(10/02/2018) Applying The Divine Standards

Today, the reply is on the differences between divine and human qualifications for serving GOD through Jesus Christ. In the same way many refuse to label gossip, innuendo, lying, and slander as the work of the devil, and are willing to view verbal aggression as acceptable among mankind, many believers want to avoid a conclusion that divorce is a sin, or that social behavior is a genuine indicator of ones spiritual condition. Yet, within the church, it may not be denied that patterns of behavior emerge in keeping with having spirit content from the makeup of divinity. Included are gradual growth, permanent change, learning, repentance, and stability. Multiple incidents that display forswearing commitment, immaturity, breach of promise, and self-contradiction do not encourage mutual respect and trust. Even when considering the recent events in government hearings regarding the Supreme Court, the sacred principles and process provided by Jesus Christ should be in effect, for only they continue to mark and set apart those who belong to the Lord as his disciples and followers. The goals to comfort, heal, and show compassion are rarely achieved by complaining, continuing accusations from ones past, law enforcement investigations, or political manipulation that emerge from the flesh. Fitness to serve in the divine priesthood (we say, being ceremonially clean; purity) should appear among all those receiving atonement and sharing themselves as living sacrifices where Jesus Christ is named as High Priest. The fighter in the “Yahoo! Answers” Religion and Spirituality public forum who uses the ID “Patty” (Level 1 with 95 points, a member since October 01, 2018) posted the following:

An assistant pastor has been divorced 2 times. Is single at this time. Is he qualified to hold this position in the church?

THE GOLDEN ARROW: If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified. But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men’s matters. Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf. For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator. (1^st Peter 4: 14-19, King James Version, KJV)

THE DOUBLE DAGGER: Bible Definitions Of Sin (09/30/2018); Those Apt To Teach? (06/20/2018); Standards For Godly Behavior (02/01/2018); Caution! Work In Progress (10/19/2017); All Have Come Short (10/11/2017); Sanctify Yourselves for Tomorrow (05/07/2017); Temporal and Eternal Judgment (02/15/2017); Servants To The Body? (01/17/2017)

“Patty”, because the operations and process of the church must be different from that for the World, among many Christian believers, your question will be understood as asking “Is the assistant pastor faithful (i.e., filled with the Holy Spirit)?” There is a danger when judging those who seem to be sent by GOD and to be the Lord’s anointed (e.g., clergy; evangelists; prophets) that GOD will be unjustly accused. On surface, we should expect that human behavior focusing on things carnal, material, secular, and social will not be same as that expressing accountability, commitment, and devotion to GOD. In the church, such elements as forbearance, forgiveness, longsuffering, lovingkindness, reverence, wisdom, and wrath against sin are to be understood as making visible the character, makeup, and substance of divinity; and are to routinely appear within those who are born again as tools and vessels of the “active presence” whom we honor as our GOD. Discerning faith and the other inseparable aspects imparted to indwell mankind from the divine fullness (we say, the Godhead; the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit) is a sacred process that pertains to being in accord, acknowledgment, “oneness” without “sameness,” recognition, and the display of godliness.

Behavior in marriage includes the expression of appetite (e.g., hunger, thirst, sexual cravings) and sensation (e.g., hearing, seeing, tasting, touching) along with communicating emotion/mind (e.g., anger, fantasy, fear, recall). Only where marriage acknowledges a joining to divinity (we say, holy matrimony; sacred union; the two become one flesh, and GOD is the other) are we correct to expect to see the expressions of rebirth that include completeness, maturity, obedience to divine law, sacred practice (we say, sacraments), sobriety, and unselfish service.

For those existing as the church, the body of Christ on the earth, ongoing judgment establishes the resolution of conflicts and the settlement of disputes through the application of divine law. In addition to impartiality, judgment must display balance, consistency, mercy, restraint, and righteousness. Correction and restoration are more the objectives of judgment than displaying disfavor or punishment. As an aspect of revelation, judgment further proclaims the personhood and sovereign will of divinity. Forgiveness may respond to (yet does not cancel) the sanctions against sin that are written within the law. Resurrection of the dead permits all to appear before GOD in required living tribunals. Thus, touching judgment, circumspection and discretion are to appear with openness and thoroughness; the confidentiality and secrecy of confession and private prayer may not appear. Consider again the following that uses language from the Bible:

(1.) Malachi 3: 13-18, King James Version (KJV): 13 Your words have been stout against me, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against thee? 14 Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the LORD of hosts? 15 And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered. 16 Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name. 17 And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. 18 Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.

(2.) 1^st Corinthians 2: 9-15, KJV: 9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. 10 But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. 11 For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. 13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.

(3.) Matthew 18: 15-17, KJV: 15 Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. 16 But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. 17 And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.

There is far more that should be said, correctly examined, and spiritually apprehended. (For example, (4.) Matthew 5: 13, KJV: 13 Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.) Even so, I trust this fragment will be useful. Be it unto you according to your faith.

THE BLACK PHOENIX

Washington, DC

(03/26/2013) GOD Hiding in Plain Sight

Focus, today, includes divine process, and how GOD reveals himself to mankind. Also there is more on Noah, the ark, the Second Adam, and the World system, with some further thoughts upon family, jurisdiction over sacred and profane marriages, and the United States Supreme Court. The “Yahoo! Answers” writer using ID “Mikelol ” (Level 3 with 1,009 points, a member since March 16, 2013) posted the following:


Why does god have to hide his existence?

There is no point for him doing that


THE BATTLE AXE:  A Second Adam? (03/25/2013)—The ark of Noah, like the ark of Moses, was a copy of the ark from the Temple of GOD in the heavens. Just as the Ark of the Covenant maintained in the Tabernacle was a chest and storage box containing sacred law and relics of divine revelation to mankind, the souls and living creatures of the great vessel had been held in a repository of divine law and spirit. For the first Adam, the gate of Eden and the angel with the flaming sword became the center for divine government, judgment and worship. For Noah, the place where the ark came to rest in the mountains of Ararat became the holiest place, and center for all spiritual life in the earth. In addition to Noah, Abraham, Moses, David and Jesus are appearances of the Second Adam carrying out the revelation of GOD through new covenants, inheritance and judgment. The Second Adam as a device for continuing the sacred goals of Creation, and instituting salvation for mankind pertains to birth (e.g., growth, ordered change, regeneration, reproduction and sanctification), rather than to death. The tool of translation no longer appears; and the direct reversal of death through resurrection becomes the primary mechanism in replenishing the earth. Through the Second Adam the New Jerusalem from heaven will become the center for government and worship in the earth. The World system that gradually developed following the deliverance of Noah continues to evolve unto this day. Thus, Mosaic law to establish a sacred nation also included codes against incest and sexual activity with near kin; while the profane path promoted by the World is seen continued in present legislative and Supreme Court actions to support same-sex marriage. There is an assumption that the authority of a democratic majority and Commonwealth is as great if not greater than that of a sacred community. However, rightly understood, Congress, States, municipalities and the Courts may only have legal authority over that that is social, animal and profane, and only may go forward to rule rooted in an understanding that marriage (1) is not spiritual, (2) may not be held as the sole province of the church, (3) is not primarily defined by any religious community or people of GOD, and (4) is not solely under the jurisdiction of GOD as sovereign over mankind. Love is a “right” through citizenship, and a function of franchise or political freedom. As among those defiled, and as before the flood of Noah, the proliferation of mankind is established as entirely biological and mechanical. Overturning every notion of separation for Church and State as discreet, legitimate and sovereign powers, the World insists neither marriage nor reproduction are to be accounted as sacred.


THE GOLDEN ARROW: Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all. (Ephesians 1: 15-23, King James Version)


THE DOUBLE DAGGER: Why A “Spokesperson”? (01/14/2013); No Contradictions? (01/15/2013); Candles of GOD? (12/26/2012); Hellfire and Brimstone Preaching? (12/27/2012); On Seeing Jesus Serve the Poor (12/03/2012); Hero or Zero? (12/04/2012); Why “Mysterious” (11/11/2012); Attending Church? (11/12/2012)


Dear Mikelol: Most mature Christian believers will tell you that the basic process of divinity is one of revelation whereby created beings and living creatures are permitted to “discover” and become aware of the action and presence of GOD, who is a spirit, through objects and events in material and physical reality. GOD does not hide from mankind and others; and so it is necessary that GOD distance himself from Creation to accomplish sacred purposes, administer divine law impartially, fulfill righteous judgment, and to maintain established order. More than this, there must be a transformation of awareness within the living described as re-birth from divine DNA (so to speak), suppressing the animal nature within mankind, and promoting the human potential to realize mankind’s divine aspects.

For many, arrogance and ignorance separate mankind from GOD. Only by operations of the inner spirit may humans display such elements as acknowledgment, devotion, dutifulness, faithfulness, humility, repentance, reverence, wisdom, worship and wrath against sin. Ongoing operations that normally describe the mind and mental functioning of humans lack focus and power to apprehend the Divine Person. Operations of the flesh also are obstacles (e.g., appetite such as hunger, thirst, and sexual cravings; sensation such as hearing, seeing, tasting, touching) along with such features as desire, emotion, fantasy, forgetting, imagination, logic, recall, and pride.

There is far more to be said, correctly applied, and spiritually apprehended. (For example, sin opposes the existence of divine law, sacred being, and all that exists as the Creation of GOD. Sin was first identified among the angels, and also separates mankind from GOD. We would say that sin is “no-thing”. Sin has no dimension or shape, and contains no sacred substance; however, sin has direction, effect and presence. Sin may dominate the self-will in living beings; yet, sin is not created by GOD, and GOD is not subject to sin. Through the added endowment of the Spirit from GOD made available through the ministry of Jesus Christ men are made able to detect and resist sin where otherwise they would be totally vulnerable.) Even so, I trust this fragment will be useful. Be it unto you according to your faith.


THE BLACK PHOENIX
Washington, DC