Let’s expand on the prior blog and hone in on how to live and serve from the tree of life. Our goal will be to learn to love all people with the love that God has given to those who believe in and follow Jesus. The people of God’s Kingdom need to become free to love and pour life into everyone in their lives; especially, those who consider us their enemy or just act like it. We need to be like Jesus in how He lived, taught, prayed, served and loved. We need to be free from shame, guilt and condemnation. God has and will continue pouring His love into us, He has sealed us with the Holy Spirit as the guarantee that we are His. That is our catalyst to kill doubt, worry and fear so we love one another and shine the light of Jesus. That will expose the darkness. We do not need to stand firm in judgment and condemnation. Loving the world like Jesus did (John 3:16-18) is the best medicine for a sin sick world that does not yet know and adore Him. Let’s get rid of our old flawed ways of doing church and outreach ministry and then move into being a much needed tree of life people.
First, we start with some further explanation of why the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is not a good ministry guide. There is good. There is evil. There is knowledge. There is truth which means there are also falsehoods and lies. There is darkness but there is also light. There is terror and wonder; fear and awe. There are many opposing forces in this wisdom literature that describes creation in Genesis chapters 1-3. Where then do we land? Which side are we on? How are we to live? How do we discern truth and error? What determines the methods for guiding our thoughts and judgements? Surely, we are all making millions of judgements throughout our lives and hundreds daily. What foundation leads and guides us to make these decisions? And how can we know we are doing well with our choices? Are we choosing wisely? Do our choices lead to The Good?
As a follower of Jesus I will be addressing this from the perspective of a believer in Him, in His life, death, burial, resurrection and all His teachings that we have before us in the Bible. Most Christians want to be faithful to the Bible and teach it accurately. Are we reading it from the tree of life perspective or a rule oriented one? I hope my previous post revealed how easy it is for us to fall into the tree of the knowledge of good and evil methods which DO NOT lead to life.
Here is what I have seen in the churches in the USA. It is the standard method for most people and churches to minister, guide and teach from a tree of the knowledge of good and evil perspective. Have you ever met a person who was transformed by being nagged, shamed, guilted, controlled or manipulated? Does that method cause people to joyfully become the best they can be? Law followers produce law followers. Where is the Spirit and transformation of the soul in this? A relationship with the rules leads to unrest as one attempts to hold fast to all the regulations. How much good and peace is found in the headlines of Yahoo, Google, MSN, etc.? Watch the weather report on the news and listen to how the other hosts complain; no matter what the report is! The weather happening now was desired two days ago but now that it is happening it is bad; almost evil. How much joy is there in all this complaining about everything? Have you noticed that most opinion writings are all about the negative? We are doing that here too. Once finished explaining all these negatives and why they do not transform lives we will move in the opposite direction. Hang in there. I love and respect you.
The blog link below was some early development of the concepts discussed above and in the previous post.
Is the church of Jesus doing things much different than the media in its condemnation of those with whom it disagrees? Will all the mudslinging in politics and religion bring about good in the other side? The making and braking of moral laws will be endless until hearts are changed. Fighting over desired rights will not win friends or save souls.
What is accomplished by focusing on good and evil? Well, we find the evil and wrongs everyone does. We all become prosecutors pointing out all the wicked that people do. We become highly skilled at finding the wrong. Our broken human nature is magnificent at discovering the bad in others. A sad irony is that what we yell about the loudest in others is often a major flaw we despise in ourselves but don’t work on since it is simpler to just point it out in others as bad. No wonder trust in others and faith in God are so difficult! We are sooooo busy catching others in their sin against us, that we come to the false conclusion that God too must be flawed and unworthy of trust. Ouch! Is there any doubt left in your soul that living from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil only leads to frustration and despair?
“The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one.”― Elbert Hubbard [a self-proclaimed anarchist; which is also what he considered Jesus]
“A church that’s totally focused on the old nature only sees sin, faults, and wrong behaviors in people. All it can produce is a negative mindset that can only produce a negative outcome. It deals with problems, it doesn’t deal with solutions. It creates a religious spirit that makes God in its image so that it can release anger and judgment. It also withholds all the things that God actually wants to release and wants to be for people.” (from Brilliant Leadership by Graham Cooke)
There are many churches that believe their intentions are good while their practice is sin management; merely behavioral control over the people through peer pressure, membership contracts or domineering leadership. This chokes the life out of believers and explains why many people are “done” with the church but not with Jesus. I was not brought to life by pastors and elders. For over 25 years I was part of the evangelical community that practiced focusing on the Bible as the word of God while being inhibited in communicating with the living Word [Logos] of God, Jesus. Church statistics about people leaving the church are devastating yet most leaders blame it on the maturity level of the people who left; which of course, is a judgement from the first tree. I have yet to see or hear a pastor take any blame for their part in why people flee their leadership. Why is it never their fault? That is just like Adam and Eve in the garden when confronted. My spiritual growth was squelched, stifled, even strangled out of me by successful numerically growing church pastors who believed in their methods and good intentions.
Is the American church bringing life to our nation? Is the culture changing for the positive by our methods? Are people who do not know Jesus wanting to know Him because of how the church behaves? Isn’t it interesting that any pastor not using the above methods is seen as an ear tickler who doesn’t preach the whole gospel? What if Joel Osteen is more correct in his ministry method than they are? How many people don’t have an internal sense of falling short, being imperfect or being riddled with self-condemnation? Is anybody out there depressed? Why is it that someone with a lot of joy is seen as the out-of-touch lunatic? Shouldn’t that rather be the norm for followers of Jesus, the joy giver?
Please now go with me as we switch trees. Our natural, fallen and broken inclination is to stay with the tree we have been discussing above. That wore me out just writing about all that negative junk. Aren’t you sick of it too?
But God desires relationship with us. He does not desire us to merely be rule followers. That is not why He created us. Did you know that in the glorious depiction of heaven at the end of the Bible there is no tree of the knowledge of good and evil? We will not need it there. We have God to explain things rightly. In Revelation 22:1-2 there is a river of the water of life flowing from the throne [singular] of God and the Lamb [Jesus] and on both sides of it are a tree of life producing 12 kinds of fruit and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of nations. Let’s live out of the power and glory of that! All kinds of fruit that brings life and even the leaves bring healing. How different is that from the other tree that led to sin, judgement and death? I am just learning what it means to live and minster from this tree of life.
Because I now know I have been transformed, the old man is crucified, dead and buried; therefore, I am not controlled by sin. Ian Clayton says, “I don’t sin because I must not. I don’t sin because I don’t want to.” I am a new creature in Christ (2 Corinthians 5). Freedom from sin management allows freedom to live a life of love where sin no longer entangles. Temptation can still be shot at us as arrows from the enemy but they can be easily deflected by looking unto the Lover of our soul Who sets us free. The river of the water of life flows from the throne forever. Let’s go there and drink from it and eat from the fruit of the tree of life. Let’s now wrestle with what that means and looks like.
Immor
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Jesus’ name means “YHWH saves.” He is the “I Am” Who spoke to Moses. He is the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6). He is the creator and sustainer of all life and creation. He is God Who became a human in order to pay the price for Adam and Eve’s choice to break the one and only rule given in the garden. God loves us so much that He gave us the choice to reject Him. He paved the way toward reconciliation by His own death on a tree. He died because we were already dead. We all are spiritual zombies apart from Him serving our own selfish desires and wrong definitions of good and evil. Jesus’ death is good for us; thus, Good Friday. He died when we were at our worst (Romans 5:8-10) to set us free and prove how much He loves and values us. That love is amazing and astonishing. He gives us His human life to pay for our spiritually and morally dead existences. Why would He do that? Why would He pour out His life to pay the just penalty we deserved in order to bestow us with lavish, prodigal grace?
“Grace does not overlook sin. It empowers righteousness.” Bill Johnson
What is the goal of tree of life ministry all about? How about LIFE!? How about LOVE?! Jesus is The LIFE. God is LOVE. How are we to treat and think about people so that we pour life and love into them?
Is God big and powerful and gracious enough to save the likes of: Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Caitlyn Jenner, Kanye West, Miley Cyrus, Barack Obama, any Kardashian, Oprah, any Bush, Muslims, Masons, Mormons, any murderer, any actor, any rock or metal bands, anybody in ISIS, your ex-pastor, your ex-spouse, the person who sexually used or abused you, your disobedient child, your boss, your ex-boss, the person who cheated you, the IRS, the person who got your promotion, the kid that beat up your kid, me, you? The answer is, “Yes.” And, He has given us the Holy Spirit which empowers us to love them. Jesus wants to spend time with all of them pouring love and life into them. That is what He did on earth. That is what He wants us to do with the Holy Spirit empowering us. Does that bring up some angst or holy excitement?
Because we are free from sin, death, wrath and punishment; then, we are free to give away the same grace we have received. We are free to love. We need not point out all the wrongs people are doing. We are to pour out all the love we have received. Instead of killing them with a truth of their sin. We are giving them life via love. We are not the judgers. They already stand judged before God and in prison to their flesh. We do not condone or approve of sin. We are to be like Jesus and set the captives free through love which yields life. After people receive life, then it will make sense to them to address their behaviors and thoughts. We can then teach them to hear from God so He can deal with their stuff. We still are to love them in spite of it.
Jesus rebuked the religious elite of Israel for missing the entire point of the Law. Jesus loved the sinners. He healed the broken. He ate with the people despised by the religious leaders. He hung out with them [sorry for the bad pun. Is that where that phrase came from?]. He called as His apostles religious failures who were not qualified to be rabbis. They were mostly fishermen, a wild zealot and an IRS agent! They were trained and qualified by Jesus through their failures and empowered by His love. They did not step down from ministry every time they screwed up so they could earn back the right to serve. Jesus broke the religious rules of the day. AND, He was the Law giver in the first place!! Wake up Pharisees and Sadducees. He healed on the Sabbath. He chose friends over ritual. He gave life and love rather than religion and a good reputation. When we lead like this people will be transformed by love and thus fulfill the qualifications of deacons and elders via the life that is poured into them.
How are we doing? Jesus healed people from demonic oppression and diseases. I would rather pursue being part of doing that than call out people’s imperfections. We are not to do the Holy Spirit’s work of convicting. Are we to do more than just talk? Is there power that undergirds our words and action? If we feed the homeless and clothe the poor, do we do that out of love or pity? What motivates us? Are we loving those who desire to be our enemies? Do we think well of them because we disallow ourselves to think of them as an enemy? Flesh and blood are not the enemy as Paul states in Ephesians 6. If God’s kindness leads to repentance (Romans 2:4), then isn’t that the method we should choose? Let’s do the greater works that Jesus said we would (John 14:12). Surely that is more than preaching and holding classes.
Larry Randolph, "Jesus never gave his disciples authority over people. He only gave them authority over things that hurt people." That is an amazing thought! Church leaders sure don’t act that way. They exercise authority over people all the time, and sometimes doing the “lording over” that Jesus told them not to. “I am the pastor. I have the vision from God. Do what I say.” That disallows God to speak through others and puts a ridiculous amount of pressure on that pastor. You can read about my thoughts on this in the below link:
Are we being gentle? Do we live out the fruit [singular] of the Spirit? The list in Galatians 5 has nine items which make up the one fruit. That’s the stuff of life the Holy Spirit produces. We need to participate with Him in growing that life in people. What are those 12 types of fruit on the tree of life in Revelation 22? The tree of life gives food and healing. We are to nourish. We are to make people whole so they can become holy. We do this through pouring honor, respect, grace and love into them. This yields life and freedom. We are to call out the good that people struggle to see in themselves. They already know their dirt and muck so we don’t address or focus on that. We are to unearth the gold and jewels. We build them up so they reflect the light of God. We teach them they are new in Christ, that the old is dead and gone so they stop focusing on sin and begin focusing on fruit. This brings transformation.
Do the work of ministry that yields the fruit of righteousness. We are seated with Christ. We have all we need for godliness. The old ways have passed away. Jesus saves, heals and loves. His kindness and forgiveness opens the prison doors so we live as His beloved children longing to set others free too. Our life of joy, peace and rest will shine light into a dark world. When our relationship with God becomes desirable to others, they will then thirst for this water of life and the food from the tree of life along with the healing from its leaves. Oh, so many metaphors for the love and goodness of God! We must be free and transformed before others will believe us and want it for themselves.
What do we need to do believe, think and do differently so the lost will desire to be saved? How do we need to be the church differently so believers will be excited to love and serve? How do we free people to become all that God sees in them and desires them to be? Offer life. Be love.
I love and respect you.
I love and respect you.
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