I have heard it said, often even, take ownership, Tom, take ownership. We can take ownership, we must; though we may not ever realize the necessity. We may gravitate in and out of a kind of ownership, all our lives, yet there’s more about it to be learned. First, what does it mean to take ownership? Well, it means to possess what is possessed. To take hold of a principal and make it my own, partitions it, but at the core remains owning up to my personal and intimate responsibility to the call and destiny of the individual life. It is the opposite of blaming others, it is the opposite of blaming self, it is the anti-thesis to all blame and disowning. Can you see the problem developing? It is an unconscious defense mechanism to deny personal responsibility through blame. Why can’t we just accept what happened? Why can’t we…
Tag: <span>grace</span>
The quality of mercy is not strain’d. It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest: It blesseth him that gives and him that takes. What all includes the results of mercy? It, for certain, escapes the earthy. Divine favor, yes Divine, I say, it multiplies, a gathering of honey, dripping comb wide. Rain, like that which soothes the hard day’s scorch, And more; topsoil and clay both absorb, Blood is our sprinkle, water the shower, But what’s the filth for wash this hour? A hideous substance, a lingering debris, It identifies me, and will not let me free. It drags me to turn, hangs over the shoulder, It lurks in corners, and makes me feel older. It opposes spontaneous, it inhibits free, It clings so sooty, it covers the knee, Moistening tear ducts, and standing neck hair, It hardens like Brillcream,…
Josh and Matt My inward me exists truly a kingdom. The ultimate happens when the total of what I know about God’s nature and His redemption becomes self- governing in there. A “perspective of the highest” saturates all of my faculties; perception, understanding, wisdom, feelings and senses. It can overcome the worldly kingdoms Explain more? See, the eternal building blocks of my little realm under God, supersede anything the temporal realm can throw at it. In a sense, when I invest heaven into my heart of hearts, I become a heaven’s kingdom representative on earth. When God Himself saturates our mind (with unconscious, subconscious and conscious parts), and our will, emotions, conscience and self consciousness; our whole programmed computer gains a ministry of simply sharing its wealth Effectiveness What does this person/kingdom look like? This person has discovered effectiveness. In other words they realize they have the ability to have…
With His arms wide open He rescued you and me; with His arms wide open…This line from a song rings in my heart much. When I was 25 years old He came and rescued me; from what? He rescued me from me. We fished off the sea wall on our breaks at work. Folks caught carp and cat fish and some of these grew pretty big. Workers gathered there to eat lunch. I cared not much for the fishing possibilities this day. “The Crack in the Cosmic Egg,” I had been reading a book called “The Crack in the Cosmic Egg,” I really lived cracked in my own cosmic egg is why I read this book. I liked the book as it came from the ideals of some far-out mystical religious teacher and captured my attention. He was teaching about Jesus walking on the water and how we can…
New Mexico Scene “What is grace?” I asked God. And He said, “All that happens.” Then He added, when I looked perplexed, “Could not lovers say that every moment in their Beloved’s arms was grace? Existence is my arms, though I well understand how one can turn away from me until the heart has wisdom. ”St.John of the Cross Christ’s coming brought grace. The law came by Moses but grace and truth by Jesus Christ. O happy day! The subject of grace presents a vast topic but essentially grace means favor; a disposition to grant something freely. Christ releases the Father’s disposition to grant something freely, having died in our place as our representative man. Any “worthiness” aspirations by us to gain a thing, would eliminate grace. Self-merit can only conjure a wage. Grace earns no paycheck, neither becomes one; grace stands outside of this rationale as screened. A…
Earlier in the book we talked about the streaking racers that follow every person in their lifetime. Well, where did the other racers go; I mean the negative ones? Well they are not conceding victory yet, instead they hold a couple of “aces in the hole” which they pull out when someone gets near grace’s healing. The Law, the Old sin nature, and the Kingdom of darkness, may have lost ground as grace surged at Christ’s coming, but patiently these streakers ready for re-opportunity. So the answer to where did they go is simple; nowhere. One of the secret tactics of the negative racers is the effective use of certain cliched sayings. The first and biggest phrase goes this way; “you are using grace as a license to sin”. What is implied here is that if you use too much grace you will feel free to go out and sin…
River in Nevada Love never fails. But how do I get love? Love comes to me through grace. “Where sin does abound grace does much more abound,” This is true love. The operations design of a man (inward adjustments) can be drastically altered in the current pre-rapture era. Physical bodies will have to wait till after the rapture for complete makeover, however. Does it mean nothing at all will happen to the body till then, and if something will happen, to what extent? Let’s think about what the body does for us now and also then. The body is our bridge to the world and our shield from it. Skin makes contact with our external world and converses with it using facial expressions and body language etc. It deflects that screaming baseball be-lining my squirming skull. It senses, smells and touches and much more. Future body will also bridge us…
Woods and Snow “That men were ashamed, was the essential consequence of the fact that their glory; that clothing of honor of their body had been perverted into the shame of nakedness… Franz Delitzsch So far, (in this book), we have reviewed an abstract on hair-raising trauma, a treatise of the ego, and a true to life tale about how the downward drag of religion started the negative ball rolling in my young life. What do these three very different thoughts imply? Where do they overlap? Do you relate at all to the parts, or whole? I actually asked myself a similar question; what is a very real similarity in it all? The striking point of cohesion is written in one word: shame. Shame and awareness of inadequacy, awareness of a need for more, a groping to reach for something not yet there, and the thing that brings a…
Pump house from the side door Some guys on T.V. talk about what we have to do, and they use a lot of Bible verses. Most of the talking sets the record straight on our responsibilities, and how to go about accomplishing them. These guys teach us how to not lose God’s favor and maintain a good standing. They are good at this kind of instruction. They speak this way all the time. I notice also how they appear so intelligent and have gained a lot of applause in other circles. Truly they are leaders and generally they know more than me so I must quietly learn from them. Boy, I wish I could learn all of their techniques and how-to-do-its. Some are Doctors and some Bishops or Elders even. When we hang out listening to these men and women, we sure feel good about finally knowing what some things…
Josh and Puddle Sometimes folks can’t focus in life, lured away toward a seductive universe, one featuring a soothing state of mental relaxation, centering problems removed. Let’s explain. People with attention deficit disorder are known to have remarkable powers of concentration without distraction, but only in the world of their chosen fantasy. Amazing. The more a person succumbs to the alluring facade, the less able they are to concentrate on other things? Interesting and telling. A person watches porn on the internet or immerses themselves in a video game, or plays excessive bingo, or whatever they give their heart to, and the real world becomes a loathsome chore. Not too hard to understand. How can the natural course of life compete with such intense and provocative views that challenge, stimulate and require some perceived risk? Likewise, some believers are distracted from fervent preaching and teaching of the Word, because they…