Deep Waters

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I feel unqualified to delve into such things as this from the position that I will be trying to take. And I say so because really there are others who have done a better job at explaining these kind of things. So why do it Ken? Because it occurred to me when I was read a book this past Sunday that something strange bumped into my current thinking. Allow me to share. So I have done more than one message and a book soon to be released down the road, on whether if you could lose your salvation standing or not. And I did it from some of the same scriptures that I will be using in this message, but from a new angle. We will take a look at the inerrancy of God predestining His peeps to salvation which if this is the case there is no guesswork as to who name is in the book of Life and who’s is not. It is finished before it started, so to speak. The other angle is that your name could be in the book of Life but because you went south in your walk with God your name vanished from the book. I will provide the scripture and the event which alludes to the fact that this could be the case. And but now we can’t have one thing cancel out another, you see the bible doesn’t contradict itself. And so when I go to that part of the story in a minute, I will express my concern for the proof of name in the book and then removed from the book so as to leave some doubt as to whether it really is a name in and then name out scenario. 

Luke 10:17-20 - 17 Then the [a]seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.”

18 And He said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 19 Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. 20 Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but [b]rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.”

Ok so now we know that Judas was with these guys as he was a part of the original 12-disciples. And we can ponder the fact that this must have looked strange to satan after the fact, when he entered into Judas later in the story considering that Judas was casting out demons from others (Luke 22:3). But so in this scripture we see that Jesus corrected their over-zealous joy in the power that they yielded over the demons by saying, “rejoice because your names are written in heaven.” Luke 22:47-48 shows us that clearly Judas no longer considered it a valuable commodity that his name is written in heaven. Invisible ink? I don’t know but let’s continue to see if there is any relevance in adding this little ditty to the message. 

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Shall we open this up with a testimony of epic proportions? Yes Ken who got healed? Ha, but so that would be awesome as nothing is impossible with God and us, we and/or them right? No but this is the relational part of God that I think can often get overlooked. It’s the touchy, touchy feely, feely miracles of God that can sometimes be overlooked. Oh how much He cares about the minutest part of our lives, and I believe He does so just in hopes that we would 1), ask Him, and 2) that we would recognize Him when he responds to the ask regardless of how small the ask or un-asked. 

 So I was loading my splitter on my truck and did the normal prep for towing that I usually do. And but there was this Holy Spirit nudge, and so I asked, “hey God am I ready to tow? Did I miss anything?” and as I did that immediately a little pin swing arm started moving at the bottom of the splitter. This pin holds up the front legs which supports the 1000lbs beast. Now had that pin slipped out to which it would have because the swing arm was not set in place to hold the pin in, the legs would have dropped down in tow and tow (tore) a whole bunch of things up, including possibly detaching the splitter from the truck. Swing, swing, swing. It is as if God flicked that little swing arm so that I could see that it wasn’t set in place. Small but big? No matter, I was working with God hand-in-hand in relationship and it is this that make the moment so big. He has our very small matters as well as the big ones. Do not think that you should be in anyway screening out the insignificant should-be-prayer-requests out of your life because you think that they would be nothing more than a nuisance to God. Hey if it was your kid making the ask, no matter how small, 1) you would respond and 2) you would not wanted him or her to have withheld the ask. It’s called relationship. 

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This message is based on a portion of my new book titled, “A New Creation” soon to be published. Let’s foundation this:

2 Cor 5:17 - Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

What in all of everything wasn’t finished by the Word, the pre-Jesus of our earth? You, but, and well I won’t go into the fact that all of what we see happening here on earth has, well, already happened in eternity. It more or less started and ended before it began in time. You can read 1 Peter 1:20 for some light revelation regarding that, but for the sake of getting too squirrely on these wet roads, I must get back to the main subject which is that you are a new creation so stop acting like the old created you. What Ken, sharp out the gate? Ha, but hey were friends now right? Remember all of my messages are designed and intended to bring about change. You see you would think that humans think change is some kind of a disease based on our reaction to it when it is that time to do exactly that. Me included. I had my whole life mapped out in my 20’s. Yup, I was going to work at Sierra Pacific Lumber company my whole life and then retire with a 401k and social security. I was going to continue to build show and race VW’s and becoming a small time parts distributor for these lil bugs. Yup, and I was going to be an Oakland A’s and Raiders fan and watch all of their games until I up and died in my retirement chair. All planned out. Oh how small my plan was when after getting saved and looking back over 40-years of life how Gods plan was completely different for my life. 

When, and I may be getting ahead of myself, but that’s ok as long as I get it in the message, when I became a new creation, all and I mean all, of my plans dissolved over time and I became all together something else. I cannot say this emphatically enough. Every bit of what I thought I would become which really wasn’t much was being erased from my plans for my life absent of God. No my personality and talents remained intact and immature, they were illuminated to me to be a key factor in how I would move forward in life and eventually being prepared to be used more strategically for His, not my, but for His purposes. It was the great exchange whereby I surrendered my very small oh so very small life for His life in me and for me. Oh the greatest exchange to have ever taken place. No like we dream and conjure up these ideas like what if I were a super-hero? What super powers would I have? And yet right standing outside the door of your mind and heart is He the One that gave us the ability to even think about super-heroes. And but if He were invited in, you could in ministry when you are ready, called and matured for it can pray for healing or a miracle, sign, and/or a wonder and it would happen. Imagine Moses touched the shores of a sea and the water folded back on itself until a dry path wide enough for 5000 people arm and arm to cross over at the same time until all of the millions made it to the other side. If that is not super-hero stuff in your mind, you might need to go to a Rodney Howard Brown service and in doing so you will become befuddled at the work of God in humanity. 

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You have nothing to add to God but your heart - give him that and he will turn you into a genuine supernatural super-human.

 Double vision? Why yes of course. The title is so Saturday morning that I had to say it twice with the extension added to the second. I mean here we are on a Monday going through the editing of the message, and I can’t but be totally excited that God got me up 4:am-ish to speak this one into existence from, la la land. See how He wants so much to be in relationship with us? He’s like looking down from heaven asking, “hey you awake yet, how bout now, how bout now - hu, hu”

 Ha, no but right straight away you will be more, more, more than a conquer, if you surrender your heart completely and totally, yes 100 to God (Rom 8:37).

 You see this answer’s your right now question, and Solomon's as well when he stated in Ecclesiastes, well lets hear it from his own lips - well ok but so you get what I mean ha:

 Eccl 2:12-21 - Then I turned myself to consider wisdom and madness and folly;
 For what can the man do who succeeds the king?—
Only what he has already done.
13 Then I saw that wisdom excels folly
 As light excels darkness.
 14 The wise man’s eyes are in his head,
But the fool walks in darkness.
Yet I myself perceived
That the same event happens to them all.

15 So I said in my heart,
 “As it happens to the fool,
 It also happens to me,
 And why was I then more wise?”
 Then I said in my heart,
 “This also is vanity.”
16 For there is no more remembrance of the wise than of the fool forever,
Since all that now is will be forgotten in the days to come.
And how does a wise man die?
As the fool!

17 Therefore I hated life because the work that was done under the sun was distressing to me, for all is vanity and grasping for the wind.

18 Then I hated all my labor in which I had toiled under the sun, because I must leave it to the man who will come after me. 19 And who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will rule over all my labor in which I toiled and in which I have shown myself wise under the sun. This also is vanity. 20 Therefore I turned my heart and despaired of all the labor in which I had toiled under the sun. 21 For there is a man whose labor is with wisdom, knowledge, and skill; yet he must leave his [a]heritage to a man who has not labored for it. This also is vanity and a great evil.

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So I decided to go on a scripture overload so as to show you how they support the message and how it is that I can come up with a message for anyone who may not know that the story or parable is fully supported by scripture. Please write them down, or if you are so inclined you can stop, look them up, and move on, if it doesn’t feel like your in a canoe on choppy waters in the Atlantic Ocean in a winter storm. 

 I am a disruptor.

 Disruption follows a disruptor. Any time you stand for what is right in evil days, in days of evil, is a disruption to evil and his brother. When God is actively removed from a culture then the culture is inclined to become occultic. Yes of course I am talking to you Christians with a fat Buddha statue in your flowerbed or on your porch. 

 Yup, we have God's own people to thank, and I say this not out of sarcasm, as we are now repeating the sins that separated them from God back in their day. So it is Israel we should thank. One is compelled to ask why we write anything of helpfulness down if we are not the tiniest bit inclined to follow it's advice, instruction, and even it's command. They scribed their mess with God, ought not we pay some attention to how that happened?

 I mean ought we not feel embarrassed at the fact that what we have sown what we have reaped, and reaped what we have sown? And yet we were told that, this is how the principle works. We should be red-faced as the whole world got to see the judgement of God fall on His, yuppy puppy, His self-declared own people. Did we not know, you know, back in the days when we were more sanctified and reverent towards Him, that if we declare that He is our one and only God and Father, that it comes as a two-sided coin. One of necessary correction in love and the other in blessing? And but are they not both blessings anyways? 

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So I return to this message as I myself am in need of healing. I didn’t do it on purpose or to demonstrate to you that I am on top of every subject that I have sitting in my Q, and that when things come up, I know right where to go. Ha, nope. This is not me. I sat here this very morning (September 14th 2023 Thursday), talking to God about why my gout has flared up and whether it has a spiritually legal right to be attacking my body. I’m not a good pain guy whatever that is. When I was younger I would cry before the first lick of the belt would come sailing my way. Nope, don’t do well with pain. So but then this is why I go to God regarding any sicknesses or diseases that tries to embed itself into my life. Well that and the fact that Jesus stated I that when I was born again I received as part of my benefits package a certificate of healing (Is 53:5 / 1 Peter 2:24), and that my carrier was Red Cross and not Blue Cross. Ha right that’s just me. Oh wait not the Red Cross but His red cross; almost lost that one to lost semantics. 

 So but wait as we have a commercial interruption. As I am typing this message out Thursday remember, out of no where which is usually somewhere, I got what I can only explain as a 15-min flu. Yup, right here and then. My temperature shot up to only God knows what, I could feel the heat tingle right up both of my arms like pins and needles. Insto-swet, clothes all wet and I am on my way to the restroom. A few minutes later and I am on my way home, and even while I am on my way home I am feeling great ceptin the gout shout in my foot. I remember thinking what is going on that I would feel so badly in one moment, and then out of no where as quickly as it came, it left. My thoughts were, as I was heading into the weekend with this event still swirling around in my head, that it must have something to do with this message. I mean I am talking about believing in healing so you can receive your red cross benefits from Jesus and pow. So anyway, don’t need to know the devils business so I am back September 18th 2023 Monday to finish what I started. 

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This portion of the message came to me after I did what is now the second part of what I thought was going to be the first and only part of the message. And but this message in totality is discussing Christians who get taken out due to trials and tribulations and give up on God and what they can do to get back in the game. It’s a shorty but important if you are one who is watching Christianity go by, and by the way if you can see it let me know because I have been dying to see it. Ha but no joke it’s become a rare bird.

 So now but I really felt that it was missing something, because I get around people who were Christians in title, yes I say Christians in title, who have changed their original Christian behavior after getting offended by other believers, the church, or other people in general, and then because of the excuse that those offenses have occurred, they go back to seeking all the pleasures of the world, swearing up a storm, watching nothing but negative this and negative that on the TV, they have become nothing but negative speakers always finding fault in everything, always concerned about stuff that they don't have any control over, and then tell you, and this is very important if it’s you and I am sorry but if you have fallen this deep you may not know it’s you, that this is actual you, but you can know if it’s you because you will claim when challenged on your lifestyle choices, that you are still okay with God. This is one of the most painful things to experience in Christianity. 

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So we have the five-fold ministry gifts where we previously have talked about in the book of Ephesians. Look Jesus Himself gave some to be Apostle’s, Prophets, Evangelist, Pastors, and Teachers. Let’s look as it is the heart of this ministry that we get to doing this very thing. Better to do that, than to hope God does see the church the way you do. Rev 1:2 thru 3:22 tells us of what He will think about the church if he doesn’t already. And no doubt you want to hear what I think, ha, ok so but anyway, I will let you know which is that I think we are in the last age of the 7-churches and I think that many of us will miss the event because we really are not plugged in. See let’s walk a narrow unrelated but related path shall we? Luke states that many will try and get into the Kingdom of God and will not be able, and Matthew states that the gate is narrow and there are few who find it because it is difficult. Ha, see the key as to why the easy-livers may not get in? Ok so but then we continue on with Him stating, that is God, that He will come as a thief in the night. Here are the thief in the night scriptures as well as a glimmer of hope scripture that well gives us who really want to forsake all to follow God so that we find the narrow path. And don’t think for a minute that the narrow path excludes those who are in cults or false religions, or that do not nor were ever made to believe. The kids of satan – the vessels made for dishonor. Let’s first look at the scriptures that I referred to in this paragraph before I refer to Ephesians list of gifts:

 1 John 3:10 - In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. 

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So this is going to be an experiment in sound effects. I wanted the message to be more serious but no, seriously, more on that later. And well I have a surprise for the listeners of this message which is that my first book has been accepted by a publisher as of August 31, 2023. What this means is that the ministry will begin to prepare material that will help to equip you for the work of ministry and to help you to settle into being a disciple and being a disciple that will reproduce disciples (Matt 28:19). For those of you that think that God cannot use you for what you don’t have just kill those thoughts and listen to His voice for your ministry and start running. No but ok so you can walk the first five steps then you can move to a brisk walk, then a jog, and then when you are ready, or not, a full-blown sprint. Time is a tickin’ and we don’t have much of that left when you compare it to eternity. No opportunities lost in our generation, right?

The overly dramatic ministry of Jesus. Oh boy this is going to be good for those of you that don’t like heavenly party poppers (Sound). In other words you hear stuff that is so far beyond anything you have been taught in church that you think the guy who is sharing that stuff, as you imagine him standing next to John the Baptizer eating crickets in suckers (Sound), as one who is far from the quiet peaceful heaven that you imagine. But listen, they called Jesus crazy, and Paul was told that he was out of his mind due to looking into this God stuff with every fiber of his being. And what of the Apostles who were killed because they were so, so, so disruptive to the prevailing cult and religious cultures of the day. Oh I would name all of the false gods, false religions, and cults of those days, but no need as we have found a way to add volume to that mess through our own getting sideways in this relationship with God stuff versus religion with God stuff. 

Acts 26:24 - 24 Now as he thus made his defense, Festus said with a loud voice, “Paul, you are beside yourself! Much learning is driving you mad!”

Mark 3:20-21 - 20 Then the multitude came together again, so that they could not so much as eat bread. 21 But when His own people heard about this, they went out to lay hold of Him, for they said, “He is out of His mind.”

Acts 12:15 - But they said to her, “You are beside yourself!” Yet she kept insisting that it was so. So they said, “It is his angel.”

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It’s one thing to read a book and be warmed by it’s story, and another to be warned by its story. Now I am talking about Christian books; about Christianity, those who ran before us, books about revivals and great awakenings, the history of the church, the birth of Protestantism, just on this side of church craziness, including the things that the Catholic church was involved in and in fact still may have that original spirit which is anti-Christ that caused them to do those things in the first place; anti-Christ or anti-Christian for you specific-tarians. This view comes from the fact that they took out and killed authentic Christians because they were well Christians. You will have to read the books on that mess and be ready to hear from those like them that those books are all lies, all lies. The birth of Pentecostalism and the burp of the charismatic movement which was not limited to but included the Jesus movement which included so many world-wide hippy hoppies. Ha by the way this is a great movie. 

 So but now what’s up today? In our day. This is our Christian timeframe for adding to the kingdom of God those who are heading to hell. I mean, well what I mean to say; I see and have witnessed that something is just a bit off with our business as usual churchy mentality. I mean where is the headlines about anything God other than mostly in really small circles? No, no, no I mean where is God moving and doing the things that Jesus was doing? Well and more than Jesus was doing, as this was our promise, which is that we would and that we should, and that we would desire to do so. You see it just seems like no one is paying any attention, and if they are, whoever they are, they don’t have to let me know, I am not anyone but a spiritual wondering wonderer. 

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