Jesus Plus Nothing His Word

Only the sick have need of a physician. Those who say they do not need to get better or do well, do not know of their need, and do not accept the Physician. And millions today who have words to that effect, were drawn not by nets or by conviction unto sorrow working repentance, but for a purposeful life, for a better changed life, for direction in life to do and see great things--to build "Jesus' kingdom", to acquire and finally have a not-dysfunctional/abusive/messed-up family but one with wisdom, happiness, comfort, love, folks worth trusting and listening to because that they have been promised Jesus can do...and I'm afraid that such has nothing to do with precisely with what He Himself said was necessary to possess Him. (Though versions of these things certainly can be--and some certain become--consequences of inheriting the King.)

For instance, millions--literally millions--scoff and blaspheme those who insist that doctrine not only ought be correct, but that it is Jesus Himself that warned it needs be correct, else one may have been taken captive by wolves in sheep's clothing, teaching and doing in His name--and doing noble things that are great powers!--but will be told, "I never knew you"; so often I have heard men say about this that whether one will hear this is dependent upon their works rather than Jesus', or that therefore they'll keep working to build His kingdom and draw men nigh unto a right life, "loving" and "preaching" what they call "Jesus"!

But of course, that's kind-of the thing, supposedly, the very men he speaks of coming to Him, having done in His name and yet, "I never knew you" is their reward along with being sent away. Millions more...have dead orthodoxy if any at all, while the zealous nowadays? Zealous for works, but their own. While pretending to themselves to be faithful they go and do what the "liberals" did a century ago--divorcing the life and walk from the doctrine, the thing ill-described with modern notions of "message" or "teaching" used vaguely and without precision to hew to the word, though perhaps a lot of ostentation and sophistry.

So I would edit this^ (propaganda photo) if it were of my making. I need to get better--of my ignorance and sickness of heart, deadness in sin and ruin by its indwelling and fruits; by the false doctrines spread about in the name of Jesus and thousand little kingdoms built in His name and by attribution to His work blaspheming and causing Him to be blasphemed in regards the many departures and substitutes proposed in the stead of His own word, interpretations for a real reading of His revelations, and so forth: indeed perhaps more do I need repair from the counterfeits substituted for the real thing to draw me and others in, than many other things one could think needing healing for: if cancer, auto-immune conditions, depression, despondency, endless grief...let it be that I have instruction from the Father and Son, through the Spirit and by His leading, to be washed of poisoned and muddy waters, and kool-aid where the blood of the Only-begotten was needful for drinking. I need...to be made well by Him who is the truth and yet warned of the many counterfeits coming--a message His apostles spread and warned of, and wrote eventually "even now there are many antichrists" (in Gr. = substitutes for Christ).

Why write all this^? Because there is a false piety and love of "simple religion" consisting of "all I want/need is 'JESUS'", divorcing the Man from His word--the life from doctrine, the change of life from a heavenly birth and attributing it to "the philosophical result of the right use of the constituted means" (full context given below*), to give a quote (of an heretical quality) from the hero and model for contemporary "evangelicalism", which has nary an simile to the historical sort named such by the Lutherans; whether a behavioristic manipulation of men with clever speech and attention to what key phrases and current fads catch attention, or looking for "felt needs" (emotions) to take advantage of: no wonder they "burn out" and die, and must "refresh" endlessly at yet another empty well of conferences filled with men's ideas, who think they're rich and praise one another about their humility and knowing one another's hearts. (* "There is nothing in religion beyond the ordinary powers of nature. A revival is not a miracle, nor dependent on a miracle, in any sense. It is a purely philosophical result of the right use of the constituted means—as much so as any other effect produced by the application of means. . . . A revival is as naturally a result of the use of means as a crop is of the use of its appropriate means" [Charles Finney, Lectures on Revivals of Religion (Old Tappan, NJ: Revell, n.d.), 4-5].")

NO, in the modern context--due to the abuse of that language--though literally true I think it cannot be said while communicate truth accurately, "I just need Jesus": these have, after all, become words to which the "Christian" population is conditioned to react, to shut-down their thought and turn them upon critics and any who dare "attack" their religion, beliefs and actions alike--or forgive me, "spirituality"...for those who get offended even by this, "Just Jesus!"; those four little words cannot in such a poisonous context be used to proclaim faithfully--when one is cognizant of such difficulties or else fallen prety to the counterfeit now embodied in these few words--and explaining, very thoroughly, also all that entails and what He said--of which it seems the highest preachers are ignorant (I was shocked at the shock of Ted Haggard falling, for instance: around 10 years-old I was in his church several weeks upon invite of mother and I by her friend, and heard him blather about not sinning by mere will for weeks, and instructing all "pray about something only once, else you're doubting God!" obviously diverging from Jesus and apostles--and I hadn't even read the Bible, just heard exerpts in a Catholic mass to which my great aunt would take me). To the modern mind "Jesus" say person; to the ancient, and historical one, just as He said, He is not received apart from His word--or the Father's dragging a man to Him. (Apart from these, there is no surprise that men should abandon "their" faith: the faith--and its Object--were never theirs. Actually, such men are often better off: better such truth become evident to them, than remain in company of men deluded by false religion.)

And ostentatious as it may seem to use such words from another time and tongue, they're now a technical phrase which embodies--like most technical statements--so much more such that, for those who know that substance, they know whether they are here a fitting end,

Solo Deo Gloria.

Here you can find a wonderful photo blog:

Even better, this photoblog (http://rockmountainphotography.blogspot.com/) is of the Rocky Mountain region and its wildlife. It includes shots of landscapes and animals, and some videos.

Striking back...

The Real Book Blog.

Where are...

...the days going: two are missing. I don't know anymore...

Anthophila at Work on Catnip...

If ordeals won't end or torment cease, I recommend getting out a while for some idleness in admiring nature. If you click an image it will enlarge; right-click the larger image and select "view image" (in Firefox) to get the ability to zoom in. Noncommercial downloads welcome, and by downloading you can also zoom even more in an image viewer, as these are high resolution photos; please share by pointing anybody here to the source; use for commercial purposes without permission is discouraged as I am hardly able to make an income myself, and would appreciate notice and a little bit of collaboration on commercial work:

Bees on Catnip...

...and flying

...with stump and fungus in background

Blue (Orchard?) Critters:

 (Apologies for blur image above, but catching these with the camera was quite hard.)

Apologies, but my 4MB digital Kodak couldn't catch the smallest bees, or every species there: too much movement, so while I hunted a few very pretty individuals, I largely tried to wait on slower individuals that would come close. A very small specimen that "Trigona minima" I had no chance to catch, though what is actually was I don't know. Wasps also buzzed about, but nearer the ground aside from the location I was focused on.

Let it rain...

I am sitting here and there are clouds, though thin, and some thunder. It's far south of here, but here's to hoping rain will start to hit Colorado Springs.

From the looks of radar little is happening there (the big stretch of clouds is north of it, west of Denver). The spots visible may even be just the smoke from fire showing up on radar.

A Re-Writing of Thoughts, Rought Draft, Philosophies that Seem Right but Are Counterfeits, Potential Item 1

Philosophies whose far-reaching consequences have badly undermined, subverted, perverted, and twisted organizations purporting to believe and advance the gospel, and the gospel itself:

1. For everything you do, you should ask how it advances the kingdom of God, or helps fulfill the great commission.
   
    This one gets equivocated with "gospel centrality", and as that label generally signifies, the gospel is not central: men are.

    In fact,  true believers who aren't readily useful to these ends either get treated nicely but ambivalently, pushed-aside, or trampled before all is said and done. The Church is not merely a mission organization--and it is almost a mortally urgent enough a situation to rephrase that "the Church REALLY ISN'T a mission organization": the Church does not exist to save men, or see them saved, that is, the activities of its members, but is rather a congregation gathered by the Lord God, for His pleasure, to worship Him, to be a peculiar people, separate, Holy, pleasing, and "the great commission", perhaps meriting the excision of "the" to remove it from the principle place in men's minds, is but one function: I say "but one" because of the pervertedness of "mission", "evangelism", "gospel" in our age: if they were not so, if the world were not so loved, then I would have to write differently: the gospel indeed is something about which the Church is to gather, because it is precisely what tells of and points to Christ: fail to gather around and declare the gospel, fail to gather around and feast on Jesus Christ. But again, what must be emphasized are the proper placements, the order: it is spoken of today as a thing for men to go out doing in God's name, but the the savior is God, not men, and the purpose of the Church is the corporate worship of God, not scheming to reach men: the Church does not exist to ensure men saved, it is the habitation of those who are, and to really throw a punch at this though--though urging remembrance that it is due to the dire and twisted age we live in--its function as means to reach men might be said to be but ancillary: quote the end of Matthew all ye want, that was said to His apostles, and while their commissioning is bequeathed to all who believe, they must remember the gathering is for the Lord and His sheep.

   The sense are all wrong in our day, because millions have been gathered in wrongly and mistaught: the churches--gatherings indeed but not of Christ, despite ostensible reasons--now exist to serve the unregenerate, those who can't even worship, those who can't continue walking aright without many programs and devices, and many adjustments to definitions and senses of scripture to claim and thinking (in willful ignorance) that despite all the evidence, because they have prayed for Jesus, they are "the Lord's", or saved: they are, however, the Lord's--as objects of wrath, at enmity with Him, though delusional to think otherwise. The mistake regarding these things is that they are made to be about the world, a humanitarian good-cause, a GREAT cause--astoundingly large, colossal, and so seen by many as worthy because it's big rather than trivial, but it was called "the great commission" because it's scope is universal--to go to every nation and tribe; a bit in the gospel so missed by those enamored with saving men, rather than obeying Christ and seeking to live ordinary, or "quiet and peaceable" lives as commanded, is that small things indeed matter: forsake them for the grand, and you will fail in that as well.
   
    More men come to get men saved than they do to be saved from sin, because they need direction, purpose, meaning in life: it becomes yet another secularly spirited cause-based purpose for living, something to give meaning, to guide one's actions, rather than being led by the Spirit of God, often not so rewardingly, given His leading is to make one forsake sin, and become Holy: to obey God, irregardless of how grand one's works seem.
   
    Likewise, more come for the meaning in whatever form, perhaps a more moral, therefore fulfilling, life.
   
    Men come for the promise of blessing, in the temporal sphere, to have a satisfying life. "Love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control", but these are left out of their context of hardship (the "straight" before "road" is related to "hard" and notoriously difficult to translate), "tribulation" (which means "suffering--the kind we don't wish to endure) on account of Christ--indeed according to Him perhaps moreoften at the hands of those who will claim God (right then at His time) and then Him ("the many", "who will reproach you") than necessarily at the hands of secular or other-religious authorities (though they are definitely included in that practice): for the lamp on a stand shines brightly in the dark most evidently among those who know something about the truth, than those who cynically answer upon hearing "the truth", like Pilot, "what is truth".
   
    God did not come to give men a mission in life, a wonderful plan in which as men freed from sin they can realize their dreams, or even to enslave them as followers to self-appointed leaders in the Church who demand obeisance as their right, as the will of God, shouting "obey your leaders", and not explaining either the meaning of "obey" from Greek, or the context of that verse. Christ Jesus came to save sinners, to save them not from its consequences per se, but from that which begets those consequences, not the death and destruction they beget in this life per se, but the death they merit at the hands of an infuriated God who is Holy, who is Just, but who is not loath to visit wickedness with its due simply as a matter of principle that a good man must uphold, as the modern evansmellical kingdom likes to portend to remove offense from the gospel.

    We are indeed to do all for the advance of God's kingdom: but principally for God's glory, because His honor is at stake: in His coming was planned a sacrifice to save men, but we must remember also that Jesus quite explicitly said the purpose of all He did was to glorify the Father: He came, sinners to save, but to glorify the Father: it is the glory of God that is the high goal, not the saving of men which is the wonderful evincement of the riches of His mercies, the which reveals his wondrous love and how great are His mercy--to His glory. Men squeal in scorn at hearing this, that the end in view is God's glory--and not as the modern Christian often says "to God's glory', but really to His glory; they squeal, "God the narcissist", but of course such is a grave misunderstanding, because narcissism is a self-focus, whereas God, King of Kings, is preparing a whole nation to worship Him, and He exists as separate persons in the same being: perhaps a slightly more accurate blasphemy would be to call Him an "attention whore", but the reality is He is the only One in all of Heaven and Earth deserving of every attention and affection, and also demands love toward neighbor, and defines such as intrinsic to loving Him: He even condescended to become a man, and live among men, and proclaim a salvation for wicked man, and give them such attention as a very man that it is written that He can sympathize with our sorrows and travails in this life.

   Irregardless of the scorn, however, that is heaped upon His name, in the end He has promised, "every knee will bow".