The Renegade Doc Comments

Posts Tagged ‘sin’

Having briefly outlined the Cosmic Experiment, or perhaps better called the Cosmic Battle, into which Adam plunged our planet, and the resulting Consequences in our previous posts, we come now to the question of what does this mean in daily life, and is there a solution?

As I alluded in the last post, I don’t think any of us truly understand how completely we are overcome by this need to control.  Every fiber of our being is dedicated to it.  We have to control EVERYTHING and we find all kinds of ways to do so, at times actively and at other times passively.

Those of us who are really good at controlling tend to do so forthrightly.  Domineering men and women who have every “i” dotted and every “t” crossed are obvious in their ability and need to control.

Those of us who are not so good at being so forthright have developed a mastery of using passivity and “shrinking” to manipulate our situations and people around us.

Relationships totter and fall, crash and burn around the issues of control and passivity, be they marital, friend or business relationships.  Hint: if you are struggling in any of your relationships, ask where the control issues are.

Business, religion (yes, even the “Christian” church), politics, law, medicine, education, entertainment, the media and every other human organization are all designed to control.  In spite of all the wonderful verbage about how much these aspects of life are set up to help people, they become a monster in their own right, dictating to people what they must and must not do to maintain approval and good standing.

Last weekend I saw a church sign telling the community to “Give the best you have to God.”  That sounds wonderful and who will argue that it is not a good thing to do?  But the implication that there is a part of you that you can keep for yourself is CONTROL, pure and simple.  What if Father is telling you to give Him EVERYTHING, or NOTHING?  Are you listening, communing?

For me, the word “sin” has taken on a totally new meaning.  It is no longer some theological expression that tries to describe how wicked I am, how my behavior needs to be punished.  Rather, it is a word that describes this failure to follow Father’s heart, this falling short of living life in spirit, this failure to commune with Father and instead try to become and live and “make it” on my own, by my own terms, under my own control.

This thing, Control, to which we have given ourselves has totally and insidiously turned and Controlled us!  We are its slave, in more bondage to it than anything else we could possibly imagine.

So we have this problem.  Can this infestation, this spirit-mind-body invasion be negated?

What to do?

Do you want to do?  Do you want release? Freedom?

Many, I fear, don’t.  Being told what to do and how to live life is way too comfortable for many (most?)  Even those of us who are Renegades in some areas find other areas where it is much easier to be told; and we also like to control things that are important to us, such as our “Renegadeness!”

But there is a way to undo, overcome, restore ourselves to the place of Freedom and Communion.  It is simple, yet the hardest thing to do.

Let go.  Stop controlling.  Live in Spirit/Intuition as Adam did originally and reenter that place of Communion with Father.

Easy to say, HARD to do.

The first to do it, truly, was Yeshua, the Christ. His answer was to actually start over, to be reborn, to live life with a different set of genes, under a different rule of genetics. He lived under a genetic code of UNCONTROL.

Note how he characterized his life:

I and my Father are one.
I can do nothing unless I first see my Father doing it.
Not what I want, but what you, Father, want.

When the Enemy tempted Him to gain His Success, His Goals, attain His Purpose on His own, He refused, completely submitting to His Father.

Now it is encouraging to see and think that someone could break this “Curse” but is even more discouraging if we thought we could never do so as well.

But the GOOD NEWS is that Yeshua also pointed out that He came exactly for the purpose of Finding and Restoring what was lost, the Communion between human and Father.  It cost Him His life, but it broke the chains of Control that bind us.

Let’s live in that Freedom and return to Communion, letting go of all the Control!

But we can’t do it with our Head, our Words, our Knowledge.  We can’t do it by more ritual or practice.

We must truly LET GO everything that has made sense to us in the past.

We must LET GO all the covering up that we are so good at doing, all the protection and posturing.

We must rebirth and live under a new genetics.

We must also Listen and Commune and then Do what comes to our heart to do, submitting our moments of every day, our energy, our money, our desire, our goals, our everything to that communion.  Father communicates in spirit and we must live at that level, in spirit, to commune with Him.  The dis-order must be put back into its proper order.

It is somewhat analogous to riding on the rear seat of a motorcycle.  All you can do is hold on.  There is NO CONTROL!  Regardless of what the driver does or where the driver goes, there is nothing you can do.  Your life and safety is totally in the hands of the driver.  There can be fear, for sure, but if you trust the driver and believe that he is most concerned for your best interest and care, there is immense freedom.

Go ahead, LET GO.

Get out of the front seat and climb on back.

Love, Communion, Freedom is there for the receiving.

Blessings,

Dr Jon

I have a farmer friend who says that everything he wants to do as a farmer, providing quality food products to consumers and generating an income in the process, is illegal.   That is his way of saying that everything (or nearly everything) in our society is set up to keep our real selves under wraps, in fear, fettered, unable to fulfill our true self/destiny.

I agree.

Christianity is a good example.

The basic foundational principle upon which Christianity is founded is a verse found in Jeremiah in the Bible which states that the heart is deceitfully wicked.  From that paradigm, all else in Christendom follows.  We have churches (purported to be for “fellowship”) whose main purpose is to provide group therapy to keep folk from letting their “evil” bust out all over the place.  Along with church we have lots of rules and regulations, dos and don’ts to keep us on the “straight and narrow.”  In the process there are also programs and procedures to “save the lost”, the wicked not connected to the church who have not attempted to control their evil urges.  John Eldredge of Ransomed Heart Ministries calls it “sin management.”  And he is right.  If you start with evil, you have to control it.

Unfortunately, most of us haven’t read, at least with understanding, the Scriptures.

The evil heart is the “bad news”, the “old covenant”.  The gospel came along with the “good news”, the “new covenant”.  The good news is that we are no longer possessors of an evil heart, but of a good heart.   Jesus talks about seed falling on good soil.  The cold, stony heart is replaced with a warm, living, breathing heart that can feel and love and communicate.

We watched a movie the other night whose theme was the depravity of man.  Some guy was killing people and expecting other people to dial in online to watch.  Gross.

News flash!

I could not do that!

I could not purposely kill someone, or lie, or cheat, or commit adultery.  Inasmuch as the Life of Christ, poured out for each of us on the cross is living in me, and chosen by me to be in control, it transforms my heart from the evil of Jeremiah to the good of the gospels.  (Am I perfect?  No.  Still have lots of working out of this good heart to do, but I am on the good trail, fighting the good fight.)

Before Christ came to the planet, there was no redemption, only the promise of a redemption to come.  But when Christ came, Redemption came in fulfillment as well.  Nor do we have to wait for “heaven” to participate and to be the benefactor of so great a salvation.  Jesus said “It is finished.”  He completed the task for which he came, and that task was to redeem what was lost.

What was lost?

What was lost was the Garden of Eden with its complete and total nakedness and unashamedness; the good heart that could look on another in their entirety of body, soul and spirit and know only innocence and love; the good heart that could walk with God in a sensual, real existence (the cool of the day) and communicate without fear of being struck down for unholiness or unworthiness; the good heart that could live at a level of spirit that transcended the physical, unfettered by the restraints (I believe) of space and time.

Jesus not only came and brought Redemption, he modeled it for us while he was on the planet as well.  He spent his time hanging out with the “wicked,” including the wicked religious called the Pharisees and Saducees.  Only the wicked prostitutes and thieves and liars and drunks knew they were “wicked” and welcomed Him as a Savior, as a Life-Giver.  The wicked religious felt they had no need of a Savior and became Life-takers, murderers, to prove it.

This good heart of the true believer is still certainly capable of living in freedom among the “wicked” of the earth, those who are lost, who are perhaps searching for meaning and reality in the middle of their existence.  We are also capable of living among the “righteous” churched, but we should be warned that crucifixion will likely result when we do!

For those of us who have been reborn and now have a good heart, it is time to step out from behind the Fig Leaves of form and performance and expectations of others and all the other games we play and  learn to live with open hearts, souls, minds and bodies and to get real with each other.  It is time to live beyond the rules and regulations and oppresions and live from the good heart of Christ In Us.  It is time we began to see Jesus as the Man who was the first GoodHeart and believe it when He said that what He did we will do and much more, even.

Lovingly, Challengingly,

Dr Jon

GoodHeart Group, Inc.

see God’s Plan of Redemption

I recently had this exchange with my amazing nephew, Jonny. He is a young man with a big heart and an amazing talent with the camera. We were communicating on Facebook.  It started out with him asking how I am  my family were doing and took into my “rant”:

Working hard at hearing Father and learning to be intimate with him. Like your choice of books and comments but, honestly, am beginning to change my views quite a bit. While it is about Him, it is also about us and me. Not in the “bad” way we try to avoid and which all your quotes try to point out but He chose to make us and to communicate with us and be intimate with us – if we will. Just like you wanting a wife; it is all about her. But she would say it is all about you. So both are right and both are wrong; not really about right at all. Is about restoring the Garden and the Communication and the Intimacy. Most of us miss it; think it is about sin and theology and just God.
Sorry, I rant. It is late and I need to get to bed; just wanted to reply now ’cause it will be next week before I have a chance to get on the computer again.Blessings!!Keep snappy!Unc J

He replied with:

In regards to your “rant”, I do have some questions for the sake of a clear understanding of what you are saying: One would be to know what is it that you mean when you say “theology” second, how would you see that sin plays into things (because it must at some level)? Third, it sounds like your understanding of our relationship with God is like that of a relationship between two equal parties… is that an proper interpretation of what you have said? If not, could you explain better, and if it is right, then could you explain what brought you to that understanding?
I am always up for learning some new stuff… and it sounds like you have some insights that I haven’t had a lot of exposure to. Maybe we can talk about some of this stuff…

-Jonny

I replied with:

Would be great to talk!“theology” is the “knowing” about God, the doctrine, the having to do things “right” that we mistakenly replace for a real acquaintance/relationship with a Loving Father.  Adam “knew” his wife and had kids; he didn’t study her doctrines, thinking, wishes, only.  He got intimate with her.  God wants to be intimate with us – like I told my students – he wants to “have sex” with us.  Paul in Ephesians as much as says so when he talks about marriage being the symbol/example for Christ and the Church.  Little over the top for most ‘Christians’ to handle, I know, but hey – that’s what it says!A couple of ways to think about sin.  One – Christ has completely solved the sin problem. Paul says we are no longer under the rule of sin and death.  Jesus said he came to seek and to save THAT WHICH WAS LOST – the Garden of Eden with all of its perfection.  And then, on the cross he said, “It is Finished!”  He did solve the sin problem.  John says we have no sin.But he also says we have sin.  Philip had a great illustration.  We are not necessarily members of Alcoholics Anonymous but are members of “Sinners Anonymous”.  Hello, my name is Jon; I am a recovering sinner; I have been totally controlled by it but no more; I still have to be careful and remember, but it no longer controls me and I am no longer defined by my sin, but by my Love of and from Father/Jesus/Spirit.Equals?  Yes and no.  (Paradoxes are all over this – kind of like the parables).  Like husband and wife, even though the husband may be the king and the wife may be the cinderella.  In one sense not even close to equal but in another chosen to be loved and married and thus an equal.  Part of the mystery.  Our relationship is not really of two equal parties but of two lovers.  Song of Solomon – king and poor girl.

This whole Christian thing is MUCH more personal, more intimate and more intense and more just about love than we want to believe or think.  We like to keep it in the brain where we can understand and control it.  Jesus, however, came to totally destroy all that control and thus the Pharisees crucified him for it.  If he were to come today our churches and seminaries and bible schools would do the same!

How have I come to this?  My life, my thinking, myheart, my listening to Father, my training, my experience, my reading of Scripture with an attempt to take a fresh look, my asking “why?”, my relationship with Father.

Blessings! Come see us!

Unc J

-Jonny