Tweets - October 29th - Advice

I was reading through Paul's letter to Philemon and recognized that he often gave unsolicited advice. There really isn't anything wrong with this until "advice" becomes a tool of judgment and control (you should be doing what I think you should be doing).

It looks like Onesimus was a slave of Philemon, who was a slave due to debt. They both received a little light from above, but Onesimus still had resentment toward Philemon and did something Philemon considered foul (perhaps Onesimus said, "fuck that debt" and ran off).

I do understand that soft feeling Paul had of wanting people he loved to get along, and Onesimus was on board, but Philemon was not (feeling cheated and walked over). So Philemon got a letter (which made its way into your scriptures).

"Having confidence in your obedience, I write to you, since I know that you will do even more than what I say." ~ verse 21. I would personally take strong offense to this part of the letter - but I am not Philemon.

When a person is sanctified by another person, giving unsolicited advice to the one who sanctifies you becomes dangerous; when revered, less so - but it can still be dangerous.

It's one of the reasons why you should never expect to receive unsolicited advice from Christ (you will be warned when you're approaching the edge of the deadly cliff - it is very rare - but if you insist on walking off the cliff, Christ will not stop you, oh believe you me!!).

None of these things are hidden, not for 2000 years. People generally have an idea of how they hate to be treated; and if they did not sanctify Paul, some of these letters would not be in their scriptures.

But when people are sanctified (prophets, pastors, popes, etc.), they're set in a place beyond reproach, and just the idea of human decency becomes a matter of opinion and debate, and it devolves into "morality". Turning the word of the sanctified into the literal word of God.

Morality justifies your maltreatment and the maltreatment of your neighbors - each and every time. What we require instead, is simple, plain-ole, childlike decency. If you have questions regarding human decency, find a newborn baby and ask them.

Tweets - October 27th

Yes indeed. God IS the author of our Faith; the source of our Trust. What a year this has been! Patiently and expectantly waiting for the Living God is such sound counsel to those who sit in God's shadow.

Retweet from May 6, 2019:

I was out earlier talking to God about how things have always been laid out for me. I can go and learn as often as I desire, but whenever God wants me to know and understand things, they are presented to me, laid out bare, like a table of open books, all turned to the right page.

There have been moments of ecstasy because of the liberty of God, who is enigmatic and faithful. I have these moments of ecstasy because of what is becoming, and not what is. I look at my face and I see only the arriving Garden of God, even though my reflection is horror.

I suppose if anyone can plant a flourishing Garden in the middle of the fiery hell we call, "the world", it would be God. They will roar out of anger, curse God, curse mercy, and claim that both land and labor belong to them. (This is one option.)

But God wants a Garden, even in the middle of hell. Whom will God welcome? 

The Earth is soon losing its ancient title: "A world without God". God will bend that which is malleable, and that which isn't will break and perish.

Tweets - October 19th - Seek until you find

Sometimes you just don't have enough information to come to a reasonable summation or conclusion. Seek until you find; you just might find what you weren't looking for (this has certainly been my experience).

The alternatives are to endlessly speculate (potentially coming to incorrect conclusions and producing lies), or to wait for some authority to give an answer (can you trust the source??? are you able to come to the same conclusion without this source?).

I am so glad that Christ has been silent when he knew silence was the appropriate response. He has refused to lord himself over me, even when I asked him to.

Tweets - October 12th - God's Honesty

We are where we need to be. If we were not, then we would not be here, but rather somewhere else. Human decency (or the lack thereof) is one of those crooked problems that only God can straighten out.

Why is human decency a problem for God? Because of fear, deep-rooted beliefs, and faithlessness, and all that they produce in man.

"For I am afraid that perhaps when I come I may find you to be not what I wish and may be found by you to be not what you wish; that perhaps there will be strife, jealousy, angry tempers, disputes, slanders, gossip, arrogance, disturbances; I am afraid that when I come again my God may humiliate me before you, and I may mourn over many of those who have sinned in the past and not repented of the impurity, immorality and sensuality which they have practiced." ~ 2 Corinthians 12:20-21

Faithfulness, though a powerful motivator of human decency, is itself not enough. Human decency requires self-reflection. Paul was faithful, but there were limits and bounds to his liberties and he was controlling, sometimes passive-aggressively (as in 2 Corinthians 12:20, and in all those verses where "this", "that", and "the other" won't inherit the kingdom of God) - which were things for him to recognize and overcome.

There was, at times, a lack of trust on Paul's part when it was time to wait for God; and he began to treat others in ways he wouldn't have wanted to be treated - not by man and not by God.

Tending to seedlings can be a weighty task, but you must leave room for God's mercy and trust God (I'm speaking to a people who can't yet hear). Seedlings belong to God first; they were God's love first.

As much as I care about the salvation of the world, Christ cares more, and God cares infinitely more. There is no good thing I am willing to do that God hasn't considered. But for the sake of God's glory and for man to understand God, God is being honest through me.

All I want from God always is the truth - as I've learned and understood these last few weeks. I only want God to be God, as I wouldn't be able to understand God any other way.

I can request from God to do something as small as restore my youth, or something as grand as hand over to me all the waters of the world, but I only want it accompanied by God's honesty for the sake of my lovers, the whole world, and God's glory (not that I would ever be given anything differently, but it is very important to understand).

Was it last year when I was repeatedly encouraged from above to, "Wait for God"? How fitting. How prophetic.