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Took Away Sin Not Sins #3, (Wildcat Creek)

5/30/2015

Hi all,

The summer I turned 16 Barb was still 15 and we hadn't started dating yet though I liked her; I just didn't have the nerve nor know-how to ask her out on a date. But that summer day I took a step closer - I had heard Wildcat Creek was flooded due to the heavy rains we'd recently had, and about 4 miles (6 km) west of my home was a neighborhood built around a golf course called 'Green Acres', and the Creek wound through it. I invited Barb and her best friend to float the creek with me and some friends.

Of course we didn't tell our parents we were going to float down a flooded, debris filled creek! (We told them the truth, we were going swimming, just not where we were going swimming. :)

Stupid, stupid, stupid

We would jump in and float downstream a few minutes, climb out, walk across the golf course to our starting point and do it again and again. The creek was flooded with branches and even small trees, and beneath the surface we knew the biggest danger was getting a leg caught in a sunken tree branch and being dragged under by the intense current. So we kept reminding each other to keep our legs tight under us as we floated, or better yet, float on the surface on our backs or stomachs.

We were nervous but we appeared brave and confident. We wore big smiles partly out of sheer joy and part not wanting to appear scared. Inside we WERE scared of being pulled under, but other than the occasional loud cry of pain after hitting a leg on a sunken tree, you'd never know it; all was calm on the surface.

When I dropped the girls back at their homes that afternoon we talked of multiple bruises on our legs, thighs, and backs from hitting underwater obstacles, but we thought that was the price to pay for the adventure!

Keeping up appearances

Like us floating down the creek appearing calm on the outside but beneath the surface doing all we could to keep our heads above water, religion tends to emphasis the outward appearance while never touching the inner appearance of the heart, which is often bruised and battered from life as our legs and thighs were.

How many of us have had that Sunday morning rush to church with dad yelling at mom to hurry up and mom yelling at little Joey to find his other shoe with everyone grumpy and angry up to the point the car stops in the church parking lot.

Then as if by magic snot disappears from little Joey's face, the sisters stop slapping each other, mom and dad forget the chaos and tempers of the morning, and in walks the perfect Christian family with smiles plastered across their faces as neatly as every hair has been combed or brushed into place.

Do you think God sees the outside of the perfect family, or the hearts of the perfect family?

What happened to Elijah

Elijah had an amazing victory over the prophets of Baal by God's fire consuming his sacrifice.* And God's demonstration of power fit neatly into the various religions in the area's idea of the gods - earth, wind, and fire - so it was a loud message to the people of Baal. They believed the gods were in - inhabited - those elements. Among other designations, Baal was the Canaanite Thunder God, so God answering by booming fire was a statement that He was more powerful than any god of earth, wind and fire. *I Kings 18:16-40

But immediately after that Jezebel threatened Elijah's life and he ran in fear to a cave*. In his despair he complained to the Lord and the Lord responded. First was a very strong wind, but the Lord was not in the wind. Then there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. Then came fire, but He was not in the fire.

Last came, in the Hebrew, "a sound like a whisper" or "a gentle whisper", and the Lord was heard in that whisper.  *I Kings 19:9-12

The idea of God being in the whisper was revolutionary. Every religion around Israel believed their god was external in the forces of nature - gods of the visual, of keeping up appearances, outwardly focused. But God revealed to Israel He was all about the internal, the invisible, the motives, the still small voice. He could be found in the heart, in the motives, in the whisper - and that was new!

The meeting at the cave changed everything

The Lord answered Elijah in the whisper of the heart. This God isn't like other gods, He is concerned with the innermost being. This God is a Spirit* and therefore He communicates to a person's spirit in the whisper.

The spirit of man is the home of our sense of self-worth, our purpose in life, our love of self, and this is where God demonstrated to Elijah that He lives. This God commanded Israel to love others as they loved themselves*, and no other god had ever wanted its subjects to love themselves and then express that love to others. *John 4:24, Leviticus 19:18

That moment at the cave changed everything, the cave represents the human heart, the hiding place where God whispers to us. David demonstrated he knew this as well, for when he was confronted about his sin with Bathsheba he wrote Psalm 51 in repentance, saying in v6:
"Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts (spirit and soul); and in the hidden part (spirit) you will make me to know wisdom." The spirit of man is where God sees us, requiring truth and revealing His wisdom.

Samuel learned this when he was sent to anoint the new king after King Saul backed away from the Lord and had to be replaced. Samuel went to Jesse's house and lined up all his sons, thinking the oldest, Eliab, would be the natural choice, but the Lord instead replied:
"...for the Lord sees not as man sees, for man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." I Samuel 16:7

Through the centuries leading to Elijah's cave experience, Israel had lost their way. Have we? Has church culture? Do we or our church culture focus on the whisper, or on the external expressions of appearance designed to attract and impress? Religions try to approach God on external terms, putting up a good front, like the prophets of Baal, thinking that is what He wants. But He is found in the internal whisper.

When Jesus took away the sin of the world, with all of our individual sins within that sin, Jesus took away all need for false appearances, any need for a facade, any need for a false front for the sake of the gods. Jesus made the way for us to be honest with ourselves, and with the Father. There is no fear in Him knowing us

way down where we whisper our innermost thoughts and motives to ourselves. He is in the whisper too.

And that is why this most humble God, the Father of the also meek and lowly of heart* Lord Jesus, says "Come with boldness to my throne to receive mercy and grace to help in a time of need."* He knows the heart for He lives in the whisper, so stop keeping up appearances and just let Him know how hard you are paddling beneath the surface, getting bumped and hit by unseen obstacles - whisper in your heart to Him and then pause to hear Him whisper back. Stop looking for Him in the earth, wind and fire. *Matthew 11:29, Hebrews 4:16

Close your eyes and listen for the whisper.

More next week, blessings,

John Fenn

www.cwowi.org and email me at cwowi@aol.com

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Took Away Sin not Sins? #2 (Orange face)

5/23/2015

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Hi all,

Fortunately when I was a young teenager Barb went to a different church, for if she had seen what I'm about to tell you our first date might never have happened - someone came out with a sun tan in a bottle and I fell for it.

It was advertised as easy, guaranteed, just pour some in your hand and smooth over your body and you would have an amazing tan. What a great idea I thought, I'll look great Easter morning with my new tan!

The first clue should have been the directions to use a gloved hand to apply it, but I passed that off as for sissy's. The second clue should have been the warning that it might turn people with light complexion orange, but I reasoned I didn't have THAT light of a complexion. Apparently I was wrong.

This was after all, the early 1970's and I had my Easter suit all set - white turtle neck sweater and a bright blue jacket. I mean the bright blue a televangelist might wear on TV - and as it turned out, a face as orange as an Oompa Loompa in the movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. I was 13 or 14 and to this day it is the most embarrassing moment in my whole life.

I had no choice as it wouldn't scrub off. And unfortunately that day was cloudless with the sun at a perfect angle to highlight my orange face against my white turtle neck sweater at the after service meal on the front lawn. I was always a big kid, so I was a giant Oompa Loompa at that.

I tried to reason the stares I received as admiration for my sharp look, but when that little kid ran away from me screaming I knew it was no good pretending. So I swallowed my pride and just told the truth to my friends and anyone who would listen - it was an accident, really! A horrible industrial accident! I didn't know what I was doing, really!

I couldn't apologize enough for my orange face as every time they turned to me to say something, they burst out laughing and had to turn away to collect themselves, then turn back to me to start to say something only to turn away in laughter all over again. I just wanted to go home and lock myself in my room.

Orange sins?

And that is so often the way church culture teaches about our sins when it should be teaching how Jesus took away the sin of the world. Understanding the difference changes everything. We are told we are like I felt - permanently stained and a laughing stock to God, that even though we are with Him now and our sins are forgiven, they are still somehow stained into our being and marking us until we get to heaven.

I imagined that as I committed a sin there was some sort of heavenly court, and as I asked one more time for forgiveness the Father would lean on His elbow towards Jesus and ask: "What do you think Son; should we forgive him again or make him sweat a bit?" and Jesus would answer, "He's done this before Father, lets make him sweat, let's give him half a day and then we'll forgive him."

Until one sunny day early in 1985...

I was driving north on I-25 through Denver with the Subaru's sunroof open, the sun was shining off the snow capped mountains on my left, and in contrast to the beautiful day, I felt horrible. I had done or said something that I needed to ask forgiveness for, and felt like a repeat offender coming before the judge for the same crime for the hundredth time to beg forgiveness I had no right to. So I put on a brave face saying:
"Thank you Father for your grace, thank you for your mercy and forgiveness, thank you for I John 1:9 that says if I confess my sin you are faithful and just to forgive my sin, and not just that, but it says you cleanse me from all unrighteousness. Thank you for your faithfulness to me to forgive me..."

And at that point the Father interrupted my prayer with a loud voice that seemed slightly exasperated and slightly indignant: "I'm not being faithful to YOU, I'm being faithful to the work of my Son on the cross!"

An image of a tree came before me and I could suddenly see the root system. Across the root system normally out of sight but visible to me was the label 'Sin of the world', and up the trunk was the word 'Death', and in the branches and over the many fruit on the tree was the label 'Sins'.

Suddenly I got it - Jesus killed the root! Individual sins flow from the root of the sin of the world through death to individual sins, meaning all sins would have their eventual conclusion in death.

Once the sin of the world was taken away, what remains is the withering leaves and fruit with no more life left in them. I was free! Jesus' focus on the cross wasn't on me, but the sin of the world, which was a much more efficient way of handling it rather than a heavenly court flipping a coin about forgiving me each time I sinned.

Nothing left undone

By taking away the sin of the world it meant there was no sin I could sin that wasn't already forgiven and taken out of the way. That said let me qualify the statement - Jesus did not die for Himself therefore the one sin not covered was rejecting Him. That is what it means to blaspheme the Holy Spirit who is the agent of salvation - He didn't die for Himself so to reject Him is to reject the work of the Holy Spirit which is salvation.

But...I do not reject Him so therefore when He took away the sin of the world all sins up on that tree, are dead, have no power. That is Paul's point in Romans 6:11 that we are dead to sin because sin is dead to us.

Battle from a position of having won

There is a stream of the faith that makes God our adversary and that if we get enough people praying the sheer numbers may persuade Him to act. That if we get enough people fasting their sincerity and sacrifice may impress Him enough to move Him to act. If we can gather enough people in one place to scream and shout and call down heaven then we can move Him to bring revival in the earth. He isn't our adversary.

Ephesians 1:3 says as a result of Jesus having taken away the sin of the world, the Father has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies. Ephesians 2:4-7 says the Father brought salvation and has seated us in Christ next to Him at His own right hand for the purpose that in the ages to come He (Father) can continue to show us the riches of His kindness towards us.

We have been given the right to use the name of Jesus to command evil spirits away from us. Jesus never prayed for anyone to be delivered, He commanded spirits out and away. The apostles never prayed the Father to stop demons from harassing them, they commanded them out. We battle from having already won! We don't pray about demonic assignments, we use the name of Jesus to command them away!

Sinners sin because it is their nature to do so; Christians sin by choice

Ephesians 2:3 says before Christ we 'were by nature children of wrath'. That means our nature was to sin. But our nature has changed, we have been born again, sealed by the Holy Spirit. We are in the process of renewing our minds to think as God thinks, which means when we sin we do so by choice, not by nature.

We don't have an orange face anymore, stained by sin. "You were before darkness, but are now light in the Lord; Live as children of light." Ephesians 5:8

Jesus took away the sin of the world. Your individual sins, your past sins, today's sins if there be any, next years' sins - were all taken away in the sin of the world. That root is dead therefore the fruit that came from that root is dead. You and I are free to live FOR Him, using this amazing grace as empowerment to live holy and godly lives.

And that's where we'll pick it up next week, until then, blessings,

John Fenn

www.cwowi.org and email me at cwowi@aol.com

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Took Away Sin not Sins? #1 (No swimming)

5/16/2015

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Hi all,

I grew up with the command not to go swimming for at least 30 minutes after eating a meal or I'd get a cramp and drown. As a child, it was never explained to me what a cramp was as I'd never experienced one, nor how that could make me drown in a pool not much deeper than my waist, but we followed that rule to the letter.

Ours was a round above-ground pool dad erected one summer, and I remember watching other kids swim while I sat waiting until that 30 minutes was up. "NOWWWW mom?" I would plead. "Well, it's almost 30 minutes, be careful, if you feel a cramp get out right away, we don't want you to drown!"

Since those days the '30 minute rule' has been proven false, what is called an 'urban legend', yet the belief persists that one must wait at least 30 minutes after eating to go swimming.

People do get cramps while swimming, but it is because of extreme exertion using muscles they haven't used in a while or aren't used to using that way rather than having just eaten, and people do sometimes drown as a result. But somewhere in the hazy past someone concluded his leg cramp happened because he had eaten 30 minutes earlier and an urban legend was born. People naturally connected the dots, though they are generally unrelated.

Sin versus sins

And so it is today I want to talk about the difference between sin and sins. When John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him he said: "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!"* Why did he say Jesus takes away the sin of the world instead of He 'takes away your sins'? *John 1:29.

Church culture connects the two like leg cramps automatically happen after eating, but like my example, they are not the same thing. Technically speaking, Jesus didn't take our individual sins on Himself, but rather the sin of the world on Himself.

Weren't we were taught in Sunday School that Jesus took our sins on the cross, or that our sins put Him on the cross? How many preachers have painted a vivid and gory word picture of Jesus bleeding and dying on the cross with our individual sins killing Him? For John the Baptist's point, that isn't technically true however.

Getting to the root of the matter

From the sin of the world flows all individual sins, so if you take away the sin of the world then our individual sins are rendered powerless. Huh?

Romans 5:12 says it this way: "...because of this, through one man sin entered into the world and through that sin death entered the world..."

Adam didn't allow sins into the world, he allowed sin to enter the world. Think of it like a pomegranate, that delicious fruit that is filled with seeds. The sin of the world is like the whole fruit, and the individual sins are like all those seeds.

If you throw away the whole of the fruit you automatically throw away all those seeds contained within the fruit. Jesus removed the whole fruit, so the seeds are included in that act. Jesus took away the sin of the world, not our specific sins individually.

What is sin, exactly?

When I went through the Episcopal church confirmation class I was told sin is anything that doesn't please God. That left me wondering if someone could define for me what exactly what He liked and didn't like that I might please Him, but no one ever gave me that list other than the 10 Commandments.

And I've heard that sins make God angry and He would normally strike me down were it not for Jesus coming to stand up to what seemed to be a heavenly bully of a Father - go Jesus, keep Him away from me - was the image in my mind back then.

And there is a verse that says anything not of faith is sin* but that is in context about eating choices and eating what we eat as unto the Lord, not a blanket doctrinal statement. For years I didn't know the context, so I tried to figure out if taking a shower was somehow in faith or was that a sin, as well as other normal functions of life - am I in faith while eating lunch? Was I in faith while going to work? No one ever defined what being in faith was or wasn't so I gave up trying to figure it out. *Romans 14:23

Here it is

And in all those times people told me sin was anything not pleasing to God, or sin was something that made Him angry or that I hurt Him when I did it, no one ever actually referred to the Bible definition of what sin is. Fortunately the apostle John defined SINS and SIN in I John 3:4:

"Everyone who commits sin commits lawlessness, for sin is lawlessness." (NAB)

Notice the definition - committing a sin (sins) is a commission of lawlessness, and sin IS lawlessness.

SIN is lawlessness. So what is lawlessness?

Lawlessness is literally the 'throwing off of all rule', or 'the throwing off of restraint'. If you think of law as God's will, God's rule, God's government in your life and the world, then lawlessness as a word makes sense - it is the throwing off of the will (government or rule) of God, first in the earth and secondarily to you and I.

When we sin we are committing a tiny sliver, a portion of throwing off God's rule in that single area of our life so we can do the evil thing or the thing WE want to do rather than what He wants us to do. So the 'sin of the world' is the throwing off of God's will, God's rule or government in the earth.

What Adam did

What Adam did was to let into the world SIN not sins, law-lessness, the throwing off of God's government and rule in the earth. By letting in sin, then naturally sins followed.

Up to that point in Adam and Eve's life the idea of throwing off God's rule in favor of man ruling without God was unheard of, not even in their thoughts until the tempter made the suggestion they do so. They walked with the Lord in the Garden - they had never considered shutting Him out of their lives in order to do what THEY wanted to do - they just naturally wanted to do what He wanted to do.

They knew only good, they didn't know evil. Though more brilliant than Einstein but with the innocence of toddlers - who don't know or care they are naked.

The Bible says Eve was deceived into the transgression but Adam was not*. Adam committed treason.* He figured it out as Satan tempted them 'to be like God' and knew exactly what he was doing. He willfully allowed the throwing off of God's rule into the earth, and death followed*. *Hosea 6:7, I Timothy 2:14, Romans 5:12

It is that law-less-ness that Jesus took away, He carried on Himself the rule of man that throws off the rule of God, the singular SIN of the world - that is why Paul calls Jesus 'the last Adam'* - Jesus carried on Himself and removed the SIN Adam had released into the earth. *I Corinthians 15:45

Jesus took away the sin of the world, so that means individual sins have no power over us, and once you know that it can rock your world - more next week,

Blessings,
John Fenn

www.cwowi.org and email me at cwowi@aol.com

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In the Present & Presence #3 (Titanic)

5/9/2015

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Hi all,
On April 10, 1912 the Titanic, the largest and most luxurious ocean liner up to that time, left port for its maiden voyage. It was decorated with the latest and greatest of all things; it had the new wireless telegraph which provided passengers the unheard of ability to communicate with people thousands of miles away, ornately decorated staterooms in first class, and for safety, advanced watertight compartments.

One of the most luxurious if not THE most luxurious appointment on the ship was the 'Grand Staircase', reserved for use by first class passengers. Above was a large glass dome letting in natural light, and the staircase and surrounding woodwork were ornately carved.

The flooring around the Grand Staircase was also the most modern and luxurious of the time, using a newer process that was all the rage in which linseed oil was solidified and mixed with pine rosin and wood dust with coloring to form a tile flooring. Yes, the flooring around the base of that Grand Staircase, that most luxurious appointment on the most luxurious ocean liner ever built, was...linoleum.

In their day linoleum was the 'in' thing, the most luxurious flooring money could buy, but in our day it is among the least expensive and most common of flooring.

What is now the 'in' thing, will one day be the old thing. In the world people proclaim things like 'this is what Paris is wearing' or 'all the stars are wearing these', but next year the stars will be wearing something different and Paris models will be showing off new styles on the runways.

God doing a new thing?

In church circles whatever is the latest and greatest is often labeled 'This is a new thing the Lord is doing'. But in the book of Acts, which covers over 30 years, and the rest of the New Testament which covers a total of about 70 years, we don't see the authors saying that God is doing anything new other than the work of Jesus and the work of the Holy Spirit in man. The New Testament IS the new thing.

Consider that - Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, Peter, James - authors of the New Testament, pillars of the faith, chosen by the Lord to live and die in that time in history, over the course of 70 years of their faith, never wrote anywhere the Lord is doing something new other than Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

Of course someone new to the Lord will rightly exclaim it is a new life for them, but in terms of what heaven is doing their salvation and baptism with the Holy Spirit is what He has been doing the last 2,000 years. It is only new to us while He remains the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Same old stuff for me to work on

I can't speak for you, but for me, He is still working on things in me He started when I was first born again as a 16 year old. He has never stopped working on me, fine tuning, changing things in me that I can trace back over decades in my life. I don't need a 'new thing' until and unless I first mature in the old things.

The family in Colorado Springs - love the world?

I was teaching a class in Colorado Springs and after the day's session 4 of us went out to eat. As we walked to our booth I noticed a large family in the middle of the room who had pushed together several tables - there were about 10 or 14 people, with the kids at one end and adults at the other.

I also immediately saw angels standing behind some of the people, and there was one angel clearly in charge. It isn't unusual for the Lord to open my eyes to see His realm while I also see the natural world but I did wonder why that was happening at a restaurant.

As the 4 of us ordered our meal I kept a running conversation going with my friends, while also turning to my left to talk to the angel standing a few feet away. In the natural it looked like I was just looking to my left for a glance at that large group, but in the Spirit I was talking with the angel. The first thing I asked was 'Are these people believers?' to which he replied they were.

Then he added; "But they love this world with the toys and distractions in it. They go to church, but only when it is convenient with their plans, and rarely read the Bible or even talk of the Lord at home." I asked what it was like to guard them and he surprised me saying: "It's more fun to guard people like you." I told him I thought they'd be busier with carnal Christians, but he responded:
"No. Because of their love for this world and the things in it they have shut the Lord out of their lives in those many areas. If a person is walking with Him they are more sensitive to His direction, but when they are doing their own thing they have tuned Him out, making them insensitive to the things of the Spirit and preventing us from protecting them or even warning them of things to come."

I took that as a hint, so I turned my attention to a boy about age 12 sitting at the far end, all alone, and an angel standing right behind him. The angel seemed rather subdued in his mood - quiet, somber, looking at the boy. There was a heaviness about the whole family, and I was still wondering why I was seeing them.

So I asked the angel about the boy, and then I learned why my eyes were opened to see them: "As it stands now, this boy will die in an ATV (all terrain vehicle) accident when he is about 15." With that, suddenly a large scene like on a TV appeared in the air next to the angel above the boy as he was seated at the table. I saw this family in the woods and somehow I knew it was a Sunday and they should have been in church but chose to take their 4 wheelers into the mountains that day.

They had made a ramp of dirt and were jumping their vehicles over it, flying a good distance, and then I saw this boy, older now, jump his vehicle and somehow it tilted back like he was trying a backwards flip but didn't make it. The scene froze as his vehicle with him on the seat was upside down with his head about to touch the ground and the whole thing falling on him - and then it disappeared.

At that point I interrupted the conversation my 3 friends were having, and told them what I just told you. I realized my eyes had been opened to see and talk to the angels so that we could intercede and stop that horrible accident from taking that boy's life 3 years in the future, and that this family would return to their first love. We prayed right there, and when I looked back at the angels - the lead one smiled as did the one standing behind the boy, and they disappeared.

My host that night then observed, "This explains something that I've experienced from time to time through the years. I'll be somewhere and see a person and feel grieved and sad in my spirit, almost to the point if I let myself go, I could stop and weep right there. It has happened in airports or just when out and about in a normal routine - I'll see someone among the hundreds and feel this deep sorrow - and I felt that when we walked in and I saw that family, but I didn't know why. Now I know I am sensing the Holy Spirit's sadness over someone's walk with the Lord, that they aren't walking with Him as they should, maybe they love the world rather than putting all their love on Him."

We cannot live in the present in Him if we have also given our heart to the world and the things therein. His presence requires being in the present - leaving all love of the world, all people, all the past and future at the door - to be wholly and completely devoted to Him. Amazingly, He isn't ignorant of our needs or desires, and as Solomon asked for wisdom rather than riches or victory over enemies*, because (at that point in his life) he was completely in the present when he asked for wisdom, the Lord gave him the things he didn't ask for. *I Kings 3:5-14

May we live come before His presence with thanksgiving and praise, focused on the present, focused on Who we are worshipping, Who we are exalting, wholly and completely focused on Him. If we do so, the rest will be provided and fall into place in our lives.

New subject next week, blessings,
John Fenn

www.cwowi.org and email me at cwowi@aol.com

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In the Present & Presence #2 (Freezer)

5/2/2015

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Hi all,
I don't understand Barb's freezer organization though I admire her organizational skills. But I am just a man so this is normal. This particular morning I was hungry for bacon, the item I think should be one of the 6 basic food groups: Fruit, vegetables, meat, dairy, grains, bacon. Maybe cheese should have its own category too. If I were a dinosaur I'd be a meat-o-saurus. Barb however would be a carbohydrate-o-saurus. We balance each other.

Carbohydrates is nearly all I found that morning in the freezer - rolls, tortillas, rye bread, whole grain loaves of breads, ice cream, gelato, frozen sacks of flour of various kinds...but no bacon, no hamburger for we were on the low side of the supply cycle. Normally there is a small meat section but we needed to restock.

Barb is amazing in the way she preserves past meals as well. There were last Thanksgiving dinners and dinners from Christmas, and even this year's Easter dinners all waiting to be pulled from the icy depths to be heated and relished once again. I love that about her, holiday meals in our house never truly end, they just get frozen in place to be enjoyed at a future time.

Frozen in time

My thoughts drifted that morning to how a freezer full of food was like our prayer life. We have leftover memories from the past, some better than others, some that haven't been fully consumed, frozen in time packaged for no one to see, though we would truly love to empty that freezer and be done with it!

Like a big meal in which we finally push the plate away and say 'I've had enough' and cart it off to the freezer, so too are memories we've had enough of, again some better than others. Some we haven't worked through all the elements of - the injustice, the loss, the pain inflicted on ourselves and others, the 'why?' to it all.

We all have a history

Some histories are prettier than others, but human nature wants to do the impossible; Make the past fit all neat and orderly, dealt with and organized until all issues have been resolved and it doesn't hurt anymore. Then those reconciled memories could be labeled 'resolved' and stored away forever.

I've been talking about how the Lord told me earlier this year: "I AM. Therefore I am always present. So, to be in my presence you must be in the present."

I shared last week how, when the Lord came out of eternity to give Moses the 10 Commandments they caused Israel to live in the present. By issuing commands not suggestions, He empowered each person to take responsibility for their own decisions in life, to be accountable for each moment in time.

In the present

When for instance it says, 'Do not lie' (bear false witness) there is no wiggle room to justify a lie by bringing up a past experience where they were hurt, to make it okay to lie in the present situation. Nor could they lie to gain a better future - "Yes sir, this chariot has very low mileage, owned by a grandma who only used it to collect manna each morning" when they knew it was a war chariot used in many battles by the Egyptian army. Each Israelite had to live in the present and walk with God in the present.

Personal empowerment

The 10 Commandments were purposely vague with few details other than with some basic guidelines in some cases, but not to the point He was trying to issue a command for every possible situation in life. By being vague it meant each person had to walk with Him, to know Him, that they might receive fresh revelation for each particular situation on how to apply His command. If you take relationship away from the Commands you end up with religious exercises never quite sure with what God is pleased or displeased.

What the Ugandans said

When I was a Bible school Director I had a couple from Uganda speak to the students during chapel. If memory serves, the husband was child 29 of 34 children as his father had 4 wives. His wife came from a home with 3 wives and she was something like child 13 out of 19 children.

The Ugandan couple told the students that in the 1800's European missionaries did great harm to the tribal and social structure of Uganda, harm felt all the way into modern times. The Europeans would convert some husbands and some wives to Christianity, then they required these new believers to divorce their non-Christian mates, which tore apart families, tribes, and the whole nation.

What we told the students that morning is that it is our job to obey God and make disciples by letting them observe in us what Jesus told us to do - and it is up to the Holy Spirit in them to walk through life with Him and with Him figure out how to apply God's ways into their culture. Walking in love means walking with Him in the present to discover His wisdom for each situation we encounter.

It is the same for us today

When we read Jesus' command: "Love one another as I have loved you", we automatically think of the cross, but that is NOT what He said.

In John 15 the disciples still did not understand Jesus was about to go to the cross. That was still future. Jesus said 'as I have loved you', meaning the last 3 1/2 years of their time together - from the start of His ministry when John the Baptist was still alive up to that moment He made the statement.

Jesus was talking about how over 3 1/2 years in daily life, camping out, staying in homes, teaching the public and then sharing in private, cookouts and long walks as they observed Him in every aspect of life - to love one another as He had loved them during that time. When He commanded them to love each other as He had loved them, He was talking about daily life they'd shared the last 3 1/2 years.

In this instance Jesus DID ask them to remember the past. These past memories included many things still unresolved for the disciples. Teachings they did not understand, actions and statements critical of the religious leaders and culture they had grown up with, miracles they'd not yet taken time to digest.

When Jesus asked them to remember the past it wasn't to bring up the past to dwell on what they did not understand or what still confused them, but rather to remember the love they saw, to remember the good times together, the example of His life that they could apply to their own lives. He wasn't asking them to tie the past neatly in a bow and pronounce each issue resolved, but instead to choose to remember the overall example of love, to draw on what they did understand, to find love in the midst of the unresolved issues.

THAT is what we can do, to live in the here and now and in this instance, to choose to walk in love, to remember through the eyes of love, with assurance that in the ages to come the Father will continue to show the riches of His love and kindness towards us in Christ. (Ephesians 2:7)

Continuing next week...blessings!

John Fenn

www.cwowi.org and email me at cwowi@aol.com

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