Even if I had used the qualifier to your quote…”unless they are given new birth” my observations would still have remained the same. I find no problem with your choices to attract both members of the choir and those who would clearly not see life your way into your blog.

Your blog is exclusive in nature and it allows you the comfort of knowing that here, in this place, you have control over the conversation and its outcomes. Millions in the blogosphere do it daily. Such a situation here IS, no doubt, much unlike the world you might have experienced in your younger years when others determined the outcome of how they thought you should see yourself.

The ones that hurt you might have been pompous and arrogant….BUT, you don’t have to be that way to make your point about the loving and generous spirit Jesus provides for us on a daily basis in every breath we take, through every person we meet, in the darkest corners of the world.

We ARE loved….Steve…RIGHT NOW….whether we choose to believe in such a consistent act of The One (God) who loves us…will determine the level of love we will experience throughout our days, months, and years.

One more thing….I am always glad when someone is glad to see of my return.

AngllHugnU2
Author of IM with God

I’m glad you have returned. I’m always pleased when I discover my writing effects people; that is its purpose.

I want to address your comment, but I do not want to sound defensive, although that may be hard to accomplish. You have obviously misunderstood me, or purposely quoted me out of context; I want to believe it is just a misunderstanding. You quoted me as saying, “The world will never see what I see, they can not….” By ending your quote as you did you have created an air of dishonesty and have given into a desire to gain some advantage by trying to defame me in my own eyes and to those who visit my blog and read your remarks. I sense that this is not your normal method of operation, but that you have taken offense to my writing and you are simply attempting to gain a little peace by retaliation and pop-psychology.

Much can be understood about people by reading what they write, that is why they write, so others will understand them. Usually misunderstandings result for two reasons: poor writing skills, or reading something out of context. In this particular case you have clearly taken my words out of the context of the rest of the sentence; your quote should have included the whole sentence, “The world will never see what I see, they can not, unless they are given a new birth.” With the sentence completed it means something totally different than what you pretend to think. If you related to me that you told your child that, “the story says that the moon is made of green cheese,” and I quote you as saying that you think “…the moon is made of green cheese,” and place the quote on the internet for all to see, I would be irresponsible and owe you an apology.

This is exactly what happens when people read the Bible; they simply take the part they like and leave the rest behind, regardless that they have just destroyed the message of Scripture and sinned against God. Whole new religions are started this way, through dishonesty, fraud, and corruption. This is not anything new, and because of this evil Christ died.

I likewise have made this mistake, being motivated by the flesh so as to short circuit truth and not be found guilty.

I welcome your comments and corrections if they are justified. I am not above being wrong. All I ask is that we try and stay in context.

May the living God
bless you in TRUTH,

Steve Blackwell

This sounds so much like a comment you might have made as a child….”My dog is better than you dog!” Or…My father can beat your father up!” I often hear in your words and invitations for debate…”Oh yeah….yeah!” It does seem very infantile.

As I read on stuff you have written…I am struck by the competitive drive you have for being correct and right all the time. It appears as a younger person you might have had persons who challenged your self-worth and wholeness in a way that drove you to feel “better than somebody.” And now, you keep watch for those you can attract to you to recreate of open the wounds of those same childhood moments of competing for mom or dad’s love over and over and over again.

So sad to read…..so very sad!

AngllHugnU2
Author of IM with God

Well…just remember two things…projecting your fears upon another’s spiritual journey and calling it theirs is quite unfair. You would hate for me to do such to you. And two, conflict and debate only occurs between to versions or visions of what love or life is all about. Truth rarely, if at all, cares or sees what is false….simply because, as you stated,”truth can never be a lie.”

You speak great words of wisdom, please share with me, out of the Bible, where you received these two pearls. I would not hate to become wiser. There is no such thing as two versions of truth, or love, John 3:16 “For God so love the world that He gave up His Son, that who so ever should believe on HIM (not Buddha, Baal, spirit guides, your inner self, or any thing else), should not perish but have everlasting life.” Outside of Jesus men can not love, or even think a God pleasing thought: Rom 3:10-12 “As it is written: ‘There is none righteous , no, not one; There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one.’”

Communication is a wonderful thing, when and if it happens. I like communication, that is why I love the Bible so much, it doesn’t violate “reason” it promotes it. God has given us a mind and He has given us His Word; Christianity is not anti-intellectual, it is based on facts that can be propositionally stated and presented. God has told us what to believe and why we should believe it. Faith is not a leap into nothing, it a leap into truth as illustrated, expounded, preached, lived, and rationally presented in the Bible. Jesus is called the Word, He is the personification of all that is written in Scripture, and it has been communicated to us in indisputable logic. We can know for sure the things that God has revealed. Deut 29:29-30:1 “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.”

I had a friend once, who in his pride would never bend to reason, even when proven wrong. He called himself a Christian, and talked of beauty, and love, and unity, and peace; he reminds me of you. He would put words in Jesus’ mouth, as if he were quoting His exact words and ideas, but Jesus never spoke those words. He would never ever give a reference of where he got those words. He wants to be a Christian according to what he personally perceives Christianity to be, and thinks Jesus would vouch for his words if He were here today. Well, this is all nice, but it is not Christianity, it is self deception, because Jesus didn’t say the things he imagines. But, he just knows that if Jesus were given the opportunity He would say those things. This is called delusional thinking and the hospitals are full of the more extreme cases. They have convinced their “self” that this delusion is the truth, and reason and rational thinking find no place in their minds. You can not communicate with these people. Trying to carry on a normal conversation of “reason” with them, and him is useless. My friend has no valid reason for believing what he does, and he will not document anything he says, because it only exist in his head. This is not believing the Bible, or being a Christian, but this is exactly what you have in much of the Christian Church, and all of the New Age mysticism. This is not truth, this is foolishness. Solomon gives good advise here: Prov 26:4-5 “Do not answer a fool according to his folly, Lest you also be like him. Answer a fool according to his folly, Lest he be wise in his own eyes.”

In both of these cases, you will only yourself to be stressed over whether they SEE what you see. Walking in one’s shoes for a while has a purpose. If we choose to force others to walk in our shoes….they will in fact walk in them….But, they will walk away to love another day with somebody else.

The world will never see what I see, they can not, unless they are given a new birth. I simply lay out the truth, and if God is pleased to send me a soul to read some truth I have displayed here, then I am pleased. I will admit that I do allow myself to become stressed at times, like now, when a closed minded person is living in a state of delusion, and fancies Jesus to be some long haired hippy, playing a tambourine, tiptoeing through the tulips, smiling and hugging, with no care for tomorrow. Here is the Jesus of the Bible that you will have to deal with my friend: Rev 1:13-16 “…One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters; He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength.” Deut 4:24 “For the LORD your God is a consuming fire , a jealous God.” Mark 6:11 “And whoever will not receive you nor hear you, when you depart from there, shake off the dust under your feet as a testimony against them. Assuredly, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city!” John 5:22-23 “For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son, that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.” John 9:39 “For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind.” Rom 2:4-9 “But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who “will render to each one according to his deeds”: eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality; but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness — indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek;” Heb 10:26-27 “For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment , and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.”

Jesus neither sought out or cared for debate of what was right or wrong….He simply exemplified, embraced, and embodied what it meant to live the Good Life for his Jewish community. Did he ever point out an inconsisitency…Yes…But not as a watchman…rather as a response to a person who needed and searched for the answer to said inconsistency.

Why do you think Jesus was nailed to a cross? Do you think it was because He just walked around minding His own business, well, that was exactly what He did, that was His business. Matt 10:34-39 “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword . For I have come to ’set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’ He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.” He was the ultimate watchman, warning, advising, rebuking, demanding, judging, and pointing out the enemy, and for all this they killed Him, and He commanded His followers to “go and do likewise.”

1 Peter 3:15-17 “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you , with meekness and fear; having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed.”

Ezek 33:2-6 “Son of man, speak to the children of your people, and say to them:’When I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the land take a man from their territory and make him their watchman , 3 when he sees the sword coming upon the land, if he blows the trumpet and warns the people, 4 then whoever hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning, if the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be on his own head. 5 He heard the sound of the trumpet, but did not take warning; his blood shall be upon himself. But he who takes warning will save his life. 6 But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, and the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand.’”

Mark 13:9 “But watch out for yourselves, for they will deliver you up to councils, and you will be beaten in the synagogues. You will be brought before rulers and kings for My sake, for a testimony to them.” 1 Cor 16:13-14 “Watch , stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong. Let all that you do be done with love.” 1 Thess 5:6-11 “Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him. Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing.”

Watch all you want….BUT love far deeper than your gaze.

You say, “Watch all you want….” as if that isn’t important. Thank you I will. And, as far as Love, how could I claim to love if I would allow those who have been brought to me to hear anything less than the whole truth, that their life is in serious danger of eternal torment. I don’t know the kind of love you speak of that cares nothing for the proclaimed truth of God that the world is very quickly headed for a judgment that they need to avoid at all cost. But, the difference between you and me is that you do not believe the truth, and I do, therefore I cannot, not be a watchman, it is something I have to do, because of all the lies of Satan.

Steve Blackwell

In both of these cases, you will only yourself to be stressed over whether they SEE what you see. Walking in one’s shoes for a while has a purpose. If we choose to force others to walk in our shoes….they will in fact walk in them….But, they will walk away to love another day with somebody else.

Jesus neither sought out or cared for debate of what was right or wrong….He simply exemplified, embraced, and embodied what it meant to live the Good Life for his Jewish community. Did he ever point out an inconsisitency…Yes…But not as a watchman…rather as a response to a person who needed and searched for the answer to said inconsistency.

Watch all you want….BUT love far deeper than your gaze.

AngllHugnu2
Author of IM with God

If what I have said has changed your mind then you are correct. If argumentation were never needed the Apostle Paul wasted most of the New Testament. People’s minds have to be changed with good reasoning, based on truth, this is why we preach, argue, debate, and reason, to tear down the worlds false fortresses. I pray your mind has been changed. It is not my intention to harm anyone personally, but the hammer of truth is effective in demolition, and the hammer gets personal, it goes to the root, then the building collapes.

Jer 23:28-29

“What is the chaff to the wheat?” says the LORD.
“Is not My word like a fire?” says the LORD,
“And like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?”

Steve Blackwell

This is all you but needed to say if you what you believe can never be harmed. Blessings to you for your strident watchfulness.

Peace!

AngllHugnU2
Author of IM with God

“Ye shall know the TRUTH and the TRUTH shall make you FREE” - John 8:32

“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way , the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’” John 14:6

You said:

Yes…” the Vedas, the Hindu scriptures, say, “Truth is very elusive and hard to find.” At the end of his life, Buddha said, “I’m still searching for the truth.” Mohammed wrote, “I point to the truth.” But, then Jesus comes along and he says, I AM the truth. Not, I point to it. Not I teach it. But, I am the truth. ”

I am glad you stopped by, it is because of people like you that I am here. Yes! I am a watchman. Why am I a watchman? It is not as you think, because I seek admiration, or a position or place in life; to be quite honest I dislike this job very much, and as soon as someone more qualified arrives, the mantel is his, but it appears that Solomon was correct, that there is a time for everything, and this is the time for watchmen; the day demands it. The reason the day demands it is because there is such a thing as “true TRUTH,” as Francis Schaeffer would say, and truth is under attack. Understand, that for truth to be under attack is for Jesus Himself to be under attack, because Jesus, as you think, did not just one day discover truth in Himself, Jesus IS THE TRUTH, and He is God, and there is no other, not in the Hindu Vedas (book of knowledge), not with Buddha, nor with Mohammed, nor any other. These others can not know truth, because it does elude them as you say; they look for it in the stars, and nature, and idols, when it presides in a man, and that man is Jesus. Jesus did not say, “I AM” because of some kind of awakening, He said it because He was identifying Himself as the Creator of all things, visible and invisible, The Great and only God Almighty, God of the burning bush, Who will return one day and judge the earth, and all men, alive and dead, according to how they received true TRUTH.

At some point in time we will all come to understand the very basic reality that “WE GET IT!”….we are the way the truth about how truly close The Father’s Life lives deep within. We will come to understand, appreciate and even love the truly intimate relationship with which we share an inheritance with Jesus and The One (God) as well.

The point in time, of which you mention, is at the new birth, that is when we “get it” and what we get is a revelation of the fact that it is Jesus who is Lord of all, and our Savior. It is He that is the Light, the Truth, the Way that leads us through the darkness, and the lies, of this world, and delivers us from the kingdom of Satan, who is the god you worship. If you haven’t had this revelation, then Jesus says you have believed a lie and are doomed to hell. You can not make yourself a god by a simple declaration no more than you can make yourself a tree by saying you are a tree. You may believe it, but you have only made a fool of yourself.

If we believe there is such a thing as truth, then we have to believe there is such a thing as lies. For truth to be truth it has to be singular and stand alone, apart from everything else. Truth is unique, it is exclusive. If you say you have the truth, and I say I have the truth, one of us is a liar, or maybe we are both liars, but we can not both have the truth and believe differently. If I have a fish bowl and it is filled with beautiful gems, but they are really only cut glass. Then One real, expensive, precious, authentic gem is deposited amongst the fakes and you’re asked to make a choice of only one. Unless you know something about gems, unless you have a discerning eye, unless you have inside information about what to look for, and how to identify a real gem, you may pick a phony, and be quite content with your pick, and even convince yourself that you have such discernment. The owner of the real Gem has given us a way to know which is the Real Gem. The Bible, from beginning to end is the key that unlocks the mystery of how to know THE TRUTH about the Gem. You see, the one and only Truth has been deposited into a world filled with lies, and we are ask to make our choice. You say you have picked the truth, and I say you are dead wrong, how will we know the TRUTH?

Personally, I know what I am saying here is hard to digest, but, history itself is proof of such. All of the persons with whom is referenced above all come to this intimate realization at a central moment of time. The body of human activity toward the Holy Spirit of The Father is taking root. Take a moment and just look at the cluster of intimate spiritual discovery that occurs right before and around the time of Jesus.

The reason that what you say is hard to digest is because it is not real food, it is a food substitute. And history, I will agree, is on your side, if you look at the preponderance of the evidence. The world has produced much evidence to the contrary of truth. If we go by sheer volume or weight, the odds are in your favor, but that proves nothing, if it is all lies and cut glass. Matt 13:45-46 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.” Matt 13:44 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”

This intimate spiritual discovery you mention is covered heavily in Holy Scripture and we are warned of its lethal effects on our eternal health. There is no question of a very active spirit world and that we see that activity on the increase is not news to those who believe the Bible, it is all prophesied. Of course we would expect Jesus, if He really is God in the flesh, to be able to know the future, and sure enough He did and He was right, and we see the activity all around us today. 2 Cor 11:12-15 “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light . Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.” 1 Tim 4:1-2 “Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons….”

Like our life itself, at some point, the awareness of our intimacy with God finally hits home…Jesus is simply saying to the world with the same message of our life at some given moment, “I get it. I am loved by a Father that loves me. I feel complete. My life is valuable. That is the truth. And, I am that truth!”

Jesus is not saying that at all. You have made this up out of your head. Please show me where this is said. What He does say is, Matt 7:21-23 “Not everyone who says to Me,’Lord, Lord ,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord , have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!” Matt 25:11-12 “Afterward the other virgins came also, saying,’Lord, Lord , open to us!’ But he answered and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.” Luke 6:46-49 “But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord ,’ and not do the things which I say? Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like: He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock. But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently; and immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great.” Luke 13:23-29 “And He said to them, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying,’Lord, Lord , open for us,’ and He will answer and say to you,’I do not know you, where you are from,’ then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.’ But He will say, ‘I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity.’ There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and yourselves thrust out.”

You do not understand Jesus, if you did you would not put words in His mouth, and presume to know what you do not know; you presume too much. You are deluded my friend and you need the truth. You need to find the real Pearl and let go of all those phony jewels you cherish so much, they are seductive, and they are death. Prov 6:26-28 “For by means of a harlot a man is reduced to a crust of bread; and an adulteress will prey upon his precious life. Can a man take fire to his bosom, and his clothes not be burned? Can one walk on hot coals, and his feet not be seared?”

I could go on like this with your entire letter, but what is the use. What I have given you above is enough to deliver a man from Hell, if he will believe it. Jesus is that real Jewel, all the rest are lies to rob you of what it is you are looking for. The Bible can not be mixed with any of those others beliefs, any more than the real Gem be mixed with the other fakes; even though it is among them, it stands alone, and alone it will remain. Truth can never be a part of the lie, it is absolutely impossible.

Steve Blackwell