Finding Our Way

From the transcript...

Larry and I talk with Jason Clark on this

Podcast, Rethinking God with Tacos. We didn't

get to eat any tacos, but we got to talk. This

week and the next three weeks are that podcast

broken up into three segments so I can air them

here on GAN.

From the transcript...

Jesus standing there in the flesh on the shores of Galilee. That was the Father's eternal Son anointed in the Holy Spirit. The creator, sustainer of all that is.

And I want to give credit. I learned this from Baxter Kruger. But the reality is that is who's standing there, who's being baptized of John, and he's holding the stars, he's causing the planets to spin on their axis, yeah, in the galaxy and all the stars, and he's holding it all together.

Jesus in the flesh. He's the one hanging on the cross saying, "Father, forgive me." Yeah. He's the one that died. And he has been raised. We were raised with him in the whole cosmos. And it's all new.

Yes. That's the message. That is the message.

Yeah. We were also talking about Hebrews 1. About... Hadn't he purged our sins?

Yeah. Well, the final revelation, he's spoken to us by the Son.

Yes, yes. And he has purged our sins and sat down. That being that final revelation, the full revelation of God.

I'm going to give another shameless plug to this book, Getting to Know Papa, a 31-day journey into the heart of our Father. I do recommend it. On day eight, the title of everything has changed. James picks up this scripture out of Hebrews chapter 1, verses 1 through 3. This is the New Living Translation.

I love that translation too.

Yeah. Long ago, God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets. And now in these final days, He has spoken to us through His Son.

God promised everything to the Son as an inheritance. And through the Son, He created the universe.

The Son radiates God's own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command. When he had cleansed us from our sins, he sat down in the place of honor at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven.

From the transcript...

What did you want to say about Romans 1 to 11?

That I read it.

Yeah, but as he talks about how that we die. We've been created anew. I'll tell you what. We live with him. We're joined now.

"Likewise, you also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

You take that scripture. I'm just giving you what the Holy Spirit ministered to me on this morning.

Go to 2 Corinthians 5, verse 15. It says, "And He died for all."

That's why we come out over here in Romans 6:11, right?

"Reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God."

"And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again."

Therefore, it's what you were talking about earlier. We know no man, no one, according to the flesh.

Just the reality of what God has accomplished in Christ. New life to the cosmos. We've been transferred, translated, from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. It is the reality of the world that is.

Mind, your life is in this world.

I know this doesn't have anything to do with... well, it does, kind of. But another thought that came to mind was in John 1, where it says, "In Him was life."

From the transcript...

But sometimes... He's interacting with other people. I might be, quote, offended, but I've learned not to take offense. Yeah. In other words, it might be a half a second or two seconds, you know, and I get rid of that. That's not who I am. That's what I say.

Well, you make me think about things I really didn't want to think deeply about, James. In a sense that... I think anyone can get their feelings hurt, whether it's intentional or unintentional. And that's one thing. It's another to get offended or to... harp on it and hang out with it.

Well, yeah, that. Or to feel disrespected, devalued, or unimportant by a comment somebody makes.

From the transcript...

If Jesus dealt with sin, Jesus dealt with death. And he did because he got up. Yeah, his resurrection is proof of it. And we were included.

I swear I want to live in that gospel. Renewing my mind, believing in my heart of hearts that I have conquered death. And I have life everlasting.

So a life. What is that? Knowing God. Knowing the Father. Knowing Jesus. What's that? Live every day in relation to Him. Walk with Him. Listen to Him. Speak to Him. Have relationships. You have conversations.

That's what's exciting. I think that's part of, we go back to part of our journey and our understanding of things now versus... what it was 50 years ago. Five. Ten. Five or ten for sure.

From the transcript...

I don't even remember what happened, but the Lord gave me an insight that I've never had before.

And I don't know why. I mean, it's not that big of a deal or a revelation, but it was feeding me. I was listening. Or reading. That's what it was. I was reading Robin Smith's book, I think. I don't know. She's got a new book, Face to Face with God.

Romans 5, 6, 7, and 8. Basically walking through that. But anyway, Romans 8. Verse 30, 31, where does it say?

From the transcript...

We've just been talking. The reason I'm here talking to you right now is I've written a book. But the Lord orchestrated the events of getting this book to print. The title of it is Before Time, Our Origin in Christ. You can go to Amazon.com to search the title. And my name, James Alderman. What if the gospel is better news than we ever imagined?

I was thinking that you said something to me about freedom in America's 250th anniversary of Declaration of Independence. I know you're a little younger than me, so I don't know how much you recall about 1976 at the 200th. 1976? I was like six. No, I was eight. 76? Yeah, I was eight.

So you probably don't have much memory of that year and time. How old were you? I was, well, 11. And you remember it? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Seems like I remember some candles or something, tall candles being flagged and having 1776 on or something. Yeah, well, I remember one, the Bicentennial Quarters. The Bicentennial. A bunch of those. I still got a bunch of those that I've kept all these years. And I remember our school had a lot of emphasis about it from an education standpoint on the Declaration of Independence and such. And then having around the 4th of July weekend, I assume,..

From the transcript....

My sheep know my voice. Is that what he said?

Yeah. My sheep hear my voice. He said both of them. Hear my voice. I think he did say know though.

Because he went on to say, let's get into the technicality of words. All the words before me were things of policy. Yeah, here I am. Let me see what the New King James says. Let me bring up the real Bible. Let me see what the New King James says.

Well, he said, be my memories. The sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name, leads them out. He knows them, for they know his voice. And they know. He calls my name because he knows them. They know his voice. Yeah.

So there wasn't any conditionality in any of those statements. It's just a fact.

From the transcript...

But when you get to Jesus and His finished work, all that goes away. I'd rather not get into that. God is not imputing our trespasses against us. He reconciled us to Himself in Christ.

We didn't have anything to do with it. Just like in Adam, where we fell, we didn't have anything to do with it. Listen, I don't know what that fruit in the garden tasted like. I didn't eat it. And I don't know what that cup they put to the lips of Jesus at the cross tasted like either, because I didn't sip it. But I am the beneficiary. Amen.

It seems like Paul said, "As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive."

Jesus, the last Adam, came and entered into the death of the first Adam on behalf of all humanity.

I forget the exact count, but four or five times in Romans 5 Paul runs that contrast. He'll say something about the first Adam, and then he'll say, "Much more"—that's the King James Version, anyway. Much more. Super-abounding grace.

From the transcript...

Hey, be sure to run through those potholes right there. Make me feel at home.

Oh, well.

Takes a son to know the father.

I was reading this morning. For a little bit, I got to read some.

John 1:18, man, that's so good.

And then you pair that with John's gospel words—the one laying on Jesus' bosom.

John, the night before he was betrayed, he's laying on Jesus' chest.

What a picture.

The Son coming from the bosom of the Father, revealing our relationship in him, with the Father.

And here we have John laying on his bosom.

I mean, it's a revelation.

Yes.

Where we come from and where we are.

Yes.

And where we'll forever be.

Yes, that's a beautiful picture.

Just those two verses.

Yes.

In the bosom.

I would say, okay, I'm thinking about Hebrews 2.

“I and the children that you have given me.”

And phraseology that's there.

He's unashamed to call us brother.

The fact that he is identifying with us.

And I think about the scene in Revelation where God himself wipes away all tears.

He's trying to give us language to convey to us the deepest love and the greatest intimacy.

The most tender and safest place.

He's trying to destroy the idea that God's way out there and we're over here.