Hyper-active Thinking

I am returning to my previously suspended study through the book of Romans to pick up where I left off a couple months ago. I have spent about two months unpacking Hebrews 12 in my quest to expose the roots of bitterness in myself and I have learned a great deal both in mind and heart. That will continue to be an ongoing dialog between my heart and God but I feel that I have mined that passage long enough to satisfy my need to clarify much of it and I want to return to finish my journey through the rest of Romans.

For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. (Romans 12:3)

For I say, through the grace that was given to me, to every one who is among you, not to think above what it behoveth to think; but to think so as to think wisely, as to each God did deal a measure of faith. (Romans 12:3 YLT)

When I looked up the words for this text in the Greek I noticed that the reference to himself is not in the original as reflected in the second translation given here. What it seems to indicate more in the original is that a person is not to have a hyper-active mind, to think excessively more than he should use his mind in contrast to having sound judgment. The Greek word used for think more highly here literally means to hyper-think.

I believe this insight could be very helpful because it has broader application than just someone feeling too proud about themselves or being arrogant. It could also apply to those who allow their problem-solving, solution-seeking obsessions get out of control and become unbalanced in their thinking. This can happen in either direction with an imbalance between the left-brain logical, intellectual formula part of the mind taking over and ignoring or suppressing the other side, or the right-brain, emotionally driven, pleasure seeking obsessiveness that ignores the words and guidelines of the Bible in favor of preference for whatever makes me feel good.

Looking again at this verse I see other clues that may lend themselves to this proposition. In some respects the reference to sound judgment could refer to the careful, deliberate, logical reasoning that is led by a well-trained left brain and the reference to a measure of faith could refer more to the deeper experiential areas found primarily in the right brain where I believe more activity of the spirit takes place. If this is the case, and it certainly is plausible I believe, then this passage is promoting our need to have a respect for the need of balance and cooperation between these two very different areas of our brain.

through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you...

I find this preface to be a bit curious. Why does Paul feel the need to point out that it is from this basis that he is making the following statement about having balance? Why does Paul feel the need of talking about the grace for himself in this context?

I don't think I have very good explanations for this off the top of my head. (Most satisfying explanations never come from there anyway) The only thing that comes to mind right now is that Paul's own experience of coming into balance himself from being a person heavy on the intellectual and out of touch with his own heart for many years was due to the grace he had experienced from the personal visit from Jesus on the Damascus road. But that grace did not just happen in that one event but was the active force in his life as he retrained the whole way he viewed life over the next few years and then became the highly effective missionary that his later life demonstrated. The reason he was so effective was because he was able to be used by God as one who knew how to reach out to the hearts of his hearers as well as how to dialog with them at the intellectual level.

Paul was all too familiar with the reality of the problem of thinking hyper-actively without being guided by a heart warmed with the love of God. He was one who could be the first to say, “Been there- done that – bought the T-shirt!” Because of his own experience and the many people that he struggled to reach with God's grace who also resisted it because of their intellectual interference, he realized the importance of keeping a mind in proper balance as it was designed by God to function.

In addition to having balance he also notes that this balance is to be measured by the amount of faith within a person's life. This faith that he talks about is not how self-convinced a person can make themselves that God might do something for them, which is often our concept of faith. But true faith is a child-like trust in a person whom they have known by personal experience to be worthy of trust. Real faith is spontaneous in nature and is not something we have to work hard at producing. Faith is more a result than it is a choice though its exercise often involves a choice to remember the worthiness of the One we need to trust.

So the measure of faith is really a measure of the amount of experience and interaction with God along with the amount of real truth about Him that makes up our knowledge of God. According to the degree that we believe the truth about God's goodness and grace will be the capacity that we will have for faith in Him. And to the measure of that capacity we need to be careful to keep both sides of our brain engaged in a balanced way so that we will be wise and sound of mind.

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Just a Note about this Series

This is a temporary posting to let anyone know who might be interested in this current series that I have just posted the first 7 that started this series but were, until now unpublished. I decided to go ahead and post all of them though at the time I wrote them the material was too sensitive to me personally to release them at that time. I also linked all of the posts together in this series on Bitter Roots up to the current date so that they can be read from the beginning in sequence. The place to drop into the first post of the series is on the link called Bible Exploration Series in the sidebar.

Remove or Remain

This expression, "Yet once more," denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe. (Hebrews 12:27-28)

The English translation of verse 27 leaves me scratching my head just a little bit. If it were to be taken extremely literally as it reads here it might imply that everything that God has created everywhere would be eliminated and only God would be left since He is not created. I don't think anyone holds that view so I went looking for the original words and compared other translations to see what insights might help me understand this better.

What emerges is best conveyed, at least from all the translations I have on my computer, by Young's Literal Translation that reads:

and this--`Yet once' --doth make evident the removal of the things shaken, as of things having been made, that the things not shaken may remain; wherefore, a kingdom that cannot be shaken receiving, may we have grace, through which we may serve God well-pleasingly, with reverence and religious fear. (Hebrews 12:27-28)

What I am beginning to see is that likely this is talking about things made or created artificially and under the influence of the enemy of God who has worked so long to develop and establish a viable counterfeit to God's system of creation and government. Because the counterfeit is so very unstable and vulnerable to collapse if exposed to the truth about reality, God's voice of truth is enough to cause the collapse of that deceptive system, expose it for what it is and cause a shaking that will result in its total demise.

The previous time that God spoke fundamental truths in this way it was very restricted and limited to a local situation at Mount Sinai and a relatively small group of people. It still had immense impact on the history of the world but it did not have the devastating, annihilating effect on Satan's kingdom that the final display of God's glory and truth are going to have. This great war is essentially the comparing of two very different models of rulership and only one is going to survive. Satan's kingdom rules beings with fear, force and fakeness. God's kingdom is based on faith, hope and love. The pitched battle that we find ourselves all caught up in is for the decision of our hearts as to which influence we are going to allow to be the dominate belief of our hearts.

We are born under the model and influence of the control and deceptions of sin. But God has provided a way of escape and gives every single individual chances and opportunities and motivations to believe in His goodness and His provisions for them to accept and believe the redemption that Jesus has secured for everyone. Evil forces are constantly working to infect our hearts with lies about God and His plans and desires to save us from this mess. The direction of our life is determined by the trend of the choices that we make in reference to what we are going to believe about God. That is the core issue of the whole controversy and is the main choice that we are faced with every day – what do we choose to really believe about God and His attitude toward us. Each decision about this question in turn strongly influences every other choice in life that we make whether we realize it or not. It affects every area of our existence and is the guiding factor for the way we not only relate to Him but to everyone else and ourself as well.

Every lie that Satan promotes about God is fabricated through the mixture of truth and subtle deception. If it does not have enough truth to make it appealing or compelling then it becomes ineffective. If it does not contain at least a tiny seed of deception it does not serve the kingdom of darkness. But the discernment needed to unmask these proliferous beliefs designed to distort the image of God in us can only come with the presence of the Holy Spirit of God sent to guide us into all truth. And the truth that He has been sent to guide us into is an intimate relationship with the One who declared that He was the essence of truth. It is not intellectual truth or factual truth that is so vital to helping us escape from the massive system of deception assembled by the enemy, it is primarily heart truth that will make the real difference in whether we will choose life or stay in the shadows of death that hold so much allure for pride, for pleasure and self-satisfaction.

These verses make it very plain that the future holds a very definite shift in reality as we know it. Everything that has been artificially assembled and created by man and by demonic inspiration will soon collapse in the revelation of real reality – and that is pretty much everything that we are familiar with. If we choose to align ourselves with the truth about reality as revealed by the Creator of all true reality, then we receive the true Kingdom which cannot be shaken because it is reality itself. Our natural response to becoming aware of our safety and security within this real kingdom is gratitude springing from a heart freed from the deceptions of the false kingdom that we have lived under all of our lives. It will be spontaneous gratitude directed primarily toward God who has done everything possible to attract us to Himself who only can rescue us from evil of all kinds.

The more clearly we understand and appreciate the awesome truths about reality and the glorious nature of God's feelings toward every one of us, the more awe and reverence and joy we will feel about the privileges we have been entrusted with in this new kingdom. There are also extremely important warnings that we need to be aware of – warnings about the terrible consequences of being synchronized in any way with the false ideas and methods of the enemy. Our hearts and minds must go through a process of cleansing and renewing so that we can be completely and fully transformed into the image of God for which we were originally created. Any resistance to God and His Spirit's convictions in our hearts that is not released during our time of preparation will be a lethal incendiary buried within our souls that will ignite into fatal fire within us when exposed to the pure and holy presence of our awesome God.

Again, it is never God's desire in any way for us to suffer the pain and loss that comes from our resistance to the reality of Creation. But it is important that we are warned of the consequences of any choice that fails to receive the grace provided for us and be freed from everything that will be shaken and removed in the final day of revelation. It will be far too late at that time to make any more choices about the content of our characters. When the testing and shaking time comes for the whole earth it will simply be a time of revealing what is really on the inside of every person and the results of the choices they have chosen to exercise in the past. Everyone will be exposed fully in the judgment, not primarily about what they have done externally, although that is a strong indicator of what was developed inside of them, but the revealing of the spirit which they cultivated within their heart toward God and toward others. It is the spirit of man that determines his character and personality over time and it is our spirit that God is most keen to transform by the presence of His own Spirit.

The Shaking

Shaking. That stirs memories of quotations used in my early years to terrify me into working harder to become perfect in preparation for a great time of trouble that will occur near the end of earth's history. I do not want to discount that a terrible time of trouble will indeed occur that is worse than anything in the history of the world and worse than anything we can even imagine. This is clearly predicted in the book of Daniel and I personally believe we are seeing the dark shadows of it looming behind the illusions promoted in the news media right now. But the assumptions about how we are to prepare for it need to be seriously challenged and revised considerably given the emerging truths about God and the nature of His glory that I have been learning about recently.

As I talk with different people about a looming financial collapse possibly as early as this summer and the very likely massive chaos that would ensue, the common theme that emerges is the desire to take control in some way or another. There is talk of stockpiling supplies so that we won't go hungry like everyone around us may. There is talk if attempting to wrest the government out of the control of those who have subverted its original intent and then returning us to a governance of a true Republic under the guidance and control of the common people. But all of these ideas and plans I believe are doomed to failure and loss because they do not take into account the dramatic difference between the two diametrically opposed concepts of reality.

And His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying, "YET ONCE MORE I WILL SHAKE NOT ONLY THE EARTH, BUT ALSO THE HEAVEN." This expression, "Yet once more," denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire. (Hebrews 12:26-29)

If our trust and hope gives priority to our schemes and beliefs about looking out for our own welfare, stockpiling vital supplies, defending ourselves through the threat or use of violence or building bunkers to trust in during times of upheaval, we will suddenly be shaken out of those false hopes and will too late realize that physical preparations are not the real issues that need our most urgent attention. Likewise, if we memorize Scriptures and compile convincing arguments to harden our positions behind lists of doctrines or favorite theological issues without giving even more effort to allowing the Spirit of God to transform and sweeten our own spirit, we will also find ourselves shaken and unstable in the coming violent social and spiritual earthquakes.

As I contemplate over this passage and try to understand some of the real meanings of these warnings I continue to look at the difference between the things as shakable and those that will remain. Implied in these verses is the idea that the Old Jerusalem and all hopes attached with it are going to be part of what is shaken and will not remain whereas the New Jerusalem needs to be the focus of our attention. Things that give emphasis to lots of display of power and inducing fear are the kinds of things that will pass away in the shaking whereas the things that don't appear to be so obvious to us and are right now unseen by us physically are actually much more real and stable.

The external, artificial, counterfeit reality that we humans have built cannot withstand the shaking caused when the true reality stirs from heaven. The things we tend to doubt as being real are more real that the things we insist are real. Heavenly beings must be baffled at our stubbornness and intransigence to believe in what is real, but we are so immersed in constant brainwashing to maintain our artificial perception of reality that we allow too little time for true reality to be perceived and to take root in our spirit and heart.

It takes nearly continual medication, infusions of fresh deception that seems so true and important, rehearsals of well-honed arguments, entertainment filled with our favorite themes of violence, perversion, false sources of life and artificial manipulations of our emotions – all of these keep us isolated or inoculated against the barrage of supernatural and natural messages coming to us from God in His desire for us to see His real beauty, intelligence and attractiveness.

It really takes a lot of constant effort to be lost. We say it is easy and it seems to be because we are so surrounded by the strong current of deceptions and it is easy to just be swept along with them. But if we would allow our spirit be quiet and step away from the commotion designed to keep us distracted, if we would pay attention to the cries and longings of our hearts without medicating them with addictions and pleasures, entertainment or intellectual obsessiveness we would notice that there is an alternative voice offering real healing, real life and real hope.

Because religion has been assumed to represent the truth about God in various ways we have been deluded, disappointed and cynical and have come to believe that God can't really be an effective solution for our “real” needs. We might say that we believe but what is our heart really feeling? But if we will look past the paradigms of religion of any persuasion and listen more carefully to the still small voice that has been there all along but drowned out by all the cacophony we keep going in our environment, then we will have a chance to move toward the “other” reality, the real one.

In reality our religion must far exceed that of religious people or we will never experience God in life-transforming ways as we need to. This is because most religious people have carefully segregated the spirit away from didactic or intellectual truth and in doing so the truth has lost all its power and the spirit has lost all its safety parameters. In this state of high instability, we will easily be shaken and will fall into ruin when true reality emerges as it is about to do.

Very clearly the first list in verses 18-21 here in Hebrews 12 are going to be shaken and removed soon and the second list which is completely stable and immovable will take its place. The real issue is, which kind of life are we choosing to trust our future with? If we trust in an intellectually dominated kind of religion based on our performance, an emphasis on outward symptoms and mixed with desires for power, control over others and impressive, fear-based rules and consequences, then we are entrenching ourselves in a system that is doomed to be soon shaken out of existence. This kind of religion is modeled after the world's artificial constructs and depends on externals as its foundation. And even though it may be very convincing and even righteous-looking it has no real, reliable foundation to withstand the explosion of reality soon to burst on this planet.

Of course, we always assume that it is the next person that has this delusion and it is never us. But to think that way is to betray the very pride and spiritual arrogance that is the clear indicator that we are in the greatest danger ourselves. The “goats” in Jesus' story of the judgment (Matt. 25) clearly were totally convinced and confident that they had religion all down pat and were deserving of eternal life. Jesus did not point out one single problem with their righteous performance or theology, but He sadly had to relay to them in essence that only intimate friends of the heart level are safe to bring into close proximity to the God who is a consuming fire.

Who is going to be ready for the great Time of Trouble? Who will be prepared or properly aligned so that they will remain after all the dust and smoke settles from the mighty shaking predicted here? All of Satan's kingdom, the artificial system of reality and relationships and rules based on fear, force and externals is going to be shaken so thoroughly that someday it will no longer exist in any form. The true reality of heaven is going to be restored in perfect love, freedom, harmony and joy. The Kingdom of Heaven referred to here that we have the privilege of receiving if we are willing to be aligned with it right now will be the winner of this time of shaking that we are now likely entering. But what does it really mean to be a part of that kingdom if it is radically different than anything we have assumed before?

Finding the answers to these most important questions will also give us crucial clues as to how to properly prepare for the very real crisis that is about to explode on our country and the whole world possibly in the next few months.

This kingdom is clearly much more about relationships than it is about performance. It is about joy, love and peace and not based on fear. It is focused on the real truth about God and what He is like instead of about getting ourselves fixed up nicely. It is about inner transformation of heart and spirit more than about displays of power and desires for control over others. It is about responding to the magnetism of heaven and the universal companionship waiting for us to reconnect rather than about fear-motivated obedience. It is about receiving the gifts of peace, righteousness, life and identity from Jesus. This is how we receive the kingdom which cannot be shaken.

When we begin to grasp the true nature of this kingdom – that it is not something which we create but simply receive – then our gratitude and service will be totally spontaneous and irrepressible. We will be so much in awe of the magnitude of the passion and glory of our God of love that we will not be afraid to trust Him to protect us in the face of anything this world may use to frighten or intimidate us. Our God does not give us a spirit of fear. If anything claims to be religious truth and utilizes fear as its lubricant I am always highly suspicious of its true origin.

One of the clearest texts in the Bible revealing those who will be able to remain through the shaking and will be prepared to approach this consuming fiery God is found in Isaiah. There are very serious implications in this passage about our typical preferences in entertainment and even news consumption. Allow the Spirit of God to speak as you meditate on this inspired word from the God of the real reality.

"Now I will arise," says the LORD, "Now I will be exalted, now I will be lifted up. "You have conceived chaff, you will give birth to stubble; My breath will consume you like a fire. "The peoples will be burned to lime, like cut thorns which are burned in the fire. "You who are far away, hear what I have done; and you who are near, acknowledge My might." Sinners in Zion are terrified; trembling has seized the godless. "Who among us can live with the consuming fire? Who among us can live with continual burning?" He who walks righteously and speaks with sincerity, he who rejects unjust gain and shakes his hands so that they hold no bribe; he who stops his ears from hearing about bloodshed and shuts his eyes from looking upon evil; he will dwell on the heights, his refuge will be the impregnable rock; his bread will be given him, his water will be sure. Your eyes will see the King in His beauty; they will behold a far-distant land. (Isaiah 33:10-17)

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How to Get Ready for Hell

A personal story from this morning's devotion by Jon Pauline affected me deeply as it somehow bypassed my intellectual filters and resonated with emotions in my heart. It also connected strongly with what I am meditating on in Hebrews and a wonderful picture is coalescing from all the pieces.

The story he shared was of a time when he had to go the the office of the school's loan officer to beg for a loan so he could stay in school after his wife lost her job. After he had sat for quite some time in the waiting room a teenage girl walked into the room, pointed to the closed door of the officer and after a nod from the secretary opened the door and walked into the inner office.

At first this did not seem fair at all. Jon had been sitting for a long time waiting to see the officer and this girl was barging right in without hardly waiting at all. But something immediately clued him in as to what was really going on. When the girl opened the door she looked in and said, “Daddy?” and then walked right in.

The point of this story became very clear. This girl had special privileges with the loan officer because of a very intimate relationship she had with him that Jon did not have. Because of her close relationship with him she was able to do things that were unthinkable to everyone else.

The exact same situation applies to our access to God. But I believe that it has to be much more than just a profession of the mind that gives us the real confidence necessary to boldly come before the throne of the Almighty. That kind of religion will quickly melt and disappear in the presence of the consuming fire which is the essence of this Source of all energy and life everywhere. We will never be able to have that assurance and confidence that we so much need and crave unless our heart somehow grasps the reality of our special relationship that has been provided to us through the mediation of the New Covenant by the firstborn Son of God.

As I think back over the many things that have come to my attention and moved my spirit in my extended examination of Hebrews 12 I realize that this is one of the most important points for my own heart to grasp and cling to. Early in this chapter there was discussion about discipline and the need to determine whether I am a legitimate son or not. That determination will be decided by my choice as to how I will accept or reject the discipline coming into my life from my Daddy in heaven.

But for me it is also very important to remind myself that my Heavenly Father does not discipline the way my earthly father did and that my picture or image of a father has to be continually challenged and realigned to the real truth about God that He has been increasingly revealing to me over the past few years. Whenever my heart becomes afraid that God is out to hurt me deliberately or has an attitude of punitive punishment I am reminded that God is not contaminated with the mixed passions and the selfish desire for control or revenge like human fathers often possess. The real truth about God as revealed in Jesus is setting me free from the law of sin and death.

This revelation to my heart also unlocks one by one the roots of bitterness that have wreaked so much damage in my life and poisoned my spirit for so long. The more I expose my heart to fresh revelations of beauty and truth brought to me by the Father of my spirit the more courage I have to be confident to knock on his door and say, “Daddy, can I come in for a visit?”

This really helps me to understand even better the two contrasting passages that I have been looking at for several days now. What I am being told here is that the room that I have come to to find God is not a room filled with external exhibitions of fire, darkness, gloom, tornadoes, intense noise and words – all of which tend to intimidate and make me afraid. God does not desire my obedience to be based on a heart full of fear and driven by a desire to appease so that I can survive another day. That is the kind of religion that nearly all the world promotes and that is all too familiar to me, but that is not the truth of the gospel.

I have come to the waiting room where I find myriads of joyful angels eager to excitedly introduce me to my Daddy that I have not known much about. I am coming to the very large family of all those who already have learned that this God is their Daddy and are my true siblings, whose names are already secured in the book of the Family of Heaven. I am coming to God Himself who is the one who knows the fears and lies that have so long distorted my concepts about Him and He so much longs to remove and replace those with the amazing truth about His love and passion that He wants me to experience in His presence. And I am coming to the place where I find Jesus, the firstborn Son of God who by His own sacrifice and demonstration of the Father's love for me on calvary has done everything possible to convince me that I really am a legitimate child of the Almighty Sovereign of the Universe.

But implicit in my option to knock on the door of the throne room of the universe there is a warning necessary. It is not a warning that emanates from any ill-will on the part of anyone involved in this room like I would assume in the other room previously described, but there is immense danger here that I need to be very aware of. For this God is so pure, so awesome, so powerful and literally “hot” that if I am not willing to be purified completely and abide securely under the transforming covering of the life and death of Jesus, that power will ignite any and all resistance to Him within my heart and mind and I will suffer intense torture instead of intense joy.

It is not God's desire in the slightest that I experience that torture and that is why He is so careful to remind me of its potential before I get too exposed to His glory. He is in the business of purifying many children and bringing them closer and closer to full holiness (cleanness) so that they will be able to ignite in glorious reflection of His own beauty and passion that will be fully exposed on the day of Final Judgment. He has to be extremely particular about the thoroughness of this cleansing not because He has a dark side that needs to punish or get revenge but because He knows the liability and importance of being in full synchronization with His immense power before being exposed to it.

That is what salvation is all about. Salvation is the means by which everyone who is willing to be changed and who will surrender their rights for their own management to Jesus and His assistant the Holy Spirit who has been appointed to prepare them, heart, soul and mind, for the ultimate experience of joy and power on the day of Judgment. Any other choice or dilution of that preparation will result in tragedy and total loss when the full voltage of God's glory is finally revealed and unleashed. Salvation is the process of rewiring our minds and hearts and habits until we are ready to be assembled into the incredible, unimaginable being called the Body of Christ which at this point we have almost no inkling of what that means.

The last few verses of Hebrews 12 is a description of the final judgment and of hell. What is really amazing and comes as a shock to most people is when it is realized that everyone – yes everyone – is going to show up in hell. There is no way anyone can ever escape the fires of hell. Every human being who has every walked on this planet will all be exposed to the fires of hell and all at the same time according to Revelation. I realize that this sounds more than preposterous but it is the truth that I have been studying for several years now and that has so transformed my whole view of life, of God and of reality.

Verse 27 here says that there is going to be one last time when the voice of God – the revelation of His glory and awesomeness – is going to shake things. But this time it is not going to be the little light-and-sound show that was seen on Mount Sinai and that scared the Israelites half to death including even Moses. No, that was just a very tiny, measured and restricted leak of glory compared to what is coming next time. And His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying, "YET ONCE MORE I WILL SHAKE NOT ONLY THE EARTH, BUT ALSO THE HEAVEN." This expression, "Yet once more," denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. (Hebrews 12:26-27)

This is the very real warning that all the world must become aware of in order to properly make their decision as to whether they will allow themselves to be transformed by the renewing of their minds and hearts or whether they will choose to trust in religion or even simply reject God's offer altogether in favor of getting all they can get right now. Reality is what God is trying to explain to us and we cannot really create our own reality apart from the truth He is showing us. We may think we have collectively produced an alternate viable reality in our political structures, our religious institutions, our self-medication attempts or any other number of alternative options. But there is only one true reality and that is the one known in heaven and soon to be exposed here on earth.

See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape who turn away from Him who warns from heaven. (Hebrews 12:25)

So why do I believe that every person is destined for the fires of hell? That sounds like an outrageous claim and many have challenged me to substantiate it from the Bible. I realize that it sounds outrageous at first glance but the more I have studied this the more I get very excited about going to hell. One of the most important texts that validate this new insight is found right here in Hebrews 12.

Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire. (Hebrews 12:28-29)

Please take careful note that this does not say that God is only a consuming fire to those who refuse Him and is very cool toward those who love Him. It simply states the ultimate and unavoidable fact that God is a consuming fire – period. That means that to be introduced into close proximity to God is to be exposed to the consuming fire. The Bible clearly teaches that God does not change. So if He never changes, never has and never will, then how are we to relate to this problem of needing to get close to our Daddy but not wanting to suffer from the intense fire?

That is one of the most important questions that people can ever have. Just being aware of the truth of this problem is a giant step toward discovering the real truth about God and about ourselves and salvation. God is not stirring around some cauldron of fire and fiendishly dangling lost sinners over the open flames to torture them for eternity for not choosing to love Him. That kind of teaching is Satanic to the core. But neither is He going thunder down sheets of fire in an outburst of anger at the last day to arbitrarily punish those who refused His love as an act of vengeance. That is nearly just as demonic as the first scenario. I realize that many texts can be strung together to justify that kind of thinking, but if a person is willing to release their preconceived notions and traditions and take a fresh look at what the Bible itself really reveals, it will be seen that the problem is never on God's side but on our need for preparation for exposure to this Source of all energy, power and life that is even more than fire.

I have dedicated a whole web site to exploring this topic and if anyone wishes to look into this more they can visit it. I have more material and a many dozens of Scripture references that I still need to add to that location. I am also eager myself to continue to learn more and unwrap the exciting elements of this truth that is so powerful and life-changing. When I came to realize for myself that God will never impose punishment on anyone arbitrarily but that the pain and torture suffered by the lost will be 100% caused by their own refusal to be re-outfitted for exposure to the fiery passion of love that is the essence of God's presence, my own heart melted with new love and respect for Him in response to this revelation about God and I exclaimed, “I believe I can really love a God like that!”

That is the response that I believe everyone will have who catches a glimpse of the real truth about Him. In addition they will become empowered and motivated to want to naturally respond in acts of love and service for a God who is not out to hurt them but wants to prepare them for the ultimate joys of total intimacy in His presence. That is the real message of verse 28 here that is the lead-in for chapter 13. ...let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe...

Chapter 13 launches into descriptions of what this spontaneous offering of service to God looks like. These are not lists of duties that must be performed or commands that we have to fulfill to please a stern God demanding our performances. These are opportunities and suggestions that are offered to anyone who has become enamored with the beauty of God's character, has accepted the mentoring and discipline of the perfect Daddy and is in great awe and reverence at the incredible magnitude of the fiery passion that powers this Being of unrestrainable love. What follows is simply a description of what our lives will look like when we become captivated by the transformational truth about God that the rest of the universe is eagerly waiting for us to catch on to.

Daddy, You have touched my heart, emotions and spirit this morning as You have shared so many of these things with me. Every time I explore these truths about You I feel even more energized and awed by Your perfect love, Your powerful passion and the real reasons behind Your warnings. I accept Your warnings of my need to be completely clean before I can enjoy full exposure to Your glory. Like Moses I am begging You to show me Your face even though I realize I can't handle a full view of it quite yet. I give You complete permission to finish the process of cleaning out all the lies about You that mess up and distort my mental picture of You. Fill me with the real truth about Your fiery glory, Your constant and never-changing love and Your perfect beauty. Make my life a better reflection of Your attractiveness and help me not to resist when the heat gets turned up. Because if You are a consuming fire then the heat I feel inside not only indicates that I have resistors that need to be removed and replaced but it also tells me You are getting closer to me and that is good news in disguise. I worship You as the only Source of life and joy and hope. Fill me with Your love right now for Your name's sake.

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God's Urgent Appeal

But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel. (Hebrews 12:22-24)

I looked up the word for come here and it added even more to my excitement about this passage. In essence it means the goal or focus of the forward direction in which you are headed, the object of worship and our movement closer toward that object. What I would like to do here is to put these verses into words that I believe more accurately convey the original intent of the author.

(referring back to verses 9 and 18) As a person willing to be discipled by the Father of our spirits, you are not moving toward an external religion of fear, outward and obvious displays of power or performance but you are moving toward intimacy with all of those who with you are focused on the mountain of God, Mount Zion which represents the concentration of all those who are connected with the living, real God and are going to spend eternity together in the real Jerusalem.

Your focus of direction is toward becoming reconnected in close fellowship and joy with all the unfallen angels and other beings throughout all the universe, to collectively make up the true church that reflects the likeness and character of the Son of God. These are the ones who's names and identities are recorded in heaven as being safe to preserve alive so that the unity of heaven will never be in danger of a relapse into sin.

You are moving closer to God the Father who by His very presence causes exposure of the inner truth about each being and whose likeness is increasingly becoming more obvious in the spirits of all those who are willing to be made perfect through transformation and synchronization by His Spirit.

You are coming to Jesus, the one who most perfectly represents the Father and whose purpose is to convince everyone possible to believe the real truth about God and His attitude toward all His created beings – how He is unconditionally committed to their good and who's ultimate desire is full reunification of the perfect fellowship and harmony enjoyed before all the slander of Lucifer broke out. The true covenant of God, the one He made (instead of the one thought up by humans) means that God is unequivocally committed to the salvation of everyone willing to have their spirit brought back into harmony with His heart irregardless of their performance. The demonstration of God as revealed in the torture and death of Jesus by demoniacally inspired humans was the ultimate demonstration, far more so than Abel's death was at the hands of his own brother Cain, that there is absolutely nothing we can do that can cause God to hate us or desire to do us harm.

See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape who turn away from Him who warns from heaven. (Hebrews 12:25)

Given the overwhelming evidence of the desire of God for our restoration into fellowship, not only with Him but with all His loyal beings throughout all the universe, if we refuse His heart's call to us and turn away to the false imitations of external religion or selfish living we will prepare ourselves to suffer the terrible, self-inflicted consequences of unimaginable torture in hell and ultimate annihilation, not inflicted by an angry God but self-induced by the resistance of our own hearts and minds to the immense and intense power of the love of the One who not only created us for love but died to convince us of that love. If we refuse – which is embedding more resistance into our psyche – that very resistance will be the cause of the destructive fire caused when our resistance meets the full “current and voltage” of the revelation of the truth about God and His love on the day of Judgment.

Notice that this verse does NOT say that it is those who turn away from some set of doctrines or some denomination or group or who turn away from some religion or belief system or even a religious leader. It is a person, in essence the One who is all heart from which they choose to turn away to some other source from which they hope to receive life or salvation. It is only in directly connecting with God without any intermediary that we can ever hope to enjoy fellowship with God and His children throughout eternity.

Father, my growing desire and obsession is to more accurately and perfectly reflect the truth about You. Please use the gifts and skills that You have given me to improve Your reputation in the minds of those around me. That is a passion You have implanted in my heart and that is growing more intense. I want to genuinely bring glory to Your reputation and not to myself. Continue to transform and heal my mind and heart as You make me a demonstration of Your successful experiments with hearts. Thank-you for what You have done and are continuing to do. I choose to worship and praise You for what You have revealed to me here and for all the plans You yet have to share with me. You are incredible, perfect, compassionate and always the same. Bring my heart and spirit into closer harmony with Yours.

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