BUT IT IS NOT !!!

If it were necessary for Jesus to be crucified twice to save us, would He come and be crucified again? Admittedly the question is WRONG. But I think He loves us much more than we may imagine. ONCE was enough. If it were necessary twice it would be done twice, but IT IS NOT. It is my weak faith, my confused mind and my abused and self abused person⁽*⁾ that struggles to overcome and receive the greatest, purest and the only Love there is. God IS love. Everything He ever did was from His Love for His Love, that is, for His loves.

In the beginning was the one who is called the Word. The Word was with God and was truly God. From the very beginning the Word was with God. And with this Word, God created all things. Nothing was made without the Word. Everything that was created received its life from him, and his life gave light to everyone. The light keeps shining in the dark, and darkness has never put it out. God sent a man named John, who came to tell about the light and to lead all people to have faith. John wasn't that light. He came only to tell about the light. The true light that shines on everyone was coming into the world. The Word was in the world, but no one knew him, though God had made the world with his Word. He came into his own world, but his own nation did not welcome him. Yet some people accepted him and put their faith in him. So he gave them the right to be the children of God. They were not God's children by nature or because of any human desires. God himself was the one who made them his children. The Word became a human being and lived here with us. We saw his true glory, the glory of the only Son of the Father. From him all the kindness and all the truth of God have come down to us. John spoke about him and shouted, "This is the one I told you would come! He is greater than I am, because he was alive before I was born." Because of all that the Son is, we have been given one blessing after another. The Law was given by Moses, but Jesus Christ brought us undeserved kindness and truth. No one has ever seen God. The only Son, who is truly God and is closest to the Father, has shown us what God is like. The Jewish leaders in Jerusalem sent priests and temple helpers to ask John who he was. He told them plainly, "I am not the Messiah." (SEE 1:19) Then when they asked him if he were Elijah, he said, "No, I am not!" And when they asked if he were the Prophet, he also said "No!" Finally, they said, "Who are you then? We have to give an answer to the ones who sent us. Tell us who you are!" John answered in the words of the prophet Isaiah, "I am only someone shouting in the desert, 'Get the road ready for the Lord!' " Some Pharisees had also been sent to John. They asked him, "Why are you baptizing people, if you are not the Messiah or Elijah or the Prophet?" John told them, "I use water to baptize people. But here with you is someone you don't know. Even though I came first, I am not good enough to untie his sandals." John said this as he was baptizing east of the Jordan River in Bethany. The next day, John saw Jesus coming toward him and said: Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! He is the one I told you about when I said, "Someone else will come. He is greater than I am, because he was alive before I was born." I didn't know who he was. But I came to baptize you with water, so that everyone in Israel would see him. I was there and saw the Spirit come down on him like a dove from heaven. And the Spirit stayed on him. Before this I didn't know who he was. But the one who sent me to baptize with water had told me, "You will see the Spirit come down and stay on someone. Then you will know that he is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit." I saw this happen, and I tell you that he is the Son of God.  (John 1:1-34)

There is an old doctrinal adage about the trinity: “The Father is not the Son or the Spirit, the Son is not…” It was formulated so as to refute some other doctrine about who God is. What I have been hearing from some really sincere “theologians” Bob and Eric Mumford is that “The Father loves the Son and the Spirit, the Son loves the Father and the Spirit, and the Spirit loves the Son and the Father.”  The Mumfords teach that God has to be a trinity, and not a monotheos, not a God who is One and not Three in One. Why? Because if God were ONE and was love, before the creation of the angels and man God as ONE could only love Himself. A mono theos who had not yet created any things He could love could only love himself. What I am hearing is the God IS love and love, His nature to love requires that love to be loving someone other that itself. God cannot love as love requires being One alone. A mono theos cannot love at all, for love of self fails to be love at all!

Self interest fails for it excludes the love of others, it cannot receive the love of others, nor can it give love to others. Self interest is not love, it is selfishness, it is toxic to self and to others (there are ALWAYS others!) and ultimately it produces a very singular crop of abject loneliness AKA NARCISSISM.  Self interest may have a “glorious” appearance in the world, but in the Light of Heaven is will be seen as PRIDE, SIN, and GUILTY SHAME.

Richard Wurmbrand has written of God that “They are God.” It is not proper grammar but it is true! “He is Gods” is also true! Even Jewish rabbis know that “Elohim” is a plural and that “…God [Elohim] said, "Let us make humankind in our image, in the likeness of ourselves…” Their and any objections to God being a trinity are without merit. But their scriptures are true. Deuteronomy 6:4-5 is correct saying:

"Sh'ma, Yisra'el! Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai echad [Hear, Isra'el! Adonai our God, Adonai is one]; and you are to love Adonai your God with all your heart, all your being and all your resources. (Deuteronomy 6:4-5)

Hear,^H8085 O Israel:^H3478 The LORD^H3068 our God^H430 is one^H259 LORD:^H3068 And thou shalt love^{H157 (H853)} the LORD^H3068 thy God^H430 with all^H3605 thine heart,^H3824 and with all^H3605 thy soul,^H5315 and with all^H3605 thy might.^H3966

(Deuteronomy 6:4-5)

H430 ~~ אלהים ~ 'ĕlôhîym ~ el-o-heem'

Plural of H433; gods in the ordinary sense; but specifically used (in the plural thus, especially with the article) of the supreme God; occasionally applied by way of deference to magistrates; and sometimes as a superlative: - angels, X exceeding, God (gods) (-dess, -ly), X (very) great, judges, X mighty.

H3068 ~~ יהוה~ y^ehôvâh ~ yeh-ho-vaw'

From H1961; (the) self Existent or eternal; Jehovah, Jewish national name of God: - Jehovah, the Lord. Compare H3050, H3069.

H259 ~~ אחד ~ 'echâd ~ ekh-awd'

A numeral from H258; properly united, that is, one; or (as an ordinal) first: - a, alike, alone, altogether, and, any (-thing), apiece, a certain [dai-] ly, each (one), + eleven, every, few, first, + highway, a man, once, one, only, other, some, together.

In the movie The Wizard of Oz Dorothy and her friends discover, uncover the “Wizard” behind the curtain. He is a small and weak little man with a big sound system. Yet his existence has been the motivation for their journey. I don’t want at the end of my/our journey to pull back a curtain and see a weak god. Nor do I want to find a God who is not what I envisioned Him to be. As we mortal humans do not survive our lives in this earth, in our bodies made of earth (And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, Gen 2:7). And… I do not believe God wants me to then be disappointed in who He is either!

Whatever doctrinal “stream” we find ourselves floating down, I believe God wants us to turn back upstream toward the SOURCE. I have heard that the Jews call heaven “Beth Shemayim” which may mean “there is water there.” Surely LIFE comes from heaven’s God in the Messiah who teaches us the He, Jesus is the Way(1), the Truth(2) and the Life(3). I believe God IN THE Messiah Jesus may be seen as the ONE “Way to the Truth of Life.”

Religions now are many, and perhaps more than at any other time. They are in conflict regarding faith and doctrines, against one another AND EVEN within their own streams they are in conflict over doctrines, EVEN IN WHAT IS humanly called the church. But God never went to war against God. God is not a conflicted Persons. Again the grammar is hard on the ear but easy on the ear of faith. The Three in ONE are/is ALWAYS in perfect flawless peace and rest, that is, They are at SHALOM. Only atheists (the most foolish of men?) would dare to deny this. Agnostics (almost as foolish?) would dare say “I don’t know this.” The religious might say it is so and all the while insist their OWN “gods, faith and doctrine” must prevail. Christendom surely must agree, yet there exists still much overt (offensive?) criticism (which is hypocrisy?) among denominations and non-denominations over doctrine. It may be that some who name Jesus will be bigger fools than some who do not, for God has from the beginning revealed Themselves to every sentient (self aware) being.

… what is known about God is plain to them, since God has made it plain to them. For ever since the creation of the universe his invisible qualities — both his eternal power and his divine nature — have been clearly seen, because they can be understood from what he has made. Therefore, they have no excuse;    (Romans 1:19-20)

No excuse for what? For ignoring, denying and forgetting God their maker and maker of all things. I’m not Jewish by my first birth, but I am Christian by my second birth from above. There is only one Anointed Divine King and Lord of all, and He IS Yeshua [Jesus]. He is called the Messiah [the Christ] which title means Anointed! Are you in the Messiah? Is God in the Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed one, are THEY in you? I call myself (and it is perhaps boasting) a “Messianic gentile.” I’m not Jewish by human pedigree. But I identify with Paul, who might be called a “born again Christian Jew.” His zeal, passion and LOVE for God in the Messiah are great and pure. I want to follow Paul like as he follows Jesus. He wrote:

In conclusion, my brothers: rejoice in union with the Lord. It is no trouble for me to repeat what I have written you before, and for you it will be a safeguard: beware of the dogs, those evildoers, the Mutilated! For it is we who are the Circumcised, we who worship by the Spirit of God and make our boast in the Messiah Yeshua [Christ Jesus]! We do not put confidence in human qualifications, even though I certainly have grounds for putting confidence in such things. If anyone else thinks he has grounds for putting confidence in human qualifications, I have better grounds: b'rit-milah [circumcised] on the eighth day, by birth belonging to the people of Isra'el, from the tribe of Binyamin [Benjamin], a Hebrew-speaker, with Hebrew-speaking parents, in regard to the Torah, a Parush [Pharisee], in regard to zeal, a persecutor of the Messianic Community [the church], in regard to the righteousness demanded by legalism [the law], blameless. But the things that used to be advantages for me, I have, because of the Messiah, come to consider a disadvantage. Not only that, but I consider everything a disadvantage in comparison with the supreme value of knowing the Messiah Yeshua as my Lord. It was because of him that I gave up everything and regard it all as garbage, in order to gain the Messiah and be found in union with him, not having any righteousness of my own based on legalism, but having that righteousness which comes through the Messiah's faithfulness, the righteousness from God based on trust. Yes, I gave it all up in order to know him, that is, to know the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings as I am being conformed to his death, so that somehow I might arrive at being resurrected from the dead. It is not that I have already obtained it or already reached the goal — no, I keep pursuing it in the hope of taking hold of that for which the Messiah Yeshua took hold of me. Brothers, I, for my part, do not think of myself as having yet gotten hold of it; but one thing I do: forgetting what is behind me and straining forward toward what lies ahead, I keep pursuing the goal in order to win the prize offered by God's upward calling in the Messiah Yeshua. Therefore, as many of us as are mature, let us keep paying attention to this; and if you are differently minded about anything, God will also reveal this to you. Only let our conduct fit the level we have already reached. Brothers, join in imitating me, and pay attention to those who live according to the pattern we have set for you. For many — I have told you about them often before, and even now I say it with tears — live as enemies of the Messiah's execution-stake [cross]. They are headed for destruction! Their god is the belly; they are proud of what they ought to be ashamed of, since they are concerned about the things of the world. But we are citizens of heaven, and it is from there that we expect a Deliverer, the Lord Yeshua the Messiah. He will change the bodies we have in this humble state and make them like his glorious body, using the power which enables him to bring everything under his control. (Philippians  3:1-21)

For too many years I too often resisted the control of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. The results were catastrophe after catastrophe after catastrophe. And nothing I as one person could do would stop them from coming and going. Today I am optimistic, more so than ever, now seeing much evidence of God’s love for me and His power which enables him to bring everything, EVEN ME, under his control. Knowing God IS eternal life!

Knowing God IS eternal life!

And eternal life is this: to know you, the one true God, and him whom you sent, Yeshua the Messiah. (John 17:3)

A singer of an oldie but goodie from pretty far back in the day sang: “to know, know, know him is to love, love, love him, and I do.” What a triune flavor that has! It is of Jesus, Abba and the Holy Spirit I can now SING: “to know, know, know THEM is to love, love, love THEM, and I do.” Glory be to God, it can be to none other! NONE, no not ONE other or 300 million others!

⁽*⁾ Sin is ALWAYS self abusive. Those who harm others harm the human family of which they are a part. Harming another is harming the family and that is so close to self abuse as to be self abuse. The libertarian idea that I can do WHATEVER I WANT if it does no harm TO ANYONE ELSE is a lie from satan. The classic example is sexual self stimulation. It is likely to be the act (and sin) which provoked the Libertarian philosophy and likely did so very soon after God cast our first parents out from Eden. VERY few sins are done “solo” and none harm no one. I am and you are “another,” “s0meone ELSE” to God. He is “another” to you. He did not bring you into existence so that you would or should harm yourself. That you could and can do so is a fact of your (our) present existence. But God never approves that we harm ourselves. It is a cold and seared conscience that is untroubled by suicide and by other self abusive acts. The existence of suicide hotlines with counselors and the almost stubborn sentiment that suicides be prevented shows libertarian thought to be yet a minority opinion. Assisted suicide, AKA euthanasia is on the rise and a sad sign that men are drifting ever further from God who loves them. All tolerance of sin is dangerous, and endangering. Abortion, or as it ought to be called: assisted murder is endangering to the souls of the moms and dads who choose it for their enwombed children. It is a cold and loveless parent who does not intervene when their child or elderly relative is suicidal, self abusive or abusive of another. God who is our Father and our PERFECT Parent sent His Only Uniquely Begotten Firstborn Son Jesus to “planet” earth not to condemn or punish any one. He sent Jesus to save, heal and deliver us from death, hell and the second everlasting death. Even the churches are endangering them selves by ignoring God’s teaching about sin and what sin is and does. This may stem from the past somewhat prevalent preaching of condemnation without the teaching of God’s desire AND POWER to save from condemnation and from the performance of sin. “He breaks the power of cancelled sin…” and does so in love and holiness. If we will make time and seek God, coming before Him in desperation to be freed from our sinful thoughts, deeds, habits and addictions, God will break the power of he sin Jesus came and did take away from the world! The next day, Yochanan [John the Baptist] saw Yeshua [Jesus] coming toward him and said, "Look! God's lamb! The one who is taking away the sin of the world! (John 1:29) Trust Jesus and His Father to be who They ARE: Almighty God, Creator and Savior, Lord and Love. They can then and will then forgive all your sins and break the deceitful and destructive power of sin from off your soul and life. The power of sin is that it deceives humans causing them to be satisfied with the darkness of satan and sin. With out God’s intervention by revelation humans invariably come to “love” that darkness. Love of darkness is a force of human nature corrupted by the father of lies: satan. If a person remains in love with darkness, sin’s power overwhelms their human power to resist sinning as a practice and that person remains under the just condemnation of God who is love, but who is also holy and just. BUT God IS merciful and His mercy endures forever. He sent Jesus to  free us from all darkness and evil, that which has infected every human heart. Sin is abusive behavior. Jesus will transform any sinner who trusts Him to do that. The change He will make in your life may not come easily. But if we trust Him and remain with Him the results and rewards will come and they will end with His gift of a fully new and everlasting life.

John 3:31-36 American Standard Version (ASV)

31 He that cometh from above is above all: he that is of the earth is of the earth, and of the earth he speaketh: he that cometh from heaven is above all. 32 What he hath seen and heard, of that he beareth witness; and no man receiveth his witness. 33 He that hath received his witness hath set his seal to this, that God is true. 34 For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for he giveth not the Spirit by measure. 35 The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand. 36 He that believeth on the Son hath eternal life; but he that obeyeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.