Discipling the Undisciplined no. 9

“You shall not murder” (Exodus 20:13). 

“You shall not murder” (Deuteronomy 5:17).

“You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not murder’; and ‘whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, ‘You fool,’ you will be liable to the hell of fire” (Matthew 5:21-22). Before I move on in the Sermon on the Mount, I just want to make what Jesus said clear and show that it is directly related to the law given by Moses. There are no ifs, buts, or coconuts anywhere in there given by either God or Jesus because that begins to be what folks like to do . . . start with their behavior and then work an excuse back that God and Jesus did not mean exactly what they said. So, that is kind of where we have to really make a decision. That is really our choice. I have to decide whether I accept what God said no matter what I have been told, taught, and learned on my own. And that is one of the true challenges of reading, studying, and meditating on The Bible and trying to know God better. The challenge is to what we think we know. And it can be difficult to change. It takes a lot of courage to say I was wrong about this idea and I need to make some changes. 

I grew up in churches that talked more about America than the Kingdom of God. I still attend churches that talk more about America than the Kingdom of God. And living in a disjointed country that wants to constantly cancel folks for thinking differently, I am more than a little concerned whenever I speak up about that problem. When I mention that maybe the church shouldn’t have an American skycloth in the building, folks look at me like I just arrived on the planet. When I emphasize that we are ambassadors for His Kingdom and not citizens of any nation, I get met with the compromise of dual citizenship. When I talk about the idea that Jesus didn’t command an army or tell us to join one, I get glares and disdain from veterans in the church. And if I mention that we shouldn’t murder people, sometimes it feels like I am introducing an idea never before heard. But, I assure you, those verses are there and the model of Jesus in His life, death, and resurrection reveal to me how important it is to die for what you believe. So, I don’t appreciate the ridicule and the questioning and even the disdain and anger BUT I get it. Nobody likes to think they need to change their mind.

I sure didn’t want to change my mind about God. When I started this journey nearly four years ago, I was just looking to get healthier. I was tired of being garbage. So, I started out getting myself physically and mentally well. I made a lot of changes to my body and my mind and then it happened. God started scraping away. I started getting healthy and He started working on me as a soul. I wasn’t looking for God. I was content in just working out a secular philosophy on things. It was good enough for me until it wasn’t. Then I moved forward, all in, on looking at exactly what The Bible said and exactly what I had been told. I had a rather schizophrenic view of God and Jesus and the Spirit. I needed to get that aligned. God is all about unity and community. So, I wanted to get aligned with Him and went out into His community with a lot of reservations. And, let me tell you, I was right to be afraid of Christians because a lot of them are scary. Say one thing to which they do not agree and you are a heretic and burning in hell forever. And if I wasn’t committed to a relationship with God, maybe the KJV only folks would have turned me away. If I wasn’t committed to a relationship with God, maybe any of the folks that accused me of having a squishy faith would have turned me away. If I wasn’t committed to a relationship with God, then maybe the folks that got angry with me about questioning whether what they believed was really aligning with Jesus and His life would have turned me away. BUT I am still here although I never wanted to be here. I wasn’t looking for this. I think that speaks volumes. None of them have turned me away from knowing Him.

So, I am not going to endorse murder by any name or for any reason. I trust Him. He kind of has this whole thing planned out. So, am I going to rely on my plans? I can easily see that what I planned out didn’t go that way then and isn’t going to go my way ever. Life is going to go the way He planned. So, I might as well just listen.

#DisciplingTheUndisciplined #ThinkBetter #BeBetter #NoKingButChrist #EmbraceTheWithin #SeekFirstTheKingdom #ServeOneAnotherInLove #NotMyWayYHWH

Discipling the Undisciplined no. 8

“You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not murder’; and ‘whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, ‘You fool,’ you will be liable to the hell of fire” (Matthew 5:21-22). I want to be really clear on this before we move ahead to the next part of the sermon. Jesus says “you shall not murder” and “whoever murders shall be liable to judgment” in repetition of the law given to Moses way back in the Tanakh. God made sure to outline that commandment and it appears in both versions from the scroll of Exodus that I mentioned earlier and later, “You shall not murder” (Deuteronomy 5:17). BUT a lot of folks don’t think Jesus meant what He said because I see a lot of excuses for why folks should be allowed to murder by Christians. Those reasons mainly focus on service to Babylon and protecting our life and stuff. So, did Jesus mean what He said? Did God really mean “You shall not murder” when He gave that commandment to folks that then decided to murder folks all over the pages of The Bible? Well, I think that depends on the lens with which you read The Bible and that is what gets folks confused.

One of the main parts about being a Christian that is often overlooked is the repentance of our mind. Repentance is literally changing our mind. And that changing of our mind should reflect in a change of how we act. Folks needed to change their mind about how they looked at the Kingdom of God. If you read through the Gospels, it is strikingly evident that the disciples did not understand what Jesus was talking about. It took them a long time to get what He was laying down about the Kingdom of God. It took a long time because even though they were walking with Jesus and doing awesome things with Him and through Him, they had an Old Testament lens of how things were supposed to go. They fully expected the Messiah, the Christ, to work on Babylonian terms and set up an earthly nation. They expected a warrior that would bring justice to the people of Israel and restore it through violence. And a lot of folks still read The Bible and Jesus that way today. They still have a lens of Old Testament expectation even when the glaring example of Jesus is right there next to the Tanakh in stark contrast. 

God meets people where they are. God can do great things with people that have a bad understanding of Him. God can do great things with people that have no understanding of Him. God doesn’t need me to understand Him to work out His plan. I want to understand Him. And that means I have to change the way I think about a lot of things. For me it isn’t so much the Babylon creep of murder BUT it is always the heart of anger. I used to get angry when Jesus was misrepresented. And I still have some of that anger within me when folks do not seem to be able to change their minds about murder. When I can see too much of Babylon creeping into their Christianity and making it into Christendom, it disappoints me. This especially disappoints me in folks that have been listening to the same stories and studying the same teachings that I have studied and come up with a multitude of excuses for justifying killing another image of God, another person that God formed with His hands and gave breath. It really breaks my heart every time I have to justify, to Christians, that Jesus taught forgiveness and, despite or because of His power, suffered and forgave us. He gave us The Way to get back aligned and at one with God through Him. 

BUT I still have to change the minds of folks that think murdering folks is okay given a certain situation or some responsibility to Babylon. I have to change my mind about things too like getting angry and judging folks. We all have things we need to work through and that is why following Him is a process that lasts a lifetime. And I know that the way I approach His words are important in allowing them to shape me or not. I can hear what He says or I can choose to do it my own way. And I have had enough of doing it my way. So I chose to start doing things His Way.   

“The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge, my savior; you save me from violence” (2 Samuel 22:2-3).

#DisciplingTheUndisciplined #ThinkBetter #BeBetter #NoKingButChrist #EmbraceTheWithin #SeekFirstTheKingdom #ServeOneAnotherInLove #NotMyWayYHWH