Sunday Sermon 2/5/2017

“I believe in God, but not religion.” ~ Gil Grissom

When I was single, I used to date women that would say: “I’m not religious but I’m spiritual”. It’s not the same.  We are all spiritual.  As Teilhard De Chardin wrote: “We are not humans having a spiritual experience; rather Spirits having a human experience”.  Religion is a belief in an afterlife based on stories passed down through history.  Spirituality is the energy force that powers your physical vessel it occupies while existing in this dimension.

Yeah, heavy, I know!

2017 years ago the Messiah said, upon this rock I shall build “My Church”.   I believe He did.  To quote Agent Mulder: “The Truth is out there”.  During the first Century A.D. the teachings of Christ were already being distorted.  The 12 Apostles were spreading the teachings as they understood them, but the people in the assemblies were making their own rules.  It’s Ironic because the Pharisees loved rules and felt that all they needed to do was “follow the rules” and they were in the heavenly Que.

The Church of Californians

In Corinth, the church became divided amongst the apostles, as one contingency would say I am of Paul and another would say I am of Peter.

The division had begun. People were of Christ through someone else.  That’s sort of how the Catholic Church works today.  Catholics are of the Pope.

Some are of Martin Luther. (Lutherans). Some are of John the Baptists. (Ad prefix + Baptist Church).

Some are of John Smith. Some are of Space Aliens.

As I study the Bible, neither Peter, Paul, Martin Luther, the Pope, John the Baptist or John Smith died for your sins.

Somewhere on this planet, Satan was able to divide and attempt to conquer.   He used Sal Alinski’s rules for radicals.  Turn Christians against one another.  Hang suspected witches.  Yet Christ said: “Let he who is without sin throw the first stone”. I don’t blame the decline of culture and mores for the lack of attendance in the Church.  I blame the lack of Truth being taught in the church to accommodate today’s moral decay.  Why is the Rock Band more important than Holy Communion?  Why do those who are invited to come forward for Baptism, done so in the presence of a Hammond B3 Organ playing major 7^th chords?  Does this make the commitment seem more righteous? I love God, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  But what were once secret living rooms, are now concert halls/503Cs.  Baptism is now an inconvenience rather than a public show of faith.  So most churches avoid the numerous verses in the Bible about being baptized.  I call that Burger King Christianity.  “Have it Your Way”.  It doesn’t work like that.

In the end; your salvation is between you and The Creator.  None of us are perfect.  It’s getting harder and harder to worship in a church that interprets the Bible as it was taught in the first century. IF you are not a Christian or a self-proclaimed Christian and read the New Testament in search of the requirements of salvation; you’ll find 5 basic indicators throughout the New Testament and finally, a wink and a nod in the book of Matthew.

1.  Hear the Gospel
2. Believe that Christ is The Messiah (Sent down as the Son of God to die for your soul)
3. Confess that you are a sinner
4. Repent or try to stop sinning. The trying is the important part.
5. Be Baptized. If you want to have fun, take a Bible program and look up how times Baptism is mentioned and how many times it is directly associated with salvation.If you are not a member of a Christian Church, find 3 believers and one who knows how to baptize.  Ask them to explain the Gospel to you (Hear) Tell them with open mouth that you believe Jesus died for your sins.  Admit that you are an imperfect human that sins.  Say that you will repent from your earthly sinful direction.  Then find a hot tube, swimming pool and if needed, get down to the “River” and have one of the believers proclaim that they are baptizing you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Then submerge you in water.  If you do this. (Including the full submersion part) you will begin your relationship with Christ.  He will know you.  You will not hear Matthew 7:21.  You won’t be perfect which is why when we pray; we ask for forgiveness of our sins.  Remember in Driver’s Education they say you break the law every 7 seconds while behind the wheel without knowing it? (Hyperbole I’m sure), Your life as a new Christian will be somewhat of the same nature.  So when you pray, always ask for forgiveness AND never hesitate to forgive those you have put one over on you.If you are on life support in an ICU ward; remember that God can save whom ever He wants.  Don’t wait until you’re on a respirator in intensive care.

The Wink and the Nod: Matthew 7:21

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’

The key is the part in BOLD. “I never knew you”.  This goes back to my statement about your salvation being between you and The Creator.  Sitting in the back pew every Sunday for 52 weeks a year will not save you. You have to exercise trust and faith and reach out for something that is not directly visible.  By doing this, you are making an appeal to Christ for a relationship.

You have no proof of what lays ahead of you after this life. So you need to decide if this story that’s been around for over 2000 years is as real as the miracles written about; or if you want to go on living in a point and shoot existence.  We already accept that there are forces that exist which are not in the visual field of the human eye.  We have discovered that everything in this consciousness is energy.  Finally we’ve been given an example of two humans who died and came back to life.  Christ brought Lazarus back from death after 3 days.  Then Christ Himself was risen from the dead after 3 days of death.  He did this to prove that there was life in another place. Another dimension not visible to us.  We need to use faith and love as our ticket to this dimension.

In closing let me just add this.  You can not lose your salvation.  But The Creator will not force you to love Him.  He respects your free will enough to let you walk away from your salvation.

Matthew 7:21

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. 22 Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’

A recent article by Erin Pavlina, (a self-proclaimed Psychic) wrote this article about

“Praying to God.

Since I know my audience has an 8 second attention span; The link above in red is to Erin’s article and I’ll give you my thoughts on her point of view on the Great Almighty.  In short, she refers to God (The monotheistic one and only true God) as source Energy.  I don’t want to add words to her article as I want to be fair and accurate.

Source energy is a new age and perhaps semi-Buddhist view of the Creator of all things physical.  I walked away from her article thinking: “Yes God gave us a brain to figure out and deal with our own decisions”.

It’s like the parable of the flood (It’s not in the bible) and how the evangelical sits on his rooftop and turns away a raft, a boat and a helicopter because he’s convinced that God will save him.  When he drowns, the evangelical said: “But God I waited for you on my rooftop! Where were you”?  God then replies, I sent you a raft, a boat and a helicopter. What were you waiting for the Queen Mary”? (I improvised at the end)

You get the point.  And this was the point of Erin’s article.  God is not our own personal genie.  Then she starts talking about vibrational matches and the law of attraction.

But if you truly know God, the prayers that get answered are the ones that will make you a better person and often after you have exhausted all of your options.  If your prayer is not answered delivering the result you wanted, do not be disappointed.  There’s an old saying that when God shuts a door, He usually leaves a window open.

More importantly:

God tends to come through when you are facing a situation that is out of your hands.  In this case, we are talking about faith.  If you’ve done all you can, and even gone so far as to be proactive and made the reminder phone calls, God will often wait until the 11th hour to see if your belief system is firm.  Again; If you don’t get the desired result, don’t be disappointed.  Ask yourself what you did or didn’t do that put you into this situation.  Or think outside of the box.  Ask yourself if God is trying to get you to look in a different direction.

When things don’t go your way, don’t blame God; rather question yourself.  NASA missions have been scrubbed for the “want of a nail”. (A scrubbed launch is better than 10 dead astronauts)  When you are in your 11th hour, all you can do is be humble and believe.  In the back of your mind (not the front) have a plan B.  If that raft doesn’t show up as the water is rising; think about the closest roof top you think you can swim too.  There may be someone there God wants you to meet.  Yeah, God works in wonderous ways (Job 37:5).  Here is a deep bit of advice.

If you know God, you know that there are no such things as coincidences.  If you know God’s principles, you know that He helps the humble and admonishes the haughty (conceited).  Finally, everything you have is from God.

Nothing on this spinning blue ball is worth losing your faith for.  Remember, Christ said: “He who does the will of my Father who is in Heaven will enter”.  He finishes off the warning by saying, in spite of all the good things you’ve done: “I will say depart from me you who practice lawlessness for I never knew you”.

If you’re right with God then you’ve got “No worries mahn”.

WHAT IS GOD?

Elihu in Job 37:5 says it perfectly: “God thunders with His voice wondrously,
Doing great things which we cannot comprehend.”

Soloman writes in Proverbs 3:5 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart
And do not lean on your own understanding.”

Later in the “Post-Gospel” books, the disciples are stressing the importance of being humble. They spoke to God through Jesus.  I would take their words with the utmost respect.

I don’t think there is a superlative in the dictionary that could begin to describe God.  It’s odd because deep inside, I feel that our spirits know who/what God is.  Why? Because I believe we’ve met before.  This was probably long before I was born on this planet.  Which makes me wonder if there’s another reason why the older you get, the wiser you get?  Was I given ethereal advice before I was born?  Was this advice tucked away in my “Junk DNA”?

I don’t know.

Webster describes God as:

1. (in Christianity and other monotheistic religions) the creator and ruler of the universe and source of all moral authority; the supreme being.

2. (in certain other religions) a superhuman being or spirit worshiped as having power over nature or human fortunes; a deity.

CAUTION *

In New Age thought, God is often referred to as Source, Source Energy, Love, it gets vague and goes downhill from there.  Do not listen to any one who makes either or both of these two statements.

1. We are all God.  (No. We were created in his likeness. If we were created we can’t be the creator)  My mother may have given birth to me but that doesn’t make me my mother or my father. (OTOH, I do have her mitochondrial DNA)

2. “You don’t die”. (Surely you shall not die ~ Satan) Yes you will die.  You will leave this realm. this Paradise or this Battlefield. Your spirit will depart your decomposing body and be “recalled” where you and our maker will go over your life experience.  Should you fear that day? (Judgment day) I say no.  I openly preach that you fear today.

Let me keep this short.  Humans are too smart to believe that our world, bodies and eco system are a coincidence. If you knew 1/10th of the anatomy and Physiology a Joe stethoscope doctor knows, you would realize how amazing this body was created.  I’ll go so far as to say it’s smarter than Porsche Technology. (And less expensive). The design of the human body is that of a deity.

Let’s just say that your body is truly built like a fine temple.  It has a central heating/cooling system called your hypothalamus.  It comes with its own pest control system called “White blood cells”.  It has it’s own Brita filters for your blood, lungs and eyes.  The point I’m making is: “The designer had to be a deity”.  As much as I like the Ancient Alien Theory, (I believe  it serves one purpose.)  It debunks Darwinian rubbish.  If man evolved from hominids, why did apes lose their body hair only to require clothing to stay warm to survive?  The theory debunks its self.  Unless the evolution of man was to make an Armani suit fit better.

What is God?

God is The creative entity that is so powerful Moses himself was not allowed to see God.  God Himself said to Moses that to view him would kill Moses.  So God did a biblical “Fly by” so Moses could feel God’s “essence” in Exodus chapter 34.  In the Charlton Heston Movie “The 10 Commandments” Heston comes down from Mt. Sinai looking as if he had aged 100 years. In Exodus 34:29 It describes Moses’ face as “shining”.  Who knows? Exposure to Radiation?  I’ll call it a righteous glow.

God would later manifest himself in the Human form of Jesus. “The Christ”.  Jesus would work miracles effortlessly.  I think Jesus was playing with us at times as on occasion he would touch someone or wave his hand and they would be instantly healed.  Other times Jesus would spit in the dirt, mix it into mud, rub it in the blind man’s eyes and sent him to the pool to wash it out.  As the blind man did as ordered, his site was restored.  I wonder if Jesus, with a sense of humor looked at his disciples, smiled and said: “Hey guys; watch this”?

Love God (“For even the Demons Believe and tremble” ~ James 2:19)

Live Spiritually,

Ace

Faith

What do we really know about our material Life?  We see stuff, hear stuff, feel stuff, smell stuff and we can taste stuff.  We develop our belief in reality based on experience through these 5 physical senses.  Those are physical senses.  We also have the sense of memory and many of us are blessed with the ability of future awareness.  In the old days there were those called prophets.

But Dogs can hear things we can’t hear so how reliable are your ears?

Digital cameras and binoculars that detect infra-red heat can see things we cannot see.  Objects do exist outside of the visual spectrum.  So how reliable are your eyes?

If you hold your nose, your taste buds will not receive the stimulation that comes from a piece of bacon.  What good are your taste buds?

Ever try smelling something with a cold?  Dogs can smell scents we cannot.

I touched a very cold Ice cube.  It was sticky.  I came back an hour later and the same cube had turned to warm water.  My hand felt wet and warm.  A cute furry animal climbed up on my leg I reached down to pet it as it felt like a kitten.  It bit me as it was a squirrel.  Even if I touched it and saw it, my senses were wrong.

The use of our 5 senses are tools of Science.  As you can see, our senses can deceive us. Science is guilty of practicing the paradigm that “If we cannot prove the existence of something using our 5 senses; it does not exist”.  Translated: “If science cannot prove it, it only conveys our ignorance”.  Yet linear equations cannot explain the concept of infinity.  Science has a symbol for it but not an explanation.  We are in a sense; running a race with no track or finish line.

“Life is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” ~Macbeth act 5.5

Stay with me.

The entire concept of infinity makes what our conscious minds call matter or reality seem like pure fiction.  Until you can explain the concept of infinity we’re no more real than characters in a dream or a movie that possess free will.  Matter becomes as legitimate as time. Time is a tool invented by man to measure progress.  This world, this galaxy this universe is all relative. It appears spacious and to describe infinity; endless.  We’ve created rules or “Mores” to try to make sense of our existence.  We feel the need to bring meaning to our lives.  Does everything have meaning or a purpose?  Yet in the scope of the universe we are less than an Atom (not Adam)However; to an insect, we are giants, maybe even gods their eyes cannot see either. We certainly have the power of life or death over the entity.

There have been two profound moments in the history/memory of this plane of existence.  The first being the 10 commandments given to Moses by the Architect of our existence.  The 2nd being the physical manifestation of the Architect saying the two most important commandments were to love your neighbor as you would yourself and to love the Architect, Creator and Master (who is omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient) with your heart, mind and soul.  Our God!

But HOW?

How can I love something I can’t begin to imagine with my heart, mind and soul? What is this “soul” you speak of?  What is the verb “to love”?  The key is to use your imagination supported by trust.  If we are living in a truly grand illusion that exists in a location surrounded by an abstract concept called infinity then perhaps reaching out with our inner feelings and making an appeal with our outward actions we are using a mystical noun called “faith”.

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” ~Hebrews 11:1.

Maybe, just maybe, we are living in a spiritual world that is cloaked by a material camouflage.  Yet we’re earthbound until we are called out of this existence?

Until next time

Live spiritually

Ace