree was 'good for food and pleasing to the eye..' But...so were all the other trees growing there and which she was free to eat from. This tree was no different in that sense.

Eve believed a lie about this tree, a lie about God and a lie about herself. The lie about this tree was that it was somehow different somehow better than all the other trees she was free to eat from. Because she saw it was desirable for gaining wisdom. But God didn't say by eating this tree she would gain wisdom. That is what she assumed based on the lie the serpent told her about this tree. The lie about God was that God was withholding wisdom and goodness from her. That He didn't want her to have something she wanted and could therefore not be trusted. The lie about Eve was that she was lacking in something she needed, and that she could get it on her own, apart and in opposition to God.

These two trees were the only trees placed in the middle of the garden.

"Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. And the Lord God made all kinds of trees growing out of the ground - trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Genesis 2:8-9

Interestingly, I just noticed that the Lord had made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground - trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. So, the Tree of Life wasn't the ONLY tree that was meant to be eaten from. The Lord had not commanded them to eat from the Tree of Life only. His only command was this: "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."

So, it's not an either or, black or white issue of what tree to eat from! The first command that came from God to the first human being was this: "YOU ARE FREE". Not, "You shall not...”

God is about freedom. He is not about prohibitions. There was nothing wrong with eating from any of the others trees. And the trees that God said they were free to eat from weren't nasty, ugly trees. No, they were pleasing to the eye and good for food. There was nothing wrong with what God had created, or with His command to man. The only thing the crafty serpent could do to wreck it all was to lie about God, lie about the tree and lie about Eve. He did this by fooling Eve into seeing God in a false way, a way that would portray God as untrustworthy and withholding goodness from Eve, and that Eve could attain this aside from God, and in not taking his command and His warning seriously because she now mistrusted God and His heart.

Passive Suicide - Aggressive Living

It's the worst...passive living which is a slow way of passively committing suicide. We all have tendencies to flip back and forth from time to time, and to pause somewhere in the middle. But where our hearts sit within our relationships with those around us; I'm starting to believe speak more loudly about where we tend to reside more in. We're either passively committing suicide or aggressively living life to the fullest extent within our reach.

Whether you are loud and outgoing, speaking your mind clearly with every other statement ending with an exclamation point. Or more quite and reflective, speaking your honest mind seldomly and with short statements, usually only when asked, isn't necessarily what determines where you are at within this spectrum of living life regarding your relationships.

Are you a fighter; even if you are more quite, or are you a flighter, even if you are loud and outspoken? When it comes down to the level of intimacy within those few but precious relationships in life where intimacy (not necessarily sexual intimacy) are a must in order to truly enjoy a relationship to the fullest..where do you reside?

It's hard to aggressively live life fully when you are doing most of it solo. Even if you find yourself mostly in a crowd...you know when you are really doing life solo. You can be married and have a house full of constant commotion and still...live life solo. It's a place within your heart where you do not let anyone in, and you do not go knocking around the hearts of any others to be let in either.

Community is ever so important, I'm bending towards the notion that the smaller the community the better..but nevertheless...a group of people to live this out within is such an endangered species. Tight-knit, small and reliable communities are an endangered species.

But...in attaining that goal..to live life fully is only done when you are doing it aggressively, proactively and fighting for what you want with what you have, be it ever so limited. When you get knocked down for the 39th time...you brush yourself off and get back up. This, we can all do. For if we don't, then to me...it seems like a passive suicide..what a long slow and sad death.

Put Love In Its Place

"The commandments, "Do not commit adultery," Do not murder," "Do not steal," "Do not covet," and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: "Love your neighbor as yourself." Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law." -Romans 13:9-10
"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." -Matthew 22:37-40

LOVE DOES NO HARM TO ITS NEIGHBOR. Those God has placed around me whom I can either harm or not harm by my actions and words or lack of them; these are my neighbors. In the parable of the Good Samaritan Jesus uses this story in response to the question of an expert in the Law who wanted to justify himself...
The parable doesn't seem to directly give an answer to the question: "And who is my neighbor?" Luke 10:29.

It makes you have to analyze this parable..like other parables, to find the answer. The problem doesn't lie in the answer, it lies in the question. For if Jesus were to define in clear terms who is the neighbor..well than it could be easily used to get OUT of having to love the people who weren't included in that category. So, Jesus uses a parable with the hero being what this expert in the Law would consider an "enemy" or that may be too strong..but this Samaritan wouldn't be a likely first image of someone coming to mind when thinking of a neighbor. When I think of a neighbor..I think of those who are pretty similar to myself. Our neighbors live by us, so therefore must have some similarities. But this Samaritan hero who demonstrates loving his neighbor seems to abolish the notion that there are some who do NOT fit into this category of our neighbor.

On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” ²⁶ “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” ²⁷ He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” ²⁸ “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.” ²⁹ But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” ³⁰ In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. ³¹ A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. ³² So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. ³³ But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. ³⁴ He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. ³⁵ The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’ ³⁶ “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” ³⁷ The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

So if we were to put love in its proper place...we'd see that there is no place where love does not belong.

Kristen's Little Unofficial Commentary Version of John 1-3:21

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.
Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. IN HIM WAS LIFE, AND THAT LIFE WAS THE LIGHT OF MEN. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it (or has not overcome it). JOHN 1:1-5

The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. 1:9

He was in the world, and though the world was made though him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God- children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God." 1:10-13

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, WHO CAME FROM THE FATHER, FULL OF GRACE AND TRUTH. 1:14

From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known. 1:16-18
Blessing comes from the fullness of his grace, not from the law. There seems to be a distinction between grace and law. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ, not from the law. Blessings come from the fullness of his grace, but not from the fullness of the law.

Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! 1:29

Even though it appears that Nathanael was skeptical about Jesus by saying, "Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?" (1:46) Jesus was not put off in the least, not offended. In fact, he greets Nathanael with affirming words of Nathanael's character: "Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false." v.47

Jesus turned water into wine for all the wine at the wedding was already gone. Perhaps this means people were already drunk? The master of the banquet commends the bridgegroom for bringing out the best of the wine at the end; because most do not save the best for last, for when people have already had too much to drink. Yet, Jesus gives them more wine and better wine?! And who knew firsthand where this wine came from? Not the master of the banquet nor the bridegroom; but the SERVANTS and the disciples. John 2:1-11

So, in this account of Jesus from gospel of John; we follow Jesus from this wedding, where he turned water into wine, to the temple courts when it was almost time for Jewish Passover in Jerusalem (religious folk). Is Jesus helping them, like he did the people at the wedding? NO! He pisses them off. He was quite angry with what he found there; men selling cattle, sheep and doves and exchanging money. He made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area; both sheep and cattle and scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. He didn't merely protest with in difference and passively decide to not participate in what was taking place in the temple courts. He took action to put a stop to what was taking place so others could NOT participate and said, "Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father's house into a market!" 2:16. I do not find exclamation marks frequently after Jesus' words; but this has two.

What resulted from Jesus' actions? --"Then the Jews demanded of him, "What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?" Jesus audaciously answered them by saying, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days." Wow, it almost seems like Jesus was disrespecting their temple. First he stirs things up by driving all away in the temple courts preventing them from being able to sell and exchange money; then he responds to their demands of proving his authority to do this by saying this? Clearly this would offend those he was speaking to, even though Jesus was not referring to this actual temple but his actual body, but Jesus did not waste time in trying to explain this to them or justify his answer, he knew their hearts. Jesus was not responding like this to Nathanael's skepticism earlier. There must have been a sharp difference.

Also, the Jews had demanded Jesus to show them miraculous signs to prove his authority for what he did..he did not deliver what they demanded. He did however show miraculous signs to many people who were at the Passover Feast in Jerusalem; causing them to believe in his name. But Jesus didn't entrust himself to them, "for he knew all men." 2:24 So, Jesus could have easily proven his authority to the Jews who demanded it, but he did not.

In chapter 3 of John, there is an account of a Pharisee named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council, coming to Jesus at night. He acknowledges the miraculous signs done by Jesus and that God was with him. Jesus didn't make it easy for this Pharisee to come to him, but rather seemed to give Nicodemus a hard time with some challenging things to think about and then questioned Nicodemus for not understanding Jesus' teaching while Nicodemus was Israel's teacher. But Jesus does explain more to him, which makes me wonder if Nicodemus' heart WANTED to see the truth. In fact, this is where Jesus explains the famous: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. He goes on to explain further: "For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but however does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son..." Isn't this the gospel in a nutshell? Right here explained to this "seeking Pharisee"? So, Jesus was not harshly bent toward all of the religious leaders in Israel. Like it says in 2:24-25 "..for he knew all men. He did not need man's testimony about man, for he knew what was in a man." It seems to me that this Pharisee got a pretty thorough explanation or revelation from Jesus about the truth. Makes me wonder and consider that Jesus desires leaders to know the truth; so that they can teach it. But unfortunately it seems that many religious leaders do not have a heart that is open to the truth and can hear it.

Addicted To Grace

Hi, my name is Kristen and I'm a gracaholic.

I have a confession to make, I am addicted to grace.

What is grace? The best explanation I've heard: a gift that costs everything for the giver and nothing for the recipient.

I am beginning to take on a new obsession, an obsession over grace. Grappling with understanding it, identifying it, receiving it, walking in it and expelling it to those around me.

So here I am on my little blog using my fingertips to wrench out some of my thoughts regarding grace. One of the first thoughts I have is more of a question or pondering over why there is an apparent notion that many Christians or church-goers, for whatever reason, assemble in an attempt to deny this addiction. This is one addiction we should all find unity in confessing regardless of age, race, education, gender, marital status, sexual orientation, socio-economic class...etc. right? But instead it seems that to be Christian or spiritually elite; one must act like they have been sober for a long time. Sober from falling back onto needing grace that is. Feeling a need to portray an image that one has it all together or is well on their way of having it all together independent of God's grace..or only having needed it a long time ago, before they were "saved".

Okay, so I guess I'm using "lingos" that would be more understandable to one that is somewhat in the "church going sect". Not my intention, but I guess we speak as we are regardless.

As I was saying..I am addicted to grace. I depend on grace and no matter how much I struggle to get away from this need I feel it there. The more I'm realizing about my encounters and experiences with this thing called grace, the more I want it...then comes the guilt afterward. Why the guilt? Because I think a huge part of my brain has been subjected to faulty programing leading to the conclusion of buying into the lie that I should not need THAT much grace from God, and that I should be self-sufficient. Of course not perfect all the time, but good enough on my own compared to "those people"..defined rather subjectively depending on your baseline I suppose. These messages come to us from all sorts of avenues, some more subtle and some very blunt. Our culture admonishes one to be sober from needing God's grace..or needing it THAT much, but unfortunately so do many churches or Christians.

Why should I feel guilty from what is real and from what is unavoidable, depending on God's grace? Depending on the gospel of grace? It's like shaming a baby for being born when they were born..they had no say in the matter. We were designed to depend on God and His grace and that is a good thing my friend. And the problem is not with our design..it's with our think tanks buying into this pervasive lie that we should be ashamed of that, and that we do not need to be that dependent on grace.

The One who came to us..full of grace and truth was Jesus Christ. And the addiction to this One is a good thing..it's being in sync with how you were programmed by the Original Programmer Himself.

If you're not addicted to grace, than you're just trading that addiction in for something else...like the addiction to denying your need for grace. We are all addicts in one way or another, wake up to that fact. Thank God that He made us to be addicted to something good and satisfying..Himself. And that He does not withold what can satisfy..Himself and His grace.

hallelujah.